Stars and Strife: Monroe Gallery of Photography Exhibition Puts Sharp Focus on Images of Division and Democracy in Peril

 Via Pasatiempo

By Ania Hull

May 22, 2026

David Butow's photograph of "A protester at Ferguson police headquarters two nights after the Grand Jury decision, November 24, 2014" on the cover of Pasatiempo

“I think I was mistaken in thinking that democracy was a birthright,” Michelle Monroe says.

The co-owner of Monroe Gallery of Photography is sitting behind a large desk at the front of the art space, with her husband, Sidney Monroe. The two gallerists and curators are both warm and sharp and have no qualms about speaking their minds on the theme reflected in their latest show: America is in serious trouble.

The walls of the gallery that are visible from the front desk are filled with dozens of prints by photojournalists who’ve witnessed first-hand that "trouble" the Monroes speak of: they illustrate discrimination, racism, social and political violence, erasure of history, poverty, and the crumbling of one of the world’s oldest modern democracies. The prints are all part of America the Beautiful, a new group exhibition that opened earlier this month and runs through August 9.

The Monroes contend that some people refuse to see an unwashed version of their country — and also concede that it is difficult to look at photos that unveil the difficult, distressing, and ugly moments of American history. But the goal of this exhibition, the Monroes say, is to bring the issues to light in the hope that viewers will not turn away.

The exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of the nation and of the American experiment, doing it in a way that shows a beautiful America with gorgeous vistas but also reveals a side that viewers might be less comfortable seeing, the scenes of the United States of America hidden behind Old Glory.

“We were seeing exhibitions and plans being put into place for commemorating the 250th anniversary,” Sydney says, “and we’ve seen a lot of sanitization of our reality.

“One of the great benefits of representing photojournalists is that they document history,” he adds. “Their photographs are evidence.”

The photographs are from a range of eras, beginning in the 1930s up to this year, and reflect varying topics, such as protests, veterans, immigrants' rights, and symbols of poverty and other financial hardships.

And perhaps these images aren't the ones we want to see to inspire us to celebrate this national milestone but rather represent, the Monroes say, an opportunity to face our demons.

It begins with the flag

The Monroes keep a glass container on their front desk filled with individually wrapped whistles of the same kind anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis used to alert their immigrant neighbors of an imminent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid.

Ryan Vizzions: Faces of Fascism, Minneapolis, January, 2026

The Monroes share these whistles with gallery visitors. Last year, they gave out “Good Trouble” pins. This summer, Michelle says, they will distribute pins bearing an upside-down American flag, a symbol of distress.

A photo by independent photojournalist Tracy Barbutes in America the Beautiful shows an upside-down American flag hanging from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It was hung in protest of the thousands of federal job cuts that President Trump’s administration imposed early in 2025.

Many other prints in America the Beautiful feature various depictions of the American flag, many showing it as a symbol of identity, joy, and hope but also of oppression and violence.

“I suppose the American flag is like the crown,” Michelle says. “We formed against a monarchy, but we still needed a universal symbol, and the interpretation of the flag depends on who's holding it.”

Sanjay Suchak:  Scene from a birthday party…Washington, Dc, June 14, 2025

In another print in the exhibition — the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Soiling of Old Glory” that Boston Herald American photographer Stanley J. Forman took in 1976 during an anti-bussing protest in Boston — the American flag is used as weapon: A white teenager, Joseph Rakes, holds it by its pole and thrusts it finial toward Black activist and lawyer Ted Landsmark, who’s being helped to his feet by another person.

In the 2006 photograph “Ty with Flags” by documentary photographer and filmmaker Nina Berman, young Marine Sgt. Tyler Ziegel stands on the porch of his house in the shadow of a large American flag. Ziegel was seriously wounded during his second tour in Iraq by a suicide car bomber. He died in 2012 of heroin and alcohol poisoning. This photo was taken the morning of his wedding, which ended in divorce that same year.

Berman says the photo of Ziegel and others in her series of veteran photos show the realities of war and the toll of the American flag on the bodies of soldiers who’d been sent to fight for it, often not even understanding what the conflict was about.

