A country full of contradictions. 250 years of the USA. Mark Peterson

 A country full of contradictions. 250 years of the USA. - laif

Via LAIF

March 28, 2026

Mark Peterson

2026 brings with it two dates that are hard to ignore: 250 years of the USA. And Donald Trump turns 80 – in the middle of his second term in office.

What do these dates mean? What do they say about the state of this country? We asked photographers from our partner agency Redux.

We start with Mark Peterson, one of New York's most respected photojournalists. We asked him for his assessment of the state of American society and the future of photojournalism.

Mark, the United States is approaching its 250th anniversary – an event that is attracting worldwide attention. What does this milestone mean to you in terms of your work? Is there a photo that you think best represents the U.S., whether it's at this moment or at any other time?

A photo I took of a portrait of President Trump. It hung on a building; I photographed it through a fence. An American flag hung over Trump's face. Mark Peterson

How would you describe the current mood in the country?

I have reported extensively on the current Trump administration and also on the people on the streets who are protesting against the Trump administration and ICE in the United States. The current mood in the country is divided: half of the population thinks things are going in the right direction, while the other half believes they are going in the wrong direction.

In view of the flood of AI images, disinformation and fake news on the Internet: How do you currently see the role and importance of photojournalism and the media?

I think photojournalism and citizen journalism have had a big impact – especially in Minneapolis, where photos and cell phone videos have directly contradicted the official statements of Trump administration officials.

 Do you think that photographs can influence public sentiment and opinion, or is that too optimistic a view?

Yes, photos, videos and social media are still very influential and shape public opinion. In Minneapolis, ICE's images have changed the debate, and the government has withdrawn from Minneapolis.

Has your way of photographing changed because photos are now mostly published online and viewed on mobile phones?

No.

What is the biggest challenge photojournalists face in the future, and what would you like to see in your profession?

The biggest challenge is the lack of funding for long-term projects. And that newspapers and media houses close and cut jobs.

Full article here

Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson is a photographer based in New York City. He is the author of two books: »Acts Of Charity« (2004, published by powerHouse Books) and »Acts Of Charity« »Political Theatre« (2016, published by Steidl). In 2018, he was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Award for his work on "White Nationalism".

He is represented by Redux Pictures for editorial assignments and his work appears in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, the New York Magazine, French Geo, Fortune and Time Magazine.

His work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography, the George Eastman Museum, and the Fine Art Museum of Houston. Since 2014, Peterson has focused on the decay of U.S. democracy and the rise of nationalism, and will publish a book about this work at Powerhouse in the winter of 2027.

Monroe Gallery will exhibit a selection of Mark Peterson's photographs from Minneapolis at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, April 22-26 in booth B10.

The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD Announces 2026 Programming ; Includes Photojournalism: Witness + Vision With Ashley Gilbertson

 Via AIPAD

The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD  Announces 2026 Programming  The Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue, New York April 22-26, 2026 | VIP Opening Wednesday, April 22, 2026 

Friday, April 24 at 5:30PM Photojournalism: Witness + Vision Photographers Giles Clarke, Ashley Gilbertson and Shelby Lee Adams join moderator Rick Smolan for a conversation on the evolving role of photojournalism and documentary practice today. Reflecting on the power and responsibility of the image, the panel considers how personal vision, ethics and context shape the stories photographers tell—and how those stories resonate in an age of constant visual exchange.

The Photography Show presented by AIPAD is pleased to announce its programming for the 45th edition of the fair. Anchored by AIPAD Talks, the series will commence on Thursday, April 24, at 1PM when this year’s AIPAD Award winner, Deborah Wilis, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, will be in conversation with Brendan Embser, Senior Editor at Aperture. AIPAD Talks will take place over the four public days of The Photography Show in the famed Veterans Room designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, from Thursday to Sunday. 

