Showing posts with label photography exhibits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography exhibits. Show all posts

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Tony Vaccaro American Icons Exhibition Program: In Conversation with Agapita Judy Lopez on Georgia O’Keeffe

 Via Taliesin West



IN CONVERSATION – Agapita Judy Lopez on Georgia O’Keeffe

March 7, 2024


American Icons exhibit graphic with black and white head photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright and Gerogia O'Keeffe



American Icons: Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe explores the similarities and differences between two American masters, born in Wisconsin, who found homes in the Desert Southwest, as captured through the lens of photographer Tony Vaccaro. Join us as Agapita “Pita” Judy Lopez discusses her time as working at Georgia O’Keeffe’s home Abiquiú as O’Keeffe’s secretary and companion, and her close relationship with Ms. O’Keeffe.

*Please note that this program grants guests access only to the program location. To see more of our property, please consider adding a tour to your program.

Time:
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Cabaret Theatre

Price:
Adults $35
Students (13-25 with student ID) $24
Members $31.50

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Members receive discounts on Cultural Programs, have access to special Member-Only programs, and more. Learn about Membership here.


Meet Our Presenter

Agapita “Pita” Lopez began working with American artist Georgia O’Keeffe in 1974, and became her personal secretary in 1978 until her death on March 6, 1986. A third generation employee, her grandfather and mother also worked for O’Keeffe as has her maternal grandmother, father, brothers, and sister. In 1986, Pita continued working with the O’Keeffe Estate, and then The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation as Secretary. She served as the Foundation’s Executive Director from 1999 to 2006. Currently, Projects Director of the O’Keeffe properties at Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, she oversees the maintenance and preservation of both houses and the seasonal tours offered at the Abiquiu home and studio. She co-authored a book on the houses with Barbara Buhler Lynes, Curator of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum released by Abrams in the fall of 2012. With her brother, Belarmino Lopez, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Tony Vaccaro exhibit "American Icons" in The NY Times 36 Hours in Phoenix

 Via The New York Times

February 15, 2024


36 Hours in Phoenix


To delve deeper into Wright’s local legacy, drive about half an hour into the Scottsdale desert to Taliesin West, his secluded, light-filled winter home and workspace set on almost 500 acres in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains. Snoop around his desk, where casually strewn are his 1956 blueprints for the first floor of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in that unmistakable nautilus spiral. Also see the onsite “American Icons” exhibition (through June 3) — a look at the parallel and intersecting lives of Wright and the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who were born 60 miles apart, met once, corresponded for years, and were chronicled separately by the same photographer (Tony Vaccaro). Book an hourlong self-guided audio tour, from $39, (first start time, 11:20 a.m). There are also 90-minute guided tours, from $49 (first start time, 10:40 a.m.).

Friday, January 19, 2024

Ways of Seeing: Four Photographic Collections

 Via The New Mexico Museum of Art

January 18, 2024


Art collectors are often said to have “a good eye” for pictures, but what does that really mean? This selection of photographs from three collections recently donated to the museum and one promised gift illustrates a variety of approaches to choosing works of art and assembling a collection. United by a passion for photography, each collector brings a distinctive sensibility to the undertaking. Artist Jamie Brunson and her former husband Mark Levy gravitated to large color photographs of the 1990s that reflect their interest in social justice and meditation. Photographer and photo dealer Don Moritz amassed a large collection of that included a group of prints by David Michael Kennedy. New Yorker W.M. Hunt was attracted to images of people whose eyes are not readily visible and searched internationally for decades to build a unique holding on that theme. Santa Fe collectors Caroline Burnett and her late husband William chose images that moved them deeply, ultimately creating a collection largely of modernist photographs from the mid-twentieth century. On view will be suites of work from each collector, including photographs by Ruth Bernhard, Edward Burtynsky, Harry Callahan, Adam Fuss, David Michael Kennedy, Minor White, and more.


Opening Saturday, January 20

At the 1917 Plaza Building 

New Mexico Museum of Art
(505) 476-5072
Plaza: 107 West Palace
Santa Fe, NM


Related article in the Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo: Photography in NMMoA's new exhibit reflects the eye of the beholder

Friday, December 29, 2023

Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo: Monroe Gallery of Photography’s This Fragile Earth

 Via Pasatiempo

December 29, 2023

By Brian Sanford

Worker cleaning oil spil inNiger Deltal holds out his oils-covered arms and hand with a machette in one hand
Ed Kashi

A worker subcontracted by Shell Oil Company cleans up an oil spill from a well owned by Shell that had been left abandoned for over 25 years, 2004


PHOTOGRAPHY

Documenting damage

In one of the more disturbing images in Monroe Gallery of Photography’s This Fragile Earth, a subcontractor for Shell Oil Company takes a break from cleaning up an oil spill at an abandoned well owned by Shell, holding out his hand. At first glance, it appears to be covered in human blood. Further examination reveals it’s actually covered in Earth’s blood: oil. The untitled image was captured by photographer Ed Kashi in 2004.