Ron Haviv: Anti ICE protestors clash with ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building during a protest January 17, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The atrocities continue through current events. Noted human rights photojournalist Ron Haviv's image in the show depicts a scene in Minneapolis on January 17 as anti-ICE protestors clash with ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. The American flag in Haviv’s photo obscures more than half of the scene but gives prominent focus to an ICE agent in full police-like uniform, with a bullet-proof vest and a mask reminiscent of gas masks from WWII. Behind him are other ICE agents in helmets and one in a makeshift mask made from a neck warmer.

Flags appear throughout America the Beautiful, often as a reminder that the American dream of freedom, equality, justice, opportunity is not a given.

“There’s a constant tension,” Sidney says, “between those who want to expand freedom and people’s opportunities, and people who want to restrict and determine who can be given an opportunity and who cannot.”

“You are not entitled to democracy,” Michelle adds, returning to her earlier remark that democracy is not a birthright. “It’s a responsibility. In the preamble of the Constitution, it says we must form a more perfect union. Well, now I understand that this is the responsibility of every single day. Just as a parent loves and nurtures a child, we must do the same with democracy.”

Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions’ photograph of a man standing atop a sign at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta during the May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd symbolizes those who stand up against injustice and refuse to remain silent.

In the photo, the young man's sign reads “Black Lives Matter” in large letters. As he wields the flag, he tilts his face toward the sky, his mouth open, and he screams.

source article here

details

America the Beautiful

Opening reception is 4-6 p.m. Saturday, May 23; exhibition runs through August 9

Monroe Gallery of Photography

112 Don Gaspar

505-992-0800; monroegallery.com

America The Beautiful - Reception Saturday, May 23 4-6 PM

 Exhibition of compelling and provocative photographs illustrating America, American life, and the American people as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday amid the erosion of civil rights, human rights, and democratic norms.

On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “America The Beautiful” confronts the idea that “American” is a uniform, monolithic identity at a critical time when our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising, federal civil rights laws have been weakened and the foundations of the country’s racially inclusive democracy are being challenged

Through more than 40 enthralling images, “America The Beautiful” explores the rituals, celebrations, social change, history, and memories of the American nation. Photographs in the exhibit depict major events and everyday life; themes of patriotism, memory, conflict, and identity; and documents Americans struggling for their freedom; their right to live without fear, their right to speak and the right to protest inequities.

View the exhibition here.

‘You look at it and you just feel better’: this year’s Photoville festival highlights

 Via The Guardian

May 15, 2026

Ashley Gilbertson and Ava Pellor - Puppies Behind Bars. Photograph: Ashley Gilbertson and Ava Pellor

"The extremely moving collection Puppies Behind Bars is the fruit of the nearly two years that photographers Ashley Gilbertson and Ava Pellor spent in the men’s maximum security Green Haven, documenting the titular program wherein those incarcerated raise puppies to become service dogs. Organization founder Gloria Gilbert Stoga shared that she instinctively knew that she wanted a war photographer to document what happened behind bars, because of the extreme nature of prisons.

“I wanted a war photographer, because going into prison isn’t something you can articulate to people who aren’t in prison,” Stoga said. “My assumption is that you also can’t articulate war. I needed people who could stay emotionally removed from the subject.”

Gilbertson, who is renowned for his photos of the Iraq war, fit that description, and was joined by Pellor, who has captured extreme experiences such as wildfires and illegal border crossings in the Balkans. Their photos take viewers into terrain that is both brutal and hidden, revealing how the act of raising a dog can transform this horrifying reality.

The dogs humanize an environment that’s devoid of all humanity,” said Gilbertson. “It gives men who have committed grave crimes against society a chance to do something, it gives men a chance to show weakness and vulnerability to be emotionally open and playful, it gives them a sense of responsibility. For the first time in their lives these men are sticking with something when it becomes tough.”

Pellor recalled in particular a photo she made of one of the men in the program when he received his puppy to raise, the act of receiving the dog bringing tears. “I think it was their first time taking them out for a walk in the yard, and he just put his head up to the puppy’s head and started crying,” said Pellor. “After that, he wouldn’t let him go that entire day.” ---full article

Photographer Gabriela Campos is having quite the year

 Via The Santa Fe New Mexican

By Bill Church

May 10, 2026

Gabriela Campos is proof that curiosity can turn into a career. A shy kid into a visual star. No doubt.

