It took an Act of Congress, but the vast output of work by Bermudian photographer the late Richard Saunders, undertaken for the United States Information Agency (USIA), has now been turned over to New York's Schomburg Centre.

And his widow, Mrs. Emily Saunders says that Washington's Smithsonian Institute has expressed interest in sponsoring a book of his work.

Bermuda-born Mrs. Saunders plans to also donate his personal collection to the Schomburg Centre.

During his long and celebrated career, Mr. Saunders, who became an American citizen in 1955, spent 20 years photographing almost every corner of Africa for USIA's TOPIC magazine.

Without specific approval by Congress there is a 12-year waiting period before USIA's overseas material can be released within the US.

But shortly after Mr. Saunders' death in 1987, New York Rep. Charles Rangel appealed to the USIA to relax the ruling, writing in a letter to its Director, Charles Wick: "Richard Saunders, a great black artist, had expressed during his lifetime a desire to have his work benefit the community and there has been an organised effort in my community to have his works reposited in the Schomburg Centre for Black Culture.'' The Schomburg Centre, located in the Harlem district of New York, is part of the New York Public Library system. It is hoped that the transfer of the hundreds of thousands of photographs will be completed before the end of the year. Eventually, it is expected some of his pictures will go on display at the Centre in the form of a retrospective exhibition.

During his lifetime, Mr. Saunders' career as a photojournalist received many accolades, including USIA's Superior Honour Award, just a year before his death. A USIA travelling exhibition of his photographs circulated throughout Africa for two years. In 1982 he received the International Black Photographers' Award and was also the first recipient of Bermuda's Annual Lifetime Achievement award. There was a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Arts Centre in Dockyard in 1988.

Mr. Saunders eventually became international editor of TOPIC, making more than fifty journeys to Africa. As Mrs. Saunders says: "My husband turned down all sorts of offers because he loved Africa so much and became so attached to the people, he couldn't bring himself to leave.'' Among the African pictures are the series on The Gambia, where he photographed the descendants of Kunte Kinte, the central character in Alex Haley's book, Roots.

During the earlier part of his career, Mr. Saunders' work frequently appeared in The New York Times , Life, Look, Fortune, Ebony, Ladies' Home Journal, Playboy and Holiday.

During the 1940s, the young Mr. Saunders worked at The Camera Store and also worked for a time as a photographer with the Police Department, but when he applied for a job in the photographic section of the Ministry of Tourism, he was turned down because he was black. So in 1947, he and Mrs. Saunders left Bermuda for New York, where he rapidly gained recognition as a free-lancer.

One of his pictures, for a 1954 Ebony front cover, was of wife Emily, posing in a polka-dot bikini.

In the 1950s he spent almost two years in Pittsburg as part of a nation-wide project, the photo-documentation of rural America. He spent several months in the predominantly black Hill district, photographing the everyday life of one family. His early work also found him in the Southern United States, in the thick of the Civil Rights movement.

But it was his pictures of Africa that brought Richard Saunders world-wide recognition. Almost every major event that took place in the 1960s and '70s throughout the newly emerging continent, were captured by his lens. He came to know -- and to photograph -- thousands of people. As Mr. Andrew M. Bardagjy, former editor-in-chief of TOPIC wrote: "There are indeed few foreigners who are better known throughout the continent, who have travelled as extensively, often into remote areas, or who have witnessed as many changes and developments in Africa's social, economic and cultural life.'' RICHARD SAUNDERS.

BERMUDA GOMBEY, captured on film by a young Richard Saunders sometime during the 1940's.

SEHLABATHEBE, LESOTHO, 1971.