Equally troubling, but perhaps more resonant to New Mexicans, is Aftermath of Calf Creek/Hermits Peak Wildfire, taken near Mora in 2022 by Santa Fe New Mexican photographer Gabriela Campos. It features a panoramic view of the charred landscape left by the most damaging wildfire in the state’s history.

This Fragile Earth, which runs through January 21, juxtaposes images showing human-caused environmental devastation and the effects of climate change with others that highlight nature’s magnificence. Among the latter are Taos Gorge, taken by Henry Monroe in 2018, and an untitled image showing a giraffe beneath flying storks at Shaba Game Reserve in Kenya, taken by Bill Eppridge in 1978.

The exhibition’s goal is to motivate awareness and change, say gallery owners Michelle and Sid Monroe. It’s supplemented by a virtual exhibition, Stephen Wilkes: This Fragile Earth, Day to Night, showing that photographer’s images of nature’s splendor. Wilkes, of Connecticut, used a technique in the pieces that captures the passage of time from day to night.

Many of Wilkes’ images show details of locations relatively few humans have visited: Churchill, Manitoba, near Hudson Bay; Ilulissat, Greenland; and Chilko Lake, British Columbia. While humans are only visible in one of the images, others feature caribou, wood bison, polar and grizzly bears, zebras, and elephants. Wilkes gave a talk about the images, as well as his documentation of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, at the gallery on November 30. View it at monroegallery.com.  — Brian Sandford

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Creating Culture: An Architect, An Artist

 Via Front Doors

October 25, 2023

side by side black and white photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright standing in a doorway, and Georgia O'Keeffe in front of a landscape
Images courtesy of Tony Vaccaro Studios/The Monroe Gallery of Photography



Georgia O’Keeffe once wrote, “Nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small it takes time — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Through the lens of O’Keeffe’s life, this notion is evident when considering her nearly three-decades-long friendship with Frank Lloyd Wright.

The two are champions in their field — O’Keeffe’s paintings earned her the title of “Mother of American Modernism,” and Wright is still one of the most celebrated architects in the world — yet, beneath the surface of their achievements lay similarities that run deeper than their success.

Taliesin West’s newest photography exhibition, “American Icons: Wright & O’Keeffe,” explores the pair in a way that’s never been seen before. Running from Oct. 20 through June 3, the exhibit features portraits of the two shot by Tony Vaccaro for “Life Magazine.” The exhibition explores the similarities between Wright and O’Keeffe not just as artists, but as people — and friends.

“They are people that we look very closely at, not just at the artwork they made, but their life,” said Niki Stewart, Taliesin West’s vice president and chief learning and engagement officer. “We as the public don’t always do that with every artist. We sometimes really just focus on their art, but there is a public fascination with both of these figures.”

Both born in rural Wisconsin, Wright and O’Keeffe were drawn to the American Southwest. Wright sought refuge in Arizona during winters, while O’Keeffe found her artistic sanctuary in the heart of New Mexico. The pair were fans of each other’s work, and as Stewart notes, “It’s no overstatement to call them friends.”

One of many similarities was that nature inspired much of their work. O’Keeffe famously painted flowers, landscapes and animal skulls, drawing inspiration from the environment around her. Wright had the same respect for nature, once stating, “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other.”

From the 1930s until Wright’s death in 1959, the pair wrote back and forth, sent books, pamphlets and artwork, and shared ideas with each other. Notably, they only met in person once in 1942 at Taliesin, Wright’s Wisconsin home.

“I feel like that’s a story that people can really relate to today with technology,” said Stewart. “We get so close to people who don’t live where we live. We use instant messaging, FaceTime and all these other tools to get close to folks, some of whom we’ve never met.”

In 2021, Taliesin West hosted an exhibit called “Chihuly in the Desert.” The exhibit paired works of glass artist Dale Chihuly with Wright’s architecture. Following the exhibition’s success, Taliesin West knew they wanted to pair Wright’s work with another artist, this time on a smaller, more intimate scale.

While looking for photos of Wright, Stewart discovered that Tony Vaccaro had photographed Wright and O’Keeffe for “Life Magazine” years apart, and that’s when the exhibit came to life.

Michael A. “Tony” Vaccaro rose to popularity through photos he took while fighting on the front lines of World War II. Vaccaro’s post-military career focused on fashion and celebrity photography for various magazines. Vaccaro would go on to photograph Wright and O’Keeffe, among other celebrities like Sophia Loren, John F. Kennedy and Eartha Kitt. He passed away in 2022, eight days after his 100th birthday.

“After the war, he came home to the United States and started working for magazines like ‘Look’ and ‘Life’ and other magazines that were celebrating what’s good and beautiful about life,” Stewart said. “Because after the war, he decided that’s what he wanted to focus on — what makes life wonderful.”

Visitors of the exhibit can select between an audio or an in-depth guided tour. The audio tour offers a unique experience by featuring recordings of Wright himself, accompanied by some of his favorite music. The in-depth guided tour provides visitors with a more interactive experience, allowing them to engage directly with tour guides who can offer deeper insights and answer questions about the exhibit and its subjects.

“I hope visitors walk out feeling interested in connecting with others and being with other people and being inspired by the people in their lives,” Stewart said. “I think we all run into people who inspire us every day, but what we do with that is up to us. So I hope this inspires you to get connected with others and do great things together.”