The Santa Fe New Mexican photographer’s career has gained a national following, yet no one who knows her is surprised.

Gabriela recently was named the inaugural recipient of the national Nick Oza Visual Fellowship as selected by Altavoz Lab, founded by award-winning journalist Valeria Fernández on the belief that “strong local journalism strengthens democracy.” The fellowship is named after Oza, the Pulitzer-winning photojournalist known for mentoring others and forging important connections in Arizona’s immigrant communities before his death in 2021.

Gabriela will continue to work for The New Mexican during her fellowship while also tackling a 12-month project of documenting the “unsung women of New Mexico’s lowrider culture.”

Gabriela’s project work landed her on the May 2025 cover of High Country News magazine. And National Geographic recently selected her work for inclusion.

For those traveling to Washington, D.C., this summer, spend time at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History along the National Mall. You’ll find Gabriela’s images prominently displayed in the Marcia and Frank Carlucci Hall of Culture and the Arts located on 3 West.

If you go online to the Corazón y vida: Lowriding Culture site, you’ll immediately find one of Gabriela’s photos. The exhibit describes lowriding culture as “artistic expression, technological innovations, and storytelling that reflects Mexican American and Chicano culture and identity.” (Educators and anyone curious will find plenty of media-rich resources in the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab tied to the exhibit.)

I recently took a trip to Washington, D.C., where seeing Gabriela’s art was a must-see, must-smile moment. I also sent Gabriela a short list of questions, which she responded to between assignments and everything else going on in her life.

Her answers were so illuminating that I shifted from a typical column about Gabriela and the exhibit to this Q&A format (with some light editing).

Not surprising, Gabriela’s story is best told by Gabriela:

How did you learn your work had been accepted by the Smithsonian?

The process started years ago. I had just gotten home from a shift at the newspaper when my phone buzzed — it was an email from Steve Velasquez, a curator at the Smithsonian. He was interested in talking about my lowrider work in New Mexico. That was June 2021. After a few emails and calls, I submitted a portfolio. From there, everything fell into place.

Why has lowrider culture interested you? Has it influenced how you tell stories through your images?

Growing up in New Mexico, lowrider culture is always there, just at the edges of everyday life. You see cars cruising the Plaza, and it becomes part of your visual memory. I remember in kindergarten, my friend Domino brought in the song “Low Rider” by War for show and tell — that moment stuck with me.

As I got older, especially in high school, I became more drawn to cruise culture. Growing up in Santa Fe, you have to be creative to entertain yourself as a teenager. My friends and I would spend hours driving around town and hanging out in parking lots — not in particularly cool cars, but there was something freeing about it. That sense of movement, community and expression continues to shape how I tell stories through my images.

What was it like for you to see the exhibit in Washington, D.C.?

The exhibit was postponed for a couple of years due to COVID and the complexity of putting a show like that together. For a while, I wasn’t sure it would happen at all. So when the date was finally set, it felt unreal — and being there in person was even more surreal.

Seeing my photos on the wall brought me back to the exact moments they were taken: my first hopping competition in Española, Holy Thursday outside the Santuario de Chimayó, chasing a gold Impala down East San Francisco Street to catch it perfectly framed against the cathedral — while my mom followed behind me to make sure I didn’t get hit by a car.

Looking at the images, I saw friends and familiar faces. I didn’t feel far from home.

One of my favorite moments happened during the rollout after the festivities of opening day at the museum came to a close. A car club from Virginia lined up outside the museum. A rollout is when cars leave together — horns blaring, hopping, riding on three wheels — it’s a moment to show off. I was on the sidewalk taking photos, like I do at home, but this felt different. To my left were Estevan Oriol and Lou Dematteis — legends in lowrider photography. To my right was my 7-year-old nephew, Henry, crouched down, filming the cars weaving down the street. My mom, sister, and best friend were nearby, taking it all in.

The car club had blocked off the street, and the cars performed in front of these grand, pillared buildings. It felt like a collision of worlds — New Mexico lowrider culture meeting Washington, D.C. — and it was beautiful.

