Thursday, September 24, 2015

Announcing Stephen Wilkes: Remnants


Recycled Cans

Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1
 

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present "Remnants", an exhibition of large-scale color photographs of the environment and the environmental remnants left behind either by nature or man.

The exhibition opens with a public reception with photographer Stephen Wilkes from 5 - 7 PM on Friday, October 2. The exhibition continues through November 22.

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years, Wilkes has made an impression on the world of photography.

In the face of increasing global attention on climate change and rebuilding; and as society grapples with the byproducts of global human achievements such as urban development and mass production that have caused problems of scarcity and waste simultaneously, "Remnants" is a timely examination of the environmental issues facing society.
 
"I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding.

There are moments in journalism when the media captures the visual details of a disaster, yet sometimes misses the true scale of devastation. It’s my hope that these images serve as a wakeup call — whether that call is about global warming, infrastructure, or just the recognition that the world is changing, it’s a reminder that we need to take special care of our fragile world." --Stephen Wilkes

 Recycled Wire
Recycled Wire Study

Photography has been Stephen’s passion since age 12, when his fascination with science led him to take photographs through a microscope. He began working on his own at age 15, attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1982, Wilkes opened his own studio in Manhattan.

“Ever since I took my first pictures, photography has always been the joy of discovery for me,” says Wilkes. “The excitement not only lies with what I see and how I see it, but mostly when someone looks at the finished photograph and feels the same emotions I felt when I took the picture. There is something sacred about the right moment. The frame where all the energy comes together and, in one instant, a story is told.”

Wilkes' photographs are in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dow Jones & Company, New York City; The Jewish Museum, New York City; and in numerous important private collections throughout the world. His work has graced the covers of numerous international publications, including Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Life Magazine, and Time Magazine. Selected photographs in the "Remnants" exhibition were featured in the Annenberg Center for Photography exhibit "Sink or Swim: Designing For A Sea Change", Dec 13, 2014 - May 3, 2015.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Panel Discussion: Photojournalism and Civil Rights



Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to present a special panel discussion on the role of photojournalism in the civil rights movement up to the present day. Freelance photojournalist Whitney Curtis, veteran LIFE magazine reporter Richard Stolley and interim director of the UNM Art Museum and Dean of the College of Fine Arts Kymberly Pindar will share their experiences and views on Friday, September 18, starting promptly at 5:30. Seating is  very limited and will be on a first come basis. The discussion will take place in the gallery during the final week of the exhibition "The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson", which closes on September 27.
Many of the now iconic photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States were once front-page news. The year 2015 brought renewed attention to many of these historic images not only from the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's march and the acclaimed film "Selma" but also as Baltimore, Charleston, and Ferguson, Missouri, and other American cities grapple with conflicts across the racial divide and produce new images that have confronted American society anew with questions of equality.

Richard Stolley already had a distinguished career in journalism when he joined TIME magazine in 1953. As a reporter for Time and LIFE he covered numerous civil rights stories during the 1960's, of which he has said "There would not have been a civil rights movement without journalism. I think LIFE magazine was the most influential publication in changing American attitudes toward race because other news magazines would tell you what was happening and LIFE magazine would show you. LIFE photographers captured images of people spitting on black kids. Those people landed in a great big photo in the magazine, their faces distorted with hate, and spit coming out of their mouths. That image is going to change peoples' attitude in a way that words never could. That is exactly what LIFE magazine did week after week after week."
After graduating with a degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Whitney Curtis worked as a staff photojournalist at The Kansas City Star, northern Utah’s Standard-Examiner, and the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. As an editorial photojournalist, Whitney’s work has been honored by The Associated Press, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, CPoY, and Women in Photojournalism. A resident of St. Louis, Whitney was not surprised by the outpouring of anger and emotion after a police officer killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. What she did not expect, however, was to be caught in the middle of it. She covered the 2014 protests extensively, often on assignment for The New York Times. Her image of image of Rashaad Davis from the Ferguson, Missouri protests was awarded 1st place Domestic News 2014 in NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Contest.

Kymberly Pindar is the interim director of the UNM Art Museum and dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts. Pindar is co-curator of the exhibition "Necessary Force: Art of the Police State which" will run from September 11 through December 12, 2015 at the UNM art museum. This exhibition interrogates law enforcement’s longstanding history of violence, and the systemic forces that continue to sanction and promote the violation of civil rights in this country. Dr. Pinder holds two master’s degree and a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than five decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in 20th and 21st photojournalist imagery. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 daily. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com.
 

Follow  @Monroegallery on Twitter for a Periscope livestream of the panel on Friday, September 18. 

Friday, September 11, 2015

Exhibit explores history of police use of force

Via The Albuquerque Journal
September 11, 201
 By Adrian Gomez / Asst. Arts Editor, Reel NM


Karen Fiss is one of the two curators of “Necessary Force: Art in the Police State.” She is standing in front of “Amelia Falling 2014” by Hank Willis Thomas. The exhibit is in the University of New Mexico Art Museum and will be on display until Dec. 12. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

An art exhibit opens tonight in Albuquerque that’s sure to generate discussion, and possibly controversy.

“Necessary Force: Art in the Police State” includes work from 31 artists, and covers such historical themes as the civil rights movement to more current events such as the James Boyd shooting here and the Ferguson, Mo., riots that started after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer.

“This exhibit is getting the dialog started about the problems our society is facing,” said co-curator Kymberly Pinder. “These are problems that have existed for a long time. The show balances what today’s society is dealing with in conjunction to what has happened in the past.”