The exhibition is included in paid tour admission. To learn more, visit franklloydwright.org.







Monday, October 23, 2023

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West | Tony Vaccaro: American Icons: Wright & O’Keeffe, October 20, 2023 – June 3, 2024

 Via Musee Art Out

October 20, 2023


Graphic with 2 black and white portraits by Tony Vaccaro: close up of Franl Lloyd Wright in Taliesin, Wisconsin, 1957 and close up of Georgia O'keefe in back seat of car wearing a wide brim hat, Taos Peupble, New Mexico, 1960
 Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin, 1957/Georgia O'Keeffe, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, 1960



Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West | Tony Vaccaro: American Icons: Wright & O’Keeffe, October 20, 2023 – June 3, 2024


Following the massive success of the “Chihuly In The Desert” exhibition in 2022, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation continues to explore the ways that Wright connects with other iconic artists of his time through unique exhibitions at Taliesin West. As the latest iteration, the World Heritage Site will debut an exclusive “American Icons: Wright and O’Keeffe” exhibition this fall, offering guests the opportunity to view photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe – two legends of American art and architecture – taken by Michael A. “Tony” Vaccaro while on assignment for LOOK Magazine from 1957 to 1960, including some never-before-seen images.

“Wright and O’Keeffe are seen as giants in their fields but are rarely connected. Many are unaware that the pair met in 1942 and had a mutual admiration for one another’s work for many years, whilst sharing other similarities including their birthplace of rural Wisconsin; careers that took them to New York, Chicago and Japan; dwellings in the Southwest; and finding inspiration in nature for their creations of abstract versions of the world in their art. By sharing stories around their connections, the Foundation aims to contribute to a larger narrative about artists in America – they do not all work in isolation; rather, they inspire one another and find ways to connect through friendship.”




For more information visit Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

Friday, September 15, 2023

American Icons: Wright & O’Keeffe, a new photography exhibition spotlighting Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe as photographed by Tony Vaccaro

 

Via Experience Scottsdale



The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation continues to explore the ways that Wright connects with other iconic artists of his time through unique exhibitions at Taliesin West. As the latest iteration, the World Heritage Site will debut an exclusive “American Icons: Wright and O’Keeffe” exhibition this fall, offering guests the opportunity to view photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe – two legends of American art and architecture – taken by Michael A. “Tony” Vaccaro while on assignment for LOOK Magazine from 1957 to 1960, including some never-before-seen images.

The exhibition, curated by the Foundation in partnership with the Tony Vaccaro Studio in Long Island City, N.Y., and the Monroe Galleryin Santa Fe, N.M, renowned for its unrivaled vault of historic photography, will present a behind-the-scenes, intimate visual pairing of Wright and O’Keeffe in their homes and studios. Through Vaccaro’s images and excerpts from LOOK, the exhibition - on display in the Dining Room at Taliesin West - will offer a closer look into the similar lives of the two American geniuses, how they inspired one another and how their Modernist principles continue to inspire the public today. Tickets for the exhibition, which will run from Oct. 20, 2023, to June 3, 2024, will be included with an audio or guided tour purchase.

Wright and O’Keeffe are seen as giants in their fields but are rarely connected. Many are unaware that the pair met in 1942 and had a mutual admiration for one another’s work for many years, whilst sharing other similarities including their birthplace of rural Wisconsin; careers that took them to New York, Chicago and Japan; dwellings in the Southwest; and finding inspiration in nature for their creations of abstract versions of the world in their art. By sharing stories around their connections, the Foundation aims to contribute to a larger narrative about artists in America – they do not all work in isolation; rather, they inspire one another and find ways to connect through friendship.

“Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe are American Icons. Their legacies are larger-than-life, and their names are known worldwide. What’s lesser known is their connection; they met in person in the 1940s and corresponded over the years, sharing ideas, and exchanging gifts,” said Niki Stewart, exhibition curator and vice president and chief learning & engagement officer for the Foundation. “In this exhibition, we explore that connection through the intimate photographs of Tony Vaccaro, from their shared start in Wisconsin to the homes and studios they built in the American Southwest. I’m excited to bring Wright and O’Keeffe together again through these beautiful photographs.”

Vaccaro’s photos of Wright and O’Keeffe have visual symmetry, which is why they will be displayed in pairs. By partnering with the Monroe Gallery – Tony Vaccaro’s exclusive representation – the Foundation has access to many photographs not shown to the public previously. Through the exhibition, guests will not only learn about the relationship between Wright and O’Keeffe, but also about Vaccaro’s long and impressive career.

“Working with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation affords Monroe Gallery the opportunity to place Tony Vaccaro’s iconic portraits of American Modernist Masters, Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe, together in conversation with the visitors to Taliesin West. Surrounded by the grace of Wright’s architecture, O’Keeffe and Wright as Tony Vaccaro understood them are reunited within their century’s glorious creative context,” said Monroe Gallery owners Michelle and Sid Monroe.