Highlights include Interventions in Photography, with artists David Alekhuogie, Gail Albert Halaban and Aundre Larrow in conversation, moderated by Elise Swopes, Founder, Sunrise Art Club + Night on the Yard, to discuss the varied techniques, tools and interventions photographers are using today throughout the creative process—whether classic darkroom edits or experimental mixed media and AI-assisted workflows—that continue to push photography into new territory; photographer and visual artist Laurie Simmons joins Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art and co-curator of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, for a dynamic conversation tracing the evolution of her practice and the ideas driving her work today; America at 250/Divergent Realities: Photography and Documentation, featuring Stephanie Tung, The Byrne Family Curator of Photography, Peabody Essex Museum; Makeda Best, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Oakland Museum of Contemporary Art; and Jami Powell, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, in conversation to explore how photography has shaped and complicated the ways we document, remember and challenge canonical American history and how images both preserve national memory and challenge dominant narratives; and From Concept to Feature: Creative Directors on the Power of Photography, featuring leading creative directors Matteo Mobilio of WSJ Magazine, Samantha Adler of Cosmopolitan and Noelle Lacombe of The Cut in conversation moderated by CNN Senior Style Reporter Rachel Tashjian to to explore the editorial process from initial concept to final spread, unpacking how image-making decisions reflect, challenge and ultimately influence the way we see the world.  

“This year’s AIPAD Talks program highlights photography’s power to question history, shape identity and inspire new ways of seeing,” said Lydia Melamed Johnson, Executive Director of AIPAD and The Photography Show. “From groundbreaking artists to visionary curators and scholars, these conversations reflect the depth, diversity and dynamism that define the photographic community ."

  Full schedule here

  Visit us during The Photography Show in Booth B10

Meet the caretakers archiving Renee Macklin Good's memorial, Ryan Vizzions and James Forbes

 Via MPR News

March 24, 2026

Ryan Vizzions has been photographing items left behind at the memorial for Renee Macklin Good, who was fatally shot by a federal agent in January in Minneapolis. Ben Hovland | MPR News

Nearly three months after Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, a dedicated group of volunteers still watches over the site daily. They’re thinking now about the future of the memorial there as they archive what mourners have left behind.

“It's really important for me … to make sure that we preserve these items for future generations,” said Ryan Vizzions, a volunteer who’s been living for months in his van with his dog, Freedom.

Vizzions is collecting and documenting signs, stuffed animals, hats and candles from the memorial in a garage a few minutes' drive away — a space provided by someone he met through social media.

It's a cozy space. There are large boxes of signs, each neatly labeled by size. Some of them had been outside for months and needed to be dried out before Vizzions could photograph them.

He has a box of small items he hasn’t gotten to yet: handmade bracelets, small trinkets. Archiving requires attention to detail.

It isn't clear what will happen to the materials once they're photographed and archived.

For the pair, the fire reiterated the need to protect and preserve the memorial. Visitors continue to show up daily with letters, flowers, candles and signs.

Caretakers have created a path at the vigil site with mulch and stone pavers. They hope to plant flowers now that it's warm outside.

Vizzions said it’s a balance between trying to honor Macklin Good while also honoring the community that lives immediately around the memorial.

For the pair, the fire reiterated the need to protect and preserve the memorial. Visitors continue to show up daily with letters, flowers, candles and signs.

Caretakers have created a path at the vigil site with mulch and stone pavers. They hope to plant flowers now that it's warm outside.

Vizzions said it’s a balance between trying to honor Macklin Good while also honoring the community that lives immediately around the memorial.

Full article here

Monroe Gallery will exhibit a selection of Ryan Vizzions' photographs from Minneapolis at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, April 22-26 in booth B10.

Striking Down Pentagon Press Limits, Judge Vindicates Independent Journalism

 Via The New York Times

March 21, 2026

“A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription,” wrote Judge Paul L. Friedman of the Federal District Court in Washington.

“Those who drafted that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech,” he continued. “That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now.” --full article here

Ryan Vizzions: The Tender Work of Preserving Renee Good’s Memorial

 Via Hyperallergic

March 16, 2026

Ryan Vizzions is archiving the objects left at the site of Renee Good’s murder. (all photos by and courtesy Ryan Vizzions)

Ryan Vizzions, a photojournalist from Atlanta, had already arrived in Minnesota when federal immigration agents murdered poet and mother Renee Nicole Macklin Good.

For the last five years, the traveling photographer has been living out of his small van as he travels across the country for a photo survey exploring what it means to be American in all 50 states. He was taking photos at Lake Superior when he learned of Good’s killing, and drove immediately to the street where agents shot Good in her car. He arrived in time for a massive vigil held in Good’s memory.

