Monday, March 31, 2014

View: Teens capture world with film, photography


 Via The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 30, 2014


Anyone curious about the minds of teenagers should take time to visit the Future Voices of New Mexico website. There, you can see the short videos and photographs made by young people from New Mexico — the 2014 winners were announced last week and should be up early in April.

The project — to give young people the tools to tell their stories — brings together filmmakers, teachers and different cultural groups. Marcella Ernest and Christopher Michael Roybal are in charge of filmmaking, and Santa Fe Photo Workshops is the photography partner, along with director Reid Callanan. These professionals and others they recruit go out into the schools, meeting with teachers and students to enable them to tell stories.


For students, in addition to monthly and then year-end recognition, their work is shown at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in an awards ceremony packed with emotion, creativity and joy. At 12 or 15 or 17, a student gets to look up on the big screen and see his or her work displayed proudly, on the same stage where Ralph Stanley has played music or Jeremy Irons interpreted Alfred Stieglitz to Joan Allen’s Georgia O’Keeffe.
 
The winners, announced last week, featured work from creative young minds at the top of their games. Winners came from a broad variety of schools — Capital High School, Española Valley High School, Pojoaque Valley High, Santa Fe School for the Arts and Sciences and Desert Academy. Students from Albuquerque won prizes as well, with students from the state-chartered New Mexico School for the Arts, located in Santa Fe but with students from all over the state, taking home honors. The winners represented public, private and charter schools, but all shared a common bond, the ability — even the need — to tell stories. That shone through in both single images or three-minute shorts.
 
Judge for yourselves, and visit www.futurevoicesof newmexico.org. Winners from past years remain up, and organizers of the contest expected the 2014 batch to be posted this week. With all the wringing of hands over the state of teenagers, do yourself a favor. Take time to watch and see. You’ll feel better about the future.

.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

When Cool Was King


Steve McQueen after motorcycle race, Mojave Desert, 1963
 
John Dominis/©Time Inc
Steve McQueen After Motorcycle Race, Mojave Desert, 1963
 gelatin silver print
 


THE Magazine
April, 2014

A smokey barroom is filled with dancing couples, but Johnny Strabler stands alone, leaned against the jukebox and tapping his fingers to the music. A laughing blond sashays past him to ask “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” Pausing, Johnny studies the floor before responding, “Whaddya got?” —from The Wild One
 

IN THE WILD ONE, MARLON BRANDO PLAYS THE CHAIN-SMOKING, down-on-his-luck Johnny Strabler, who drawls his way through the movie with a nonchalance that occurs as both practiced and organic. Brando’s 1953 portrayal of Johnny was in many ways a wholly American testament to the era’s mood of glamorous unease, collectively funneled into the films, music, and cultural ephemera of a nation. If Johnny Strabler is one of Brando’s most memorable characters, he’s also one of his quintessentially coolest. Its been said that America’s most valuable cultural contribution is the concept of coolness—that intangible slick something that separates the Millhouses from the Bart Simpsons of the world. Before the middle of the twentieth century, teenagers weren’t thought of as tastemakers, but several factors—most famously, of course, the hip-swiveling music of Elvis and the raw gospel funk of James Brown—changed all that, and suddenly young people became arbiters of the trends that mattered. This represented a major separation between the hip and the square, and nobody had more influence than movie stars and musicians. Monroe Gallery’s fantastic exhibition When Cool Was King consolidates the look and feel of “cool” into a tautly grouped showcase of some of its most notable harbingers. Dean Martin, Lou Reed, and John Lennon are joined by a handful of others whose effortless style and nonchalant attitudes constituted a veritable cultural takeover, impacting tastemakers for generations to come.

What makes a person hip? It certainly doesn’t hurt to look like Paul Newman, represented here in a 1956 photo taken while he was playing hard-scrabble criminal-turned­boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me. A cigarette dangles haphazardly from the actor’s smirking lips, and his heavy coat’s upturned collar frames the preternaturally handsome features of his face. Strolling down a busy city street, Newman looks unfettered and indifferent: consummately carefree and hopelessly, heartbreakingly cool.

In many ways, James Dean still sets the gold standard for cool. Who cares if a rebel has a cause or not when he looks that good in blue jeans and a white T-shirt? Richard Miller’s 1955 snap of the actor feels both intimate and fantastically detached. He’s leaning against a gleaming hot rod to light a cigarette, his famous hair is thick and tousled, his eyes shaded by aviator sunglasses. Dean wears a snap-buttoned cowboy shirt tucked into his jeans, and though the photo’s caption indicates that it was taken on the set of the epic nouveau-Western Giant, the viewer can easily imagine that this is James Dean being James Dean, on set or off: ethereally, effortlessly, impossibly cool.