Monday, August 7, 2023

Santa Fe's Monroe Gallery presents 'Good Trouble' taking a look at the impact of activists

 Via The Albuquerque Journal

Kathaleen Roberts

August 6, 2023


black and white photograph of a young woman Union organizer on a step stool giving a speech to office workers on the lunch break in New York's Wall Street area, 1936
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection
A Pioneer Organizer Of The Office Workers' Union, Wall Street and Broad Street, NYC, 1936


Many of America’s most cherished rights materialized because someone took action.

“Good Trouble,” an exhibition of more than 50 photographs documents the power of the individual to inspire movements at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Photographs can propel passion and inspire change, from the images of a spinning Gandhi to the Standing Rock protests.

The photographs document Civil Rights leaders as well as other lesser-known and everyday people who champion freedom across the globe, from labor to social to environmental issues.

“It’s showing the courage and the necessity for the everyday person to stand up for what’s right,” said Sidney Monroe, gallery co-owner.

The images extend from the 1930s to the present.

Life magazine photographer Carl Mydans captured an office workers’ union protest in 1936. An unidentified woman leads the group cradling an American flag. Mydans was known for his World War II photographs.

“Obviously, she is a young leader of a union,” Monroe said. “For a woman at that time, that’s pretty remarkable.”

The photographer Bill Eppridge, best known for his photographs of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, took a portrait of the labor leader César Chávez working in a field in 1974.

Chávez was an American labor leader and Civil Rights activist. He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers labor union. Ideologically, his world-view combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.

“It’s presented as an everyman, a worker, which of course, he was,” Monroe said.

The collection also encompasses contemporary risk-takers, such as Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, pictured sitting alone, dwarfed by the shadow of the Swedish Parliament building. Her sign reads “School Strike for Climate.” She was 15 years old.

“It’s become a worldwide movement,” Monroe said. “Apparently, they had some lessons in school, and she said if these parents and adults aren’t going to do anything, I’ll sit outside Parliament.”

Ryan Vizzions’ photograph of the Tennessee Three documents the three state representatives who were expelled from the legislature for protesting Republican inaction on gun violence. The shot captures a press conference after they were reinstated.

Gandhi, perhaps more than any other person, embodies the exhibition’s theme of a long-term commitment to a cause. His spinning in the face of provocations during India’s anti-colonial movement was symbolic of self-sufficiency. He spun daily for one hour beginning at 4 a.m. Famed photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White shot the portrait shortly before Gandhi was assassinated.

“Gandhi was very particular about having an audience with him,” Monroe said. “He insisted she learn how to use a spinning wheel. She wrote Gandhi called her his personal tormentor because she was using this large flash. It was disruptive to his meditation.”

The exhibition will hang through Sept. 17.


'GOOD TROUBLE'

WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe

WHEN: Runs through Sept. 17

INFORMATION: 505-992-0800; monroegallery.com.



screenshot of article page in Albuquerque print edition


Thursday, March 23, 2023

THE 2023 AIPAD PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW

 

Graphic design with details for the 2023 AIPAD Photography Show March 30-April 2 at Center415, 415 5 Ave in NYC


We are pleased to exhibit once again at the AIPAD Photography Show which brings together exceptional photography from the world’s top fine art photography galleries. Monroe Gallery of Photography will be located on the main floor in booth #114 and will feature three distinct exhibits.

The first feature will showcase the work of independent photojournalists covering contemporary events with a focus on global displacement and American social issues.

The second feature will showcase photographs by Sonia Handelman Meyer (1920-2022) and Ida Wyman (1926–2019), two pioneering women photographers of the Photo League, a collective of photographers active between 1936-1951 who believed their work could change poor social conditions and champion photography as an art form in the process. Both photographer’s work went unrecognized for decades. In recent years, there has been a revived interest in the radical collective that contributed incomparably towards promoting early street photography as an art form. 

The final feature will highlight work by Tony Vaccaro, who passed away in December, 2022 at the age of 100 and who was a frequent fixture in the Monroe Gallery booth through past AIPAD Shows.


Booth #114


Center415 

415 5th Avenue

(between 37th and 38th streets)

New York, NY 10016    Tickets here


Thursday, March 30 | 12:00pm - 8:00pm (VIP Opening Preview)

 Friday, March 31 | 12:00pm - 7:00pm

 Saturday, April 1 | 12:00pm - 7:00pm

 Sunday, April 2 | 12:00pm - 5:00pm

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States; Artist's talk with Nina Berman January 12

 

January 13 – March 4, 2023

University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum


dark photograph of 2 men outside of abandoned cottages where they were housed while doing slave labor at what was once the Florida School for Boys

Nina Berman: John Bonner and Richard Huntly, from the series The Black Boys of Dozier, 2013 

Thousands of boys, mainly black, passed through Dozier since it opened in 1901 as a reform school for wayward boys. But allegations over the years suggest it functioned more like a slave labor camp, with verified reports of children being hog tied and shackled. The name of the institution changed as each successive administration installed its own brand of punishment and forced labor, finally closing in 2011, not because of allegations, but according to the State, because of budget issues.