Nearly two months after Good’s murder, Vizzions is still in Minnesota, but his focus has shifted from observation to intervention. He is now the de facto archivist of Good’s memorial site, where mourners have left hundreds of devotional objects, short notes, and artwork in protest and in grief.

Vizzions among Good memorial objects at his undisclosed storage site

“I want to make sure people in the future understand what happened here,” Vizzions told Hyperallergic in an interview.

So far, Vizzions has photographed about 200 items and relocated fragile objects to what he described as a “secret location” in the southern part of the city.

He’s left behind some items, including plastic signs, for the public to view. Alongside community members, Vizzions is maintaining the site, including by removing what he described as hundreds of pounds of decaying flowers.

Among the items Vizzions has documented is a note signed by an employee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency driving the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement tactics. 

“Ms. Good,” the message reads, “We will never forget you. Rest in peace and power. Your work on earth is done. Your legacy lives on.” 

The card, which is covered in stickers, is signed, “A DHS employee.”

“That was probably the most surprising because that’s somebody who is involved with the same institution that ultimately killed her,” Vizzions told Hyperallergic. 

Mourners attended a vigil for Good hours after federal agents killed her.

Vizzions made the leap from outside observer to active participant in Minneapolis’s response to Good’s murder after someone attempted to burn the memorial site and extreme winter conditions set in, threatening to destroy the makeshift monument.

On February 18, someone poured gasoline on the memorial and lit a flame. Vizzions said that he and a group of community members watching over the site at night were able to stop the fire from spreading.

While Vizzions has previously photographed political apexes, including Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, he said he had never before inserted himself in the communities he covers.

“ As a photojournalist, oftentimes you’re divided from the community because you’re on the outside looking in,” Vizzions said. “And I wanted to serve.” 

Vizzions told Hyperallergic that Good’s parents are aware of his project and that he is in communication with a family friend who is serving as a mediator. Ultimately, Vizzions said, he will respect the family’s wishes for any next steps for the collection. He expects that some of the items could end up in the collections of private institutions or in the archives of the Smithsonian, but noted that whatever happens next will not be his decision to make. 

In the meantime, he is photographing and digitizing items from Good’s vigil so that anyone can experience them, regardless of where they live.

“It’s  really important for me to make sure that the folks who couldn’t be here, and the family who couldn’t come to the vigil because of everything happening, are able to access the memorial in person or online,” Vizzions said.

The photographer recalled one snow-covered note that made him cry. It read: “ We all carry whistles now. I hope you hear them. I hope you’re home. We all carry each other now. I know you’re with us. I know you’re home.”

The message is a nod to activists’ use of whistles to alert community members of potential immigration raids.

“It was just on a small note that was tucked somewhere,” Vizzons said. “But that’s just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of items that people have left. It’s that message and the other message that really make it feel like we have an obligation to protect these offerings that people brought to her.”

Full article here

See Ryan Vizzions' photographs from Minneapolis at The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD April 22-26, Monroe Gallery Booth B10.

 

Eugene Tapahe brings the spirit of the Jingle Dress Project to Scottsdale Art Week

 Via ArtDaily

March 16, 2026

Eugene Tapahe: Strength In Unity, Tetons National Park, the native land of the Shoshone, Bannock, Gros Ventre, and Nez Perce People, 2021

SANTA FE, NM.- Monroe Gallery of Photography announced a special exhibition of photographs from Eugene Tapahe’s acclaimed Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project at the second edition of Scottsdale Art Week March 19-22, 2026. Monroe Gallery will be located in booth G2 and Eugene Tapahe will be present throughout the fair.

The four-day International Art Fair returns to WestWorld of Scottsdale this spring with 120 galleries from 15 Countries.

Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project originated from a dream Tapahe had during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring him to unite the land and people through the healing power of the Ojibwe jingle dress dance during uncertain times of illness and social differences. Since then, Tapahe has traveled thousands of miles documenting family members and friends dancing the healing honor dance in National Parks and Monuments, honoring the places where their ancestors once lived. Tapahe describes the images as “incredibly powerful and spiritual. Looking at them, I still can't believe I took these photographs. I believe this project is larger than myself, and I hope that when people view them, they feel the same way – that we are all blessed to be in the presence of such beauty.”

The Jingle Dress Project has brought healing to Tapahe’s family, friends, and ancestors and garnered national and international recognition for its unifying effect on communities. The images have raised awareness of many Native American issues, such as land acknowledgment, women’s rights, and, most importantly, the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

During the project, Tapahe discovered one overarching metaphor. “I put my hand on one of the jingles and I shook it. That one jingle didn’t make any sound,” he said. “But together, they have the power to heal. As human beings, if we are able to unite ourselves and our prayers and make a beautiful sound as the jingle dress does, we could be powerful.”

Eugene Tapahe is a contemporary artist inspired by his Diné (Navajo) traditions and modern experiences. He is originally from Window Rock, Arizona. Tapahe has loved photography since the first time he picked up a camera, and realized the special gift for telling stories through his art. He has a deep desire to continue photographing the lands his ancestors once walked.

Tapahe has received numerous awards, including the Best of Show award for his photography at the Cherokee Indian Market (2018) and the Museum of Northern Arizona (2019), making him the first photographer to achieve this honor.

Tapahe has also been honored with two International Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts magazine. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), the Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama), The Toledo Museum (Ohio), Speed Art Museum (Kentucky), the Arizona State Museum, the Minnesota History Center Museum, and the College of Wooster Art Museum (Ohio).

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe in 2001. Building on more than six decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in photography that embodies the universal understanding and importance of photojournalism. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

Fear Is Different Here

 Via The Stranger

March 13, 2026

I photographed the mob at the Capitol on January 6. What I saw in Minneapolis was scarier.

By Nate Gowdy

Observers blow whistles in Minneapolis to signal that feds are present. Nate Gowdy

Seattle-based photographer Nate Gowdy went to Minneapolis to document the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge. From January 17 to January 26, and February 13 to February 18, he photographed the civilian efforts to protect their communities from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. This is what he saw.

...When I arrived in Minneapolis, I expected to find overarmed agents, tear gas clouds, traumatized civilians, and I did. I also found people walking their dogs, running errands, meeting for dinner.

Daily life continued, but it was unmistakably altered. Community events were canceled. It came through in every conversation with residents: weekend plans became risk assessments about the federal agents operating in residential neighborhoods without visible name tags or badge numbers. Tension lived in lowered voices and furtive glances toward any vehicle with tinted windows.

For eight days, I worked from a rented Toyota RAV4 with Texas plates with a group of other photojournalists. We taped a PRESS sign inside the windows as a disclaimer to the volunteers standing on almost every street corner in the subzero cold. We tracked federal movements through Signal channels, mixing confirmed sightings with rumors in a steady stream of pings. We stayed in contact with five other cars of photojournalists, all trying to document every abduction—failed or successful—that we could.

As we moved through the city, residents told us about their community-led rapid-response trainings. Volunteers distributed whistles and explained how to document raids safely. From this peaceful resistance, we learned to drive slowly through residential blocks, roll down our windows, and identify ourselves.

“We’re press. We’re watching ICE, too.”

Five years earlier, on January 6, 2021, I photographed the pro-Trump mob as thousands laid siege to the United States Capitol. Claims that “Might Makes Right” exploded into acrid fear. I have an audio recording of that day, when I was deep in the crowd at the Capitol steps, that can still bring back that fear. Wild and chaotic.

In Minnesota, the fear worked differently. It folded itself into school pick-ups, grocery runs, work commutes. People recalculated familiar routes before starting engines. Ordinary traffic drew scrutiny. Conversations sought a lower volume. Or went completely underground. The anxiety was procedural.