We might think of cool as shorthand for rebellion, whether conferred or assumed. Fittingly then, leather, cigarettes, and copious amounts of sex appeal figure prominently in this exhibition. Steve McQueen is emblematic of mid-century cool, a status heartily bolstered by several photos on display. John Dominis’s 1963 shot of McQueen presents him as equal parts actor and sex symbol. His right arm reaches upward into the sleeve of his leather bomber jacket. His hair is wet, slicked to his forehead with sweat, and if we look closely—don’t blush, dear reader—we can see the undone top button of his dungarees.

It makes sense that a standout of the show, a picture of Frank Sinatra, comes from the great photographer Sid Avery. One of the only color snapshots on view, it depicts the most famous crooner of all time in a moment of meditative repose, handsomely garbed in a light gray suit with matching fedora. His head is cocked thoughtfully upward and his arms are crossed closely against his chest. It’s a photo that flawlessly shows us what we already know: that for some people, cool isn’t a feeling or even a mood, but a complete persona.

With the exception of a smattering of shots of Edie Sedgwick and Jane Fonda, there’s a paucity of hip ladies in When Cool Was King. Nevertheless, the exhibit is a finger­snappingly swell good time. Images taken over half a century ago look hipper than ever, proving that true glamour never really goes out of style.

 

—IrIs McLIster

 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Time Out for a Family Endorsement


Marky Ramone Skidmore




Tune in on Tuesday March 25 from 10-midnight (Eastern) when legendary Ramones' drummer Marky Ramone takes over the airwaves at Skidmore College's 91.1 WSPN to guest host our daughter, Veronica Monroe's Dial Off Radio Show.

Marky hosts a weekly radio show, Marky Ramone's Punk Rock Blitzkrieg, on SiriusXM where he spins everything from punk rock rarities to contemporary punk.

 Listen LIVE at 91.1 WSPN or online here. Veronica is Program Director for WSPN.



Marky Ramone will then be giving a talk at Skidmore College’s Gannett Auditorium in Saratoga Springs, NY on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 7:00 PM. The talk will be simulcast in Davis Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. This event was organized by Veronica and is sponsored by SEC and Skidmore Speaker’s Bureau.

For more information and to RSVP on Facebook click HERE


See also: "Marky Ramone Comes To Skidmore, Who Gives a Fuck?"

Friday, March 21, 2014

Free photography viewing for young collectors at the AIPAD Photography Show, Friday April, 11


The AIPAD Show

The AIPAD Photography Show
Friday, April 11
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where:Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
New York, New York  10065
United States
Contact:AIPAD
info@aipad.com
Phone: 202-367-1158

Registration Information
Online registration is available until: 4/11/2014  Register »


6:00 p.m.
Check In
In Each guest will receive:
Entry to the Show from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Complimentary cocktail
Welcome Bag, including the AIPAD catalogue and On Collecting Photography guide

6:20 p.m.
Welcome Address from AIPAD's Board President

6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
View the Show, visit exhibitors, and meet artists

.Monroe Gallery of Photography will be located in Booth #421.

 

Ida Wyman’s Photography Documents Life in the 1940s and ’50s





Ida Wyman’s Photography Documents Life in the 1940s and ’50s
"The News Girl" by Ida Wyman


Via Madison Magazine
By Katie Vaughn


What a gift to be able to document life—to capture a moment and preserve it, to put a small pause on the fleetingness of time but also share the way things were with viewers at points in the future.


Photographer Ida Wyman has a natural inclination toward this, and an exhibition of her work, The Chords of Memory, runs through May 4 at the James Watrous Gallery.


Wyman, a photojournalist turned artist, was raised in New York City, where she photographed the world around her starting as a teenager. She began her career in the 1940s, a time when men dominated the field, working at Manhattan’s Acme Newspictures before becoming a successful freelance photographer for Life, The New York Times, Collier’s, Fortune and other publications—from 1947 to 1951, she took on nearly one hundred assignments for Life alone! Now eighty-seven years old, she lives here in Madison.