As the cars disappeared down the road, Oriol and Dematteis turned to me and asked if I’d take a photo with them. I couldn’t believe it — that they would want a picture with me, a newspaper photographer from New Mexico.

How did you become a photographer? What sparked this passion?

Up until about fifth or sixth grade, the world was a blur. Then I got glasses, and suddenly everything changed. Trees that once looked like green smudges had definition — I could see individual leaves, texture, detail. That shift gave me a deep appreciation for the visual world, and I think it’s part of why I became a photographer.

During my senior year of high school, I took my first photography class, and right away I knew it was something I wanted to pursue. It just felt right. Having a camera felt like being handed a key — a way to open doors and connect with people.

As a shy kid, I was just as curious — and my camera became a way to step into conversations, explore the world around me, and tell stories I otherwise wouldn’t have been part of. After that first class, I never stopped taking pictures.

For years after, I tried to convince myself photography wasn’t a practical path. How would I make it? How could I survive as a photographer? But every road kept leading me back to photojournalism. Eventually, I stopped resisting and accepted that this is what I’m meant to do. I’m grateful it worked out and that I kept going when it wasn’t always easy.

AIPAD and the beautiful problem of photography’s market power

 Via amNY

May 6, 2026

"The extraordinary show-out for AIPAD this year seems to prove something the art world has been whispering for years and is, perhaps, finally ready to say aloud: photography has arrived not as a secondary medium, not as decorative evidence, not as the tasteful cousin of painting, but as one of the most intellectually potent, historically loaded, and emotionally exacting forms in the contemporary market.

At The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, held at the Park Avenue Armory from April 22–26, 2026, the medium was given the scale, seriousness, and theatricality it has long deserved. The fair brought together international exhibitors, historically significant work, contemporary experimentation, and the newly introduced Focal Point sector, which emphasized solo presentations and lens-based practices that expand the definition of what photography has been and what it may still become. AIPAD, organized in 1979, remains a defining expert voice for fine art photography dealers, and its flagship fair is described as the longest-running exhibition dedicated to the photographic medium in the world."--full article

View the Monroe Gallery exhibit at The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD here.

Observer "In an Age of Image Overload, AIPAD’s The Photography Show Reminds Us What a Photograph Can Do"

This World Press Freedom Day, American journalists are under attack

Via Freedom Of The Press Foundation

For years, World Press Freedom Day on May 3 has helped spotlight global press freedom violations. It’s a day to demand justice for journalists murdered in Gaza and Lebanon, or to celebrate the release of wrongfully detained reporters like Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.

Holding foreign regimes accountable for press freedom is essential. But this year, the U.S. needs to take a hard look in the mirror, too.

Since last year’s World Press Freedom Day, our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of press freedom violations in the United States, the equivalent of more than one per day. Taken together, these incidents are evidence of an unprecedented, coordinated assault on press freedom being led by the highest levels of our government.

From the streets of Minneapolis to the halls of the Pentagon, the Trump administration is dismantling the First Amendment right to gather and report the news.

Criminalizing the messenger

The majority of press freedom incidents cataloged by the Tracker since last May 3 are of journalists being assaulted and arrested while covering protests.

Most reporters arrested at demonstrations have their charges dropped later. But not journalists Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Junn Bollman. They now face bogus charges under federal prosecution for engaging in obviously constitutionally protected reporting while covering a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church in January.

They’re not the only journalists being prosecuted for covering anti-immigration enforcement protests in Minnesota. Photographer John Abernathy — who was pictured tossing his camera to another photographer to protect it, while being surrounded and arrested by federal agents at a different protest in a Minneapolis suburb last January — is also facing federal criminal charges.

Targeting routine reporting

Outside the context of protests, multiple federal agencies are also trying to redefine routine journalism as wrong or illegal.

Perhaps most notoriously, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to ban reporters from the Pentagon unless they signed what amounts to a loyalty pledge promising not to ask sources for information. Even after a court said the ban (and a subsequent rewrite) was unconstitutional, the government continues to fight for the right to exclude reporters who aren’t interested in acting as Pentagon stenographers.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi have tried to chill reporting by accusing journalists of “doxxing” or fomenting violence against federal immigration agents by naming them or photographing them in public. They’ve threatened to prosecute CNN for reporting on an ICE-watching app and coerced app stores into removing that software, a clear violation of the Constitution.

