Black Muslim leader Malcolm X photographing Cassius Clay after he defeated Sonny Liston for the Heavy Weight Championship, Miami, February, 1964
Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of
Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce an extensive exhibition of
photographs from the 1960's by LIFE magazine photographer Bob Gomel. The
exhibition opens with a reception for the photographer on Friday, October 5,
from 5 to 7 PM. The exhibition will continue through November 18. (Listen here to Art Beat, radio interview about Monroe Gallery and Bob Gomel.)
The triumphs and tragedies of the
1960s provided photographer Bob Gomel and his LIFE magazine colleagues
extraordinary opportunities to advance American photojournalism. "LIFE was
the world's best forum for photojournalists. We were encouraged to push
creative and technical boundaries. There was no better place to work in that
extraordinary decade." The exhibition includes images of presidents John
F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, the 1963 Freedom March in Washington,
The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and other entertainers; Malcolm X, and sports
figures such as boxer Muhammad Ali, baseball legend Nolan Ryan, and golfer
Arnold Palmer. Several unpublished images - including one of 90 heads of state
gathered around the catafalque at the Kennedy funeral and another of John F. Kennedyemerging from America's first space capsule at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston - are in the exhibition. (September 12, 2012 marked the 50th
anniversary of John F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon ..." speech
at Rice University, which Bob Gomel photographed for LIFE magazine.)
Bob Gomel was born (1933) and
raised in New York City. After serving
four years in the U.S. Navy, he was promptly offered a job at the Associated Press.
But by then, he had changed his mind about what he wanted to do. “I just felt
one picture wasn’t sufficient to
tell a story,” he explains. “I was interested in exploring something in
depth. And, of course, the mecca was Life magazine.”He turned down the offer
from AP, and began working for LIFE in 1959, producing many memorable
images. When LIFE ceased being a weekly in the early 1970s, he began making
photographs for other major magazines. Also in the 1970s, he branched out into
advertising photography. Among other accounts, he helped introduce Merrill
Lynch’s Bullish on America campaign.
Bob says, “Each time I raised a
camera to my eye I wondered how to make a viewer say, “wow.” What followed were
the use of double exposures to tell a more complete story; placing remote
cameras where no human being could be; adapting equipment to reveal what could
not ordinarily be captured on film. My goal with people was to penetrate the
veneer, to reveal the true personality or character. The ideal was sometimes
mitigated by circumstances, a lack of time or access. But more often than not
what the mind conceived could be translated into successful photographic
images. Life Magazine in the 60s sold 8,000,000 copies a week. It was a great
honor to be a part of that information highway.”