The exhibition features a rich mix of mostly black and white images, many of them new prints from Wyman’s work during the 1940s and ’50s. A wide range of subjects are represented—children at play, city street scenes, people at work, men and women in their homes, rural scenes and more—but each photograph reveals Wyman’s knack for imbuing a sense of dignity and authenticity into regular people and everyday life.
“Showing ordinary people in their everyday activities is what interested me the most,” the artist is quoted in the exhibition. “Dignity and respect to my subjects have been just as important to me as a well-composed photo.”








Notes from Wyman are included with many of the photographs in the show. For instance, alongside “Girl with Hat and Chalk Lines, The Bronx, NYC, 1947,” an image of a child bent over to draw on the sidewalk, Wyman comments that the scene brought back memories of her own childhood in which “Life was in the streets.”


While her photographs take viewers to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Mexico, the Midwest and beyond, many are set within New York City, with it busy streets often serving as a setting.


Children, too, provide a thread through the show. In “Bleacher Boys—Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, NYC, 1944,” a row of five boys sit on bleachers watching a baseball game, their coats, hat and mitt resting in front of them. And “Checking Out the Game, Philadelphia, 1948” shows five kids huddled around a cement stoop playing a game.


Rounding out the exhibition are four cases holding photos of Wyman, books her photography is featured in and samples of her work for Life.
A blend of personal and historic perspectives, of photojournalism and art, The Chords of Memory offers a thoughtful and compelling introduction to the talented Wyman.


On the other side of the James Watrous Gallery, Kevin Miyazaki also explores memories and history with a keen curiosity in Camp Home.


The photographer opens his exhibition with “A Guide to Modern Camp Homes: 10 New Models & Plans to Persons of Japanese Ancestry,” a book inspired by a 1940s Sears, Roebuck and Company guide of modern home models. It’s a “fictional but factual” publication that examines the living conditions that displaced Japanese Americans encountered before and during World War II. Miyazaki uses pleasant commercial language to describe the barracks that served as internment camps.





Miyazaki also offers sixteen photographs from his Camp Home series, in which he documents the interment camps in northern California and northwest Wyoming—where members of his father’s family were forced to live during the war—that have since been adapted into homes, barns and other buildings.


His photographs reveal the corrugated metal siding of a building, a doorway opening to a field and small details such as a welcome sign on a front door, a tape measure nailed to a board and names carved into a wooden wall.




































No humans are included in his compositions, yet the artist approached the owners of the buildings before taking his photographs. Says Miyazaki, “I’m seeking family history—both my own and that of the current owners—and time is often spent sharing our own uniquely American stories. Family histories intersect and are connected by the history of those buildings and by the lives lived within their walls.


The Chords of Memory and Camp Home run through May 4 at the James Watrous Gallery. For more information, visit wisconsinacademy.org.




Photos courtesy of the James Watrous Gallery

Thursday, March 20, 2014

American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity Photographs by Mark Shaw

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 ­­­­­American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity, Photographs by Mark Shaw showcases timeless images of John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy. The Museum of Art exhibition will be the first museum show to exclusively feature the critically acclaimed work of Mark Shaw. Museum staff worked with the Monroe Gallery of Photography, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Mark Shaw Photographic Archives to select the 50 prints in the exhibition, which can only be seen in Utica. On exhibit through May 4, 2014.
 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Navy veteran who claimed to be the man in the 1945 photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square amid World War II victory celebrations has died



V-J Day in Times Square, New York, August 14, 1945 (? Time Inc)

Alfred Eisenstaedt: V.J. Day in Times Square, New York, August 14, 1945
©Time Inc.


"In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make a difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.Only one is right, on account of the balance. In the others the emphasis is wrong — the sailor on the left side is either too small or too tall. People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture." --Alfred Eisensdtaedt, Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt, Abbeville Press
 
©Time Inc.


Glen McDuffie is one of several people who have claimed to be the man in the Alfred Eisenstaedt photo originally published in LIFE Magazine.

"While many people claimed to be the participants in the iconic photograph, McDuffie's assertion was backed up by Lois Gibson, a forensic artist with the Houston Police Department." (Via Gothamist:  Famous V-J Day Times Square Kiss Sailor Dies At 86)

Many others have also publicly claimed to be the participants in the photograph, as in this 2012 article, with one even going so far as to  file a lawsuit against Time Inc. alleging that both Time and Life had violated his right of publicity by using the photograph without his permission. He eventually dropped the lawsuit.

In October 1980, Life published a special spread entitled “Who Is the Kissing Sailor?” Ten sailors wrote to the magazine, each one insisting with convincing evidence — a distinctive hairline, a signature vein on the right hand, a newly acquired Quartermaster 1st Class patch — that he was the “kissing sailor”. Three women also wrote in and claimed to be the nurse.

At exhibitions of his photographs towards then of his life, Alfred Eisenstaedt would frequently encounter people claiming to be the sailor or the nurse. Always gracious, Eisie would simply shake their hands and say "How nice". He was working alone that day in Times Square, without a reporter, and never paused to get anyones name.



The New York Times: Man Known as Kissing Sailor in WWII-Era Image Dies

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Wall That Heals comes to Santa Fe

Washington, DC, 2006


Via The Santa Fe New Mexican


Schedule of events
The exhibit is a half-scale replica of the actual wall, and will be on display at Fort Marcy Field in Santa Fe, N.M. Viewing is permitted 24 hours a day from March 19, 4 p.m. — March 24, 6 a.m. There is no charge for admission.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014
1:00 p.m. — VVMF Traveling Wall arrives, escorted by the American Legion Riders Post 26 and NM Patriot Guard Riders

Wednesday, March 19, 2014
8:00 a.m. — VVMF Traveling Wall Set-up
4:00 p.m. — Open to the Public

Thursday, March 20, 2014
11:00 a.m. — Welcoming Ceremony and speech by the founder on the History of the Wall

Saturday, March 22, 2014
5:00 p.m. — Reading of the 398 New Mexican names on the wall, followed by a candlelight vigil

Sunday, March 23, 2014
11:00 a.m. — Honoring Ceremony

Monday, March 24, 2014
6:00 a.m.— Viewing of the Traveling Wall ends
8:00 a.m. — Tear down begins








Tuesday, March 11, 2014

THE AIPAD PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW 2014


The AIPAD Show



Mark Your Calendar: April 10-13, 2014

PARK AVENUE ARMORY | 643 PARK AVENUE | NEW YORK, NY 10065
The AIPAD Photography Show New York will be held April 10-13 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Monroe Gallery of Photography will be exhibiting at booth #421. The Opening Night Gala will be held on Wednesday, April 9. Please click here to register online for the Gala.

More than 80 of the world’s leading photography art galleries will present a wide range of museum-quality work, including contemporary, modern and nineteenth-century photographs, as well as photo-based art, video, and new media, at the historic Park Avenue Armory in New York City’s Upper East Side.

Monroe Gallery will be exhibiting specially selected work from the gallery's renowned collection of 20th and 21st Century master photojournalists. Among the highlights selected for this year's exhibition are important and previously unseen images from Steve Schapiro's vast archives from covering the Civil Rights movement; several iconic photographs by the acclaimed Life magazine photojournalist Bill Eppridge, who sadly passed away in October, 2013; rare vintage material by Art Shay; and a large format print from Stephen Wilkes' documentary project "Remembering Bethlehem Steel", of the the interior of the ruined, abandoned steel mill in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that was once known as the "plant that built America", along with his newest "Day To Night" work.

HOURS

Thursday, April 10 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, April 11 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 13 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

ADMISSION

$50 for four-day pass
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, plus one catalogue (as available).

$30 for one-day pass
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

$10 for one-day pass with valid student ID (not applicable for faculty)
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Accompanied children ages 12 and under free.

Tickets are available for purchase at the Show during Show hours (Thursday – Sunday). Each ticket admits one person. No transfers, discounts, refunds, exchanges, or upgrades.

Friday, March 7, 2014

The New Mexico Museum of Art hosts a year-long cycle of photography exhibitions



Via New Mexico Museum of Art



The New Mexico Museum of Art hosts a year-long cycle of photography exhibitions
 March 7, 2014 - March 15, 2015


Celebrating its rich collection of photographs and the key role the medium has played in shaping New Mexico history, culture, and tourism, the museum presents a series of photography exhibitions in the coming year:


Solo shows will feature surveys of work by contemporary masters of the medium.


Theme shows bring together a selection of contemporary work from both national and regional artists who are exploring a particular subject.


The Photo Lab is an evolving space in which to learn more about photography. We invite you to spend time finding out more about photographic processes, reading about artists in the solo exhibitions, browsing articles, using the magnet board to exchange ideas, watching a video on how wet-process photographs are developed, and initiating conversation with others!


Beneath our Feet: Photographs by Joan Myers
March 7, 2014 - August 17, 2014
more »

Grounded
March 7, 2014 - August 17, 2014
more »

Photo Lab
March 7, 2014 - March 15, 2015
more »