At the FBI, Director Kash Patel launched a retaliatory “stalking” investigation into New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson because Williamson did her job: reaching out to Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Wilkins to ask for a comment on reporting that Patel was using government resources on Wilkins’ behalf. Even the Department of Justice thought that was too much, concluding there was no legal basis for the investigation of Williamson.

But perhaps no government official has done more to target journalism on Trump’s behalf than Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr. By threatening to punish broadcasters for reporting and editing news, and encouraging media mergers meant to benefit the Trump administration, Carr has shown he’s willing to trade the First Amendment (and whatever dignity he has left considering he wears a gilded bust of Trump as a lapel pin) for political points.

Waging war on whistleblowers

The Trump administration is also moving aggressively to shut down journalists’ relationships with their sources.

In January, the FBI raided the home of Washington Post journalist Hannah Natanson, the “federal government whisperer” who’d written about the hundreds of her confidential sources from within the government. When the agency asked a court for the search warrant allowing the raid, the government purposefully omitted any mention of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that prohibits such raids in almost all circumstances.

More recently, the DOJ used the Espionage Act to charge Courtney Williams, a former Army employee who spoke to reporter Seth Harp about sexual harassment and discrimination in the military. Like most Espionage Act cases involving reporters and sources, this case doesn’t seem to be about national security. It’s about hiding government misconduct by retaliating against journalists and sources who expose it.
A pattern of persecution

This is only the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t even gotten into the SLAPP lawsuits, the attacks on immigrant journalists, the threats to jail journalists who refuse to burn sources, the yanking of funding from public media, and so much more.

In other words, the U.S. is rapidly joining the ranks of the world’s worst press freedom offenders.

But it’s not too late to fight back.

Newsrooms can sue over press freedom violations and win. Lawmakers can reform the Espionage Act and Privacy Protection Act, and pass a federal shield law protecting journalists and their sources. Journalists can and should write and speak out about press freedom violations. The public can take action to demand that the Trump administration stop treating the First Amendment like a suggestion.

The United States can’t lead the world in defending press freedom on World Press Freedom Day when it’s actively dismantling it at home. It’s time to stop asking the Trump administration to respect the First Amendment. We need to use the courts, Congress, and the power of the people to force it.

See the exhibition Imagine A World Without Photojournalism

Global press freedom falls to lowest level in 25 years, RSF warns

Via France 24

April 30, 2026

Freedom of the press has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, NGO Reporters without Borders (RSF) warned Thursday as it released its annual global ranking. The group reported a worldwide decline in media freedom, citing factors ranging from US President Donald Trump’s “systematic” attacks on the press to actions in Saudi Arabia, where a journalist was executed in 2025.

The NGO's annual ranking, which was established in 2002, uses a five-point scale to asses the level of press freedom in a country, ranging from "very serious" to "good".

This year's index reveals a global trend towards restricting press freedoms.

"For the first time in the index’s 25-year history, more than half the world’s countries now fall into the 'difficult' or 'very serious' categories for press freedom," RSF said.

The proportion of the population living in a country where the press freedom situation is "good" has plummeted, falling from 20% to "less than 1%", it said.

Only seven countries in northern Europe are ranked "good", with Norway receiving the highest rating. France ranks 25th, with a ‘"satisfactory" score.

“In 25 years, the average score for all the countries studied has never been so low,” the NGO said.

The United States, received a "problematic" rating and has dropped seven places to 64th, between Botswana and Panama.

The organisation said US President Donald Trump's attacks on the press had become “systematic” resulting in such incidents as the detention and subsequent deportation of the Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who was reporting on the arrests of migrants in the United States.

Trump has also overseen a drastic reduction in funding for US international broadcasting.

RSF also highlighted the dramatic falls of El Salvador (143rd), which has dropped 105 places since 2014 following the launch of a war against the Maras criminal gangs, and Georgia(135th), which has fallen 75 places since 2020 due to an “escalation of repression