Panel discussion Thursday, January 12 with artists featured in Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States, including Nina Berman, Rico Gatson, and Jason Lazarus. Curator Christian Viveros-Fauné will lead the conversation exploring issues and topics addressed in the exhibition. This event is free and open to the public, Facebook live link here.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for his “I Have a Dream” speech, yet much less emphasis is placed on his campaign to seek justice for America’s poor, “The Poor People’s Campaign.” This was a multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-racial movement aimed at uniting poor people and their allies to demand an end to poverty and inequality. Fifty-three years after Dr. King’s death, the Reverend William Barber II launched a contemporary push to fulfill MLK’s ambitious brief — one that calls for a “revolution of values” that unites poor and impacted communities across the country. The exhibition Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States represents a visual response to Dr. King’s “last great dream” as well as Reverend Barber’s recent “National Call for Moral Revival.”

With artworks spanning more than 50 years, the exhibition is divided into two parts: Resurrection (1968-1994) and Revival (1995-2022). Resurrection includes photographs, paintings, prints, videos, sculptures, books, and ephemera made by a radically inclusive company of American artists, from Jill Freedman's photographs of Resurrection City, the tent enclave that King's followers erected on the National Mall in 1968, to John Ahearns' plaster cast sculpture Luis Fuentes, South Bronx (1979). Revival offers contemporary engagement across a range of approaches, materials, and points of view. Conceived in a declared opposition to poverty, racism, militarism, environmental destruction, health inequities, and other interlocking injustices, this exhibition shows how artists in the US have visualized poverty and its myriad knock-on effects since 1968. Participating artists include John Ahearn, Nina Berman, Martha De la Cruz, Jill Freedman, Rico Gatson, Mark Thomas Gibson, Corita Kent, Jason Lazarus, Miguel Luciano, Hiram Maristany, Narsiso Martinez, Adrian Piper, Robert Rauschenberg, Rodrigo Valenzuela, William Villalongo & Shraddha Ramani.


Poor People’s Art is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné, CAM Curator-at-Large and organized by the USF Contemporary Art Museum.   Exhibition Press Release

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Tony Vaccaro Centennial Events

black and white photograph of Tony Vaccaro in the LOOK magazine studio with camera and lights, 1957
Tony Vaccaro at LOOK magazine Studio, NY, 1957
 

Saturday, December 10 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST: Tony Vaccaro: A Centennial Tribute With The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

This special Zoom event celebrates the birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro, who will turn 100 on December 20. Best known for his images of Europe immediately after World War II, Tony later became a fashion and lifestyle photographer. He photographed Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in their home and studio in 1953. Family members will present a selection of Tony’s iconic photos, and Joyce will lead a virtual tour of the barn studio where his photos of Jackson and Lee are displayed. Participants are invited to pay tribute to Tony during open sharing.

Zoom registration here


Through Saturday, December 10: Tony Vaccaro 100: A Life of a Photographer from War to Culture at the Museum für Photographie Braunschweig, Germany. Finissage on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2022.


Two new exhibitions will celebrate the 100th birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro in New York City and Santa Fe

December 13 - 18: The Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibition NYC Pop Up

21 Spring Street, New York City; open daily 10-5


Ongoing through January 15, 2023: The Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibition, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM


Please contact the Gallery for further information.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Tony Vaccaro: A Centennial Tribute With The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

 

Via Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

Tony Vaccaro: A Centennial Tribute

 

photograph of Tony Vaccaro with camera around his nexk

Saturday, December 10 

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST

This special Zoom event celebrates the birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro, who will turn 100 on December 20. Best known for his images of Europe immediately after World War II, Tony later became a fashion and lifestyle photographer. He photographed Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in their home and studio in 1953.

Family members will present a selection of Tony’s iconic photos, and Joyce will lead a virtual tour of the barn studio where his photos of Jackson and Lee are displayed. Participants are invited to pay tribute to Tony during open sharing.

Zoom registration here


Related: The Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibitions in Santa Fe and New York

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Celebrating Tony Vaccaro’s cinematic photography Life behind the lens

 Via Huck

November 24, 2022

Text by Miss Rosen

Photography © Tony Vaccaro courtesy of Monroe Gallery

A new exhibition is marking the photographer’s 100th birthday with a look back at his extraordinary career.

Photographer Tony Vaccaro, who celebrates his 100th birthday on 20 December 2022, has lead a life as cinematic as the pictures he’s made. In honour of his 80-year career, gallerist Sid and Michelle Monroe are curating Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition, two major shows in New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Featuring works from the photographer’s storied career, The Centennial Exhibition brings together images made while Vaccaro was serving on the frontlines of World War II, and later as a portrait and fashion photographer for Life, Flair, and Harper’s Bazaar during the golden age of magazines.

Whether photographing fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy in the atelier with Hollywood icon Eartha Kitt or art collector Peggy Guggenheim relaxing in a Venetian gondola, Vaccaro crafted exquisite portraits of the 20th century’s most influential artists, actors, filmmakers, leaders, and luminaries.

Tony’s sensitivity to his subjects was derived from his early hardship as an orphan in Italy,” say the Monroes, who began working with the photographer in 2016. At the age of four, both Vaccaro’s parents died, and he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle. His early years were marked by physical and emotional abuse, and as soon as World War II erupted, he returned to the U.S., the nation of his birth.

Vaccaro took up photography in high school, a skill that served him well when he was drafted to serve in the 83rd Infantry Division, nicknamed ‘Thunderbolt’. As a scout, Vaccaro photographed the frontlines of battle in Normandy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany – despite being wounded twice.

“After the war, Tony replaced the searing images of horror embedded in his memory by focusing on the splendour of life,” say the Monroes. “His experiences left a deep wound in his being, and in response he made a conscious decision to celebrate beauty and creativity.”


color photo of Eartha Kitt and Givenchy, Paris, 1961

Eartha Kitt and Givenchy, Paris, 1961

Comfortable with a full range of cameras in the studio and the field, the photographer could easily adapt to whatever the moment might demand. “Whenever possible, he preferred to spend days, if not weeks, with his subjects, to create a natural relationship between him and his subject,” the Monroes say.

Vaccaro, who has survived two bouts of Covid, remains incredibly active, maintaining his running practice, which he established as a high school athlete in the 1940s. Now enjoying a career renaissance, he has been enthusiastically involved in the exhibition preparations and is excited to share his work with new audiences.

“To this day, Tony speaks passionately about man’s inhumanity to man,” the Monroes say. “He is among the few remaining veterans of an actual fight against fascism, Nazism, and dictatorships.”

They share a quote from Vaccaro, whose life experience has taught him the necessity of unity: “We call each other German, French, Italian. There is no Italian blood. There is no French blood. It’s human blood. On this Earth there is one humanity. In a way, photography was my way of telling the world, ‘We have better things to do that to kill ourselves.’”



color photo of Extras in windows of building and sitting outside on the set of 8 1/2, Lazio, Italy, 1962

Extras on the set of 8 1/2, Lazio, Italy, 1962


Givenchy getting out of his car inParis, 1961

Givenchy Paris, 1961


Georgia O’Keeffe on her Abiquiu Portal with cow skull over doorway , NM 1960

Georgia O’Keeffe Abiquiu Portal, NM 1960


Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition is on view November 25, 2022 – January 15, 2023 at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and December 13–18, 2022 at 21 Spring Street in New York City. 

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Tony Vaccaro photography exhibits celebrate his 100th birthday

 

Via See Great Art

November 17, 2022

model in architectural hat resembling the Guggenheim Museum in front of the Guggenheim museum in NY, 1960

Tony Vaccaro, The Guggenheim Hat, New York, 1960. © ALL PHOTOGRAPHS TONY VACCARO / ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Monroe Gallery of Photography will present two major exhibitions celebrating Tony Vaccaro’s 100th birthday. “Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition” opens in Santa Fe, NM on Friday, November 25, with Tony Vaccaro appearing remotely live from his New York home at 5:30 pm. The exhibition will continue through January 15, 2023.

A special satellite Tony Vaccaro photography exhibit presented by Monroe Gallery will be on view at 21 Spring Street in New York, December 13 – 18. Tony Vaccaro will be in attendance for a private reception Thursday, December 15, from 5-7 pm.; RSVP mandatory, please contact the Gallery if you’re interested in attending (505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com).

The exhibits span Tony Vaccaro photography 80-year career and feature several never-before-exhibited photographs.

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1922, Tony Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the village of Bonefro, Italy after his family left America under threat from the Mafia. His mother died during childbirth a few years before tuberculosis claimed his father. By age 5, he was an orphan in Italy, raised by an uncaring aunt and enduring beatings from an uncle. By World War II he was an American G.I., drafted into the war, and by June, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days he photographed his personal witness to the brutality of war.

After the war, Tony remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for “Stars and Stripes” magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, LIFE, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought-after photographers of his day.

As an antidote to man’s inhumanity, Tony Vaccaro photography focused his lens on those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and the beauty of fashion. By focusing on the splendor of life, Tony replaced the images of horror embedded in his eyes from war. This exhibition illustrates his will to live and advance the power of beauty in the life we all share.

As Tony nears his 100th birthday, he has survived two bouts with COVID-19, and is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and COVID-19. He attributes his longevity to “blind luck, red wine” and determination.

“To me, the greatest thing that you can do is challenge the world,” he has said. “And most of these challenges I win. That’s what keeps me going.”

On December 20, Tony Vaccaro celebrates his 100th birthday, an inspiration to us all.



color photograph of Tony Vaccaro holding a film test strip in NY, 1960

Tony Vaccaro with Test Strip NYC, 1960. Copyright Tony Vaccaro, courtesy Monroe Gallery.

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Stephen Wilkes: Visualizing Time

 Via The Westport Library





Stephen Wilkes: Visualizing Time, a presentation of Wilkes’s work, in conversation with Stacy Bass on September 8 at 7pm,  in person in the Forum.

Note: The program will be preceded by a reception with the photographer at 6:15. Q&A will follow.

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

This exhibit, which will encompass all 3 of the library’s galleries through 11/29 and will explore how Wilkes' visualization of the concept of time has evolved from the earlier days of his career through his latest series “Day to Night” and “Tapestries.” 

 September 8 - November 29, 2022


The Westport Library

20 Jesup Road

Westport, CT 06880 


View Stepehen Wilkes' photography here

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Coming in October: See ‘Life Magazine and the Power of Photography’ at the MFA Boston

 Via Boston.com

August 26, 2022

3 frames of woman welders at work in 1943
Flame Burner Ann Zarik, taken in 1943. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, Life picture collection

The museum displays photos from the archives of the publication that shaped American photojournalism.

The Museum of Fine Arts will display dozens of original photos from Life magazine’s archives in “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” this fall, highlighting Life’s cultural impact and the way its photos shaped American media throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Life printed in some capacity from 1883 through 2000. Published independently until 1936, Life was a light entertainment magazine heavy on illustrations, featuring the likes of Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell. Publisher Henry Luce bought the publication in 1936, turning it into the notable American photographic magazine we know it as today. The first of its kind, it defined photojournalism and chronicled historic moments of the last century, like the moon landing and the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations. Life was the first to publish Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square.”

The exhibit will display original photos alongside objects from Life’s paper archives like assignment outlines, memos, and layout drafts, taking a close look at how Life photo essays were constructed from assignment all the way through to completion. In peering behind the scenes of the magazine’s creation, the exhibit also examines how Life shaped conversations around topics like race, war, technology, and national identity. 

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” also displays three immersive contemporary works interspersed throughout the exhibit—a multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photos by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel all examine modern news media and themes like implicit biases.

The exhibit features the work of photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith, and runs Oct. 9 through Jan. 16 in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.


Related: Monroe Gallery Exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

LIFE Magazine Show Opens At Monroe Gallery Of Photography

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Imagine A World Without Photojournalism – Monroe Gallery Celebrates 20 Years in Santa Fe

 


Via The Arizona Photography Alliance

Mark Timpany

August 1, 2022


Most likely readers have seen some or all of the photographs hanging on the wall of the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Gallery co-owner, Sid Monroe will explain, though, that matting, framing, and gallery display transforms these images to something beyond their original use to document a current event. When viewed away from the newspaper or magazine page, multiple levels of meaning are conveyed through these photographs. They provide us with insight into a historical period in today’s world.

The exhibit currently displayed, Imagine A World Without Photojournalism, coincides with the 20-year celebration of Monroe Gallery’s presence in Santa Fe. Michelle and Sid Monroe opened their gallery in New York City but moved to Santa Fe in the aftermath of the terrorist events of 9/11. Their focus has always been on photojournalism. To that end, they have had the advice and support of some of the most noteworthy members of that community, the likes of Alfred Eisenstaedt and Carl Mydans. Some of the earliest advice was the suggestion that such a gallery could not succeed.

The gallery has survived. The current exhibit serves as a retrospective of the shows that have been hung in their transplant location in New Mexico. Viewers will find iconic photos such as Robert Capa’s images from Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Eddie Adams’s Saigon Execution, and numerous photos originally seen in Life magazine to photos from the present day Australian photojournalist, Ashley Gilbertson’s depiction of Officer Eugene Goodman holding back January 6th insurrectionists. The broad range of material serves to communicate the importance of photojournalism in our lives and for the several generations before us. The exhibit is important at a time when journalism is under attack (along with journalists) and lacking in funding.

This exhibit runs through September 18, 2022. For those who cannot make it to Santa Fe during the run of the exhibition, Monroe Gallery has produced a video sampler of many of the images on display. The presentation Threats to Photojournalism with photographers Nina Berman and David Butow took place in the gallery on Friday, July 22 but can be accessed on YouTube. Details on the presentation and the exhibit can be found at the Monroe Gallery website.

Link to article and photos here.



Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Dallas Center for Photography Welcomes Back Renowned Photojournalist Ed Kashi with an Exhibition, Artist Talk & Book Signing

 

Dallas Center for Photography Welcomes Back Renowned Photojournalist Ed Kashi with an Exhibition, Artist Talk & Book Signing Celebrating Work from his Newly Released Monograph

Abandoned Moments Exhibition

DCP’s Community Gallery

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4, 6-8pm

Exhibition on View: August 4 – August 27

For more information go here.


Artist Talk and Book Signing (DCP Speaker Series):

Friday, August 5, 7-9pm

For more information, go here.


For forty years, celebrated photojournalist Ed Kashi has delivered the world's stories through images that both imply, as well as directly show, humanistic challenges and joys. Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography (Kehrer Verlag) is a window into Kashi's unique voice and craft, and presents glimpses of ordinary life, as well as extraordinary events, struggles, and triumphs – the chaos of everyday life. 

The images selected for Kashi’s book and exhibition span the decades of his work and were taken around the world. Shot entirely from the hip, Kashi flips standard photography conventions by snapping these "abandoned moments" without looking through the viewfinder, seeking to capture moments shaped by serendipity and instinct, rather than objectivity and intellect. “They are free to be less controlled but for that very reason they may be more certain and more certainly true,” Kashi explains about the evolution of his style and methodology.


Ed Kashi's photographs are included in the current exhibition "Imagine A World Without Photojournalism" on view through September 18, 2022.

Friday, July 15, 2022

The human condition through the lens

screen shoot of cover of Pasatiempo magazine with photo of women in yellow clothinng emerging from water in Zanzibar


Via Pasatiempo

By Brian Sandford

July 15, 2022


The 44 photos adorning the walls at the Monroe Gallery of Photography offer an unvarnished look at the human condition — tracing an emotional range from tender love to the fallout of hatred.

Many showcase the human spirit’s perseverance through challenges or trauma, while others are provocative reminders of recent history that some people would rather ignore or forget. That’s part of the point of Imagine a World Without Photojournalism, an exhibit that runs through Sept. 18 and includes a selection of art that has been shown throughout the gallery’s 20-year history.

The Monroe Gallery’s exhibit represents about a century of photojournalism. Gallery co-owners and spouses Sid and Michelle Monroe say the exhibit’s photographs were selected based on “individual universal relevance,” with each representing an important subject of social and political history.

In a way, records of historical events were created by painters for hundreds of years, if perhaps with less fidelity to the truth. As a result, accounts of historical events could come years — even centuries — later. The invention of photography in 1826 changed that, opening the door to real-time documentation of events and the work of photographers such as Mathew Brady, who defined our notion of the in-between moments of the Civil War.


A ma backs away as St. Louis County police officers approach him with guns drawn and eventually arrest him in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 11, 2014;

Whitney Curtis, Rashaad Davis, 23, backs away as St. Louis County police officers approach him with guns drawn and eventually arrest him in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 11, 2014; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


Modern photojournalism, though, began in the mid-1920s with the invention of the Leica, a portable camera using film able to capture movement.

Some photojournalists have gained fame for their work, such as Robert Capa, who documented war and whose photo of chaos on Omaha Beach in France on D-Day is part of the Monroe exhibit. Others are lesser known, despite producing iconic images, such as Eddie Adams. His name might not ring a bell, but his 1968 photo of the street execution of a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon is an iconic symbol of the brutality of war.

Some of those photos might have been viewed differently had they been taken recently, Sid says.

Human condition on display at photography exhibit

An Afghan Woman in blue burqa holds fer Diploma, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998

Nina Berman, Afghan Woman with Diploma, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography

“One of the challenges journalists are facing is just the outright denial of reality,” he says, adding that some visitors get defensive when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

At least one of the images in the exhibit has created a stir elsewhere: A 2019 photo by Grant Baldwin was removed from a public museum in North Carolina in June. It depicts two men kissing at a Pride parade in Charlotte, North Carolina, while people in the background cheer and take pictures.

County Manager Kim Eagle ordered that the photo be removed from the Gaston County Museum, a move backed by at least two county commissioners there.

Men kissing after Mariage proposal at Pride Parade, Aug. 18, 2019

Grant Baldwin, Charlotte, North Carolina, Pride Parade, Aug. 18, 2019; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


While some images are divisive, Sid says, others are noteworthy for their unifying qualities. He cited as an example the iconic World War II shot of six Marines raising a flag at Iwo Jima, which is included in the Monroe Gallery’s exhibit. Joe Rosenthal captured the image on the Japanese island in 1945.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, “a photographer happened to capture these firefighters who took a flag off a boat that was docked near the towers, and they were putting it up on a column that had survived,” he says. “And then it was immediately seized upon, like, ‘Oh, this is a rally moment for America after 9/11.’ Well, we need [calls to rally]. Because most of these situations require sacrifice. Ukraine requires sacrifice. World War II required sacrifice. And so in order to galvanize the effort, you need that imagery to bring you all together.”

Selecting images for the exhibit wasn’t an easy task.

“You could do an entire museum, like, three floors and 200 pictures, and still not really tell the full story” of photojournalism, Michelle says.

Human condition on display at photography exhibit

A woman hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag (Vaxjo, Sweden, 1985)


Hans Runesson, A woman hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag (Vaxjo, Sweden, 1985); courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


Part of that story is simply the power of an image viewed on a white wall, not accompanied by distractions on a computer screen.

“I often ask people in the gallery, ‘I wonder who’s benefiting from us thinking that we can’t be friends even though we think differently?’” she says. “As I like to say to my kids, don’t be an unpaid intern for someone. Because that’s what we’re doing for those people that are benefiting from separating us. We haven’t even examined how we really feel.”

The Monroes don’t aim to influence how others feel, they say.

“There’s never an agenda to the exhibit in terms of a viewpoint,” Sid says. “This is what happened. This is history.” 

Officer Eugene Goodman: facing a crowd, The Storming of The Capitol (Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021)

Ashley Gilbertson, Officer Eugene Goodman: The Storming of The Capitol (Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021); courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography

Details

▼ Imagine a World Without Photojournalism

▼ Through Sept. 18

▼ Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave.

▼ 505-992-0800, monroegallery.com

▼ Also, “Threats to Photojournalism,” a panel program with photographers Nina Berman and David Butow, 5:30 p.m. July 22, at the gallery or via Zoom. RSVP required