Veteran conflict photographers deployed to Minneapolis recognized the pattern: when heavily armed forces operate in civilian space, residents adjust.  Click for full article

Margaret Bourke-White review in Musee Magazine: "The absence of women in a field that actively constructs our visual culture and collective memory is striking. It makes it all the more crucial to revisit those who broke through its barriers"

 Via Musee Magazine

March 11, 2026

Written by Georgina Laube 

Fort Peck Dam, Fort Peck, MT, 1936 (Cover for first issue of LIFE magazine) | Margaret Bourke-White/©Life Picture Collection | Courtesy of Monroe Gallery

For decades, photography has occupied a complicated position: dismissed at times as mere documentation, yet simultaneously employed to shape public memory. It was the first medium to meaningfully collapse the distance between nations and cultures, bringing distant events into people’s homes. Few forms of communication carry the same presumption of accuracy. Photography has long underscored the notion that “seeing is believing,” and in doing so, it has profoundly shaped our understanding of history, conflict, and identity. Whether we acknowledge it or not, much of our worldview is constructed through the images we consume. In many cases, photography has become our cultural truth.

Hats in the Garment District, New York, 1930 | Margaret Bourke-White/©Life Picture Collection | Courtesy of Monroe Gallery

Since its inception, however, the photographic medium, particularly photojournalism, has been largely dominated by men. And in many ways, it still is. Emerging in the mid-nineteenth century, war quickly became one of its defining subjects, so central that photojournalism itself is often understood as having grown out of war photography. From the Mexican–American War, the first conflict to have photographic evidence, to the Crimean War, the first extensively documented war, photography is historically employed as a tool of record and reportage. Yet due to systemic barriers and rigid beliefs about women’s roles, documentary photography remained largely inaccessible to female practitioners.

Plow blades, Oliver Child Plow Co, South bend, Indiana, 1930 | Margaret Bourke-White/©Life Picture Collection | Courtesy of Monroe Gallery

The absence of women in a field that actively constructs our visual culture and collective memory is striking. It makes it all the more crucial to revisit those who broke through its barriers. For not only do we owe to them to merely acknowledge their often overlooked presence, but to recognize that their perspective itself also shapes our history. It is imperative that it is more understood that women are not passive bystanders to cultural memory. Very often they are the ones actively shaping it. It is precisely this recognition that makes the latest exhibition at Monroe Gallery of Photography not only compelling, but timely. By allowing us to intimately revisit Margaret Bourke-White’s works, the Monroe Gallery offers more than a historical survey; it actively confronts and corrects not only the history of the medium but history as a whole.

Diversion Tunnels, Ft. Peck Dam, MT, 1936 | Margaret Bourke-White/©Life Picture Collection | Courtesy of Monroe Gallery

Bourke-White was not only a pioneer for women, she also actively used her lens to shape American visual identity. A founding photographer of Life magazine and the photographer of its first cover, she shaped how twentieth-century America saw itself and its place in the world. And with that how we reflect on that period in the contemporary period. She documented the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, photographed the liberation of concentration camps at the end of World War II, and captured the final images of Mahatma Gandhi. Yet despite the scale of her influence, her name is too often overshadowed by her male contemporaries and insufficiently centered in photographic history.

Farmer Art Blooding with family battling "dust bowl" winds white inspecting his newly bought farm, Colorado, April, 1954| Margaret Bourke-White/©Life Picture Collection | Courtesy of Monroe Gallery

When she is overlooked in the history of photography, she is, in effect, overlooked in history itself. and so too is the role of women in shaping it. On view until April 26, 2026, Monroe Gallery of Photography uses its space to serve as a reminder that the visual memory we inherit was, in part, constructed through her lens.

View the exhibition here.

Projections: March 11th for a very special evening with photographer Ed Kashi

Via Projections

Hold The Date: Projections March 11th for a very special evening with photographer Ed Kashi.

One of the world’s most celebrated photojournalists and filmmakers Kashi has dedicated the past 45 years to documenting the social and geopolitical issues that define our era.

Ed will be presenting his new book, A Period in Time: Looking Back while Moving Forward: 1977–2022, a stunning and expansive retrospective of photographs spanning the world and his prolific career.

March 11, 2026 7 pm EST 

Ryan Vizzions on archiving the Renee Good memorial

 

Via The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Video: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune

March 6, 2026

When it comes to archiving spontaneous public memorials, there are no clear pathways for what to do. Ryan Vizzions, a traveling photographer, started collecting posters from the spontaneous public memorial that sprung up at the site of Renee Good’s killing. What happens next depends on the family’s wishes. Tap the link to read the full report by Alicia Eler.

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