Pinder, who also is dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts, and Karen Fiss, a professor at the California College of Arts, worked on pulling together the exhibit for the past year.

It is in the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and will be on display until Dec. 12.

“Art is not just to entertain; it can also be challenging and thought provoking,” the curators said in their exhibition statement. “The term ‘necessary force’ is the art created by artists who feel an urgent need to respond to contemporary events that reflect a society that is increasingly policed on many levels and how that affects us all. The words ‘police state’ are used because these artists address this increased policing and the many social conditions that contribute to the complex history of police violence in the United States.”

The majority of the works are responding to actual events. Documentary photographs from the 1960s and ’70s from the museum’s renowned collection stand alongside work by contemporary artists, which includes an installation of an overturned police car to a piece that points out items that were mistaken for guns.

“The juxtaposition of historic and recent imagery helps us assess the evolution of these pressing social issues over the 50 years since the Civil Rights movement,” Pinder said.

The exhibit comes after a Department of Justice investigation found that Albuquerque police used excessive force for years, and as the department tries to comply with a court order to overhaul its practices.

Pinder said the curators and artists hope to encourage critical thinking and dialogue around the complex history of law enforcement and violence in the United States.

The contemporary works in the exhibition address a range of issues, including surveillance, incarceration, drug abuse, inadequate mental health care, gun violence and racial profiling, as well as the power of collective protest and collective healing.

It also examines the role of photography in shaping public opinion, as well as the longer-term matter of how we come to know and remember history.

The goal for the exhibit falls in line with UNM’s mission to encourage critical thinking, dialogue and problem-solving around issues that are relevant today, Pinder said.

“The caliber of artists that are in the exhibit is profound,” Fiss said. “These were artists that showed interest in the show.”

Pinder always wanted to work with Fiss on a show. The pair have known each other since their graduate studies at Yale University.

A thematically related exhibition, “The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson,” is currently on display at The Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe until Sept. 27.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"For decades, Steve Schapiro’s iconic photographs have been witty visual documents of American cultural and social movements"



Via Time LightBox

For decades, Steve Schapiro’s iconic photographs have been witty visual documents of American cultural and social movements. He’s captured significant moments like Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march to Selma as well as intimate portraits of Hollywood celebrities such as Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.

To this day, the American photojournalist and documentarian still gives his audience compelling testimonies of the social and cultural flaws that society has survived, capturing an intriguing side of a multifaceted complexity. And his latest body of work is no different. In Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie,  slated for release in October by powerHouse Books, Schapiro chronicles today’s hippie counterculture movement throughout the U.S. and in parts of Europe.

Continue to full article here.


Steve Schapiro's iconic photographs are included in the exhibition "The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson" at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, through September 27.





Tuesday, September 8, 2015

HELP THE EDDIE ADAMS WORKSHOP

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Via RocketHub

The Eddie Adams Workshop is an intense, tuition-free photography workshop open annually to 100 students from around the world, led by the industry's top professionals who volunteer their time for the 4-day experience. Eddie Adams, the founder and namesake, created this first and only tuition-free photo workshop in 1988. Since then, through the help of corporate sponsorship and private donations, Eddie, his wife, Alyssa, and their friends have created a space for mentorship, motivation, and an irreplaceable family of photographers. We would like to thank our community for its assistance through donations and spreading the word to others for their support of our workshop.  We would also like to thank our partners who continue to sponsor the workshop, including our main sponsor Nikon, to help keep Eddie’s vision alive and strong.

Why keep this workshop alive and kicking? Well, just ask a few recent students:
"The Eddie Adams Workshop is the kind of place where, among other things, a senior photo editor at National Geographic gives you a lift to your assignment, influential photographers go from heroes to peers through the course of a conversation, an industry professional moonlights as your photo assistant, an award winning photographer serves you mashed potatoes for lunch, and you meet people who will become friends for life. The Eddie Adams Workshop was a lightning bolt of inspiration and I give it credit for triggering a metamorphosis that led me to where I am now." - Tamir Kalifa, Workshop 24

"Besides taking pictures, the Eddie Adams Workshop was the best thing I have done as a photographer
." - Egill Bjarnason, Workshop 27

At the workshop, each student is part of a 10-person team that is sent out on assignment. In addition to working on and completing their assignment in four days' time, students attend portfolio reviews and discussions with world renowned photographers and editors such as James Damon Winter, Preston Gannaway, John Moore, Vincent Laforet, Andrees Latif, Rodrigo And, Nancy Andrews, James Balog, Al Bello, Jodi Cobb, Erika Larsen, Elizabeth Krist, Ami Vitale, Carolyn Cole, David Guttenfelder, Todd Heisler, Tyler Hicks, Lynn Johnson, David Hume Kennerly, Santiago Lyon, James Nachtwey, Eugene Richards, Stephanie Sinclair, John H White, Dan Winters, MaryAnne Golon, Jamie Wellford, Michele McNally, Gordon Parks, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Joe Rosenthal, Cornell Capa, Mary Ellen Mark, Chris Hondros, Platon, Bill Eppridge, Maggie Steber, Nick Ut and many more.

WORKSHOP RECOGNITION:
  • 2014 PMDA Visionary Award Recipient, Eddie Adams Workshop (PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association)
  • 2010 Lucie Awards Visionary Award Recipient, Eddie Adams Workshop
RECENT PRESS:
TIME
The NY Times 
The Chicago Tribune
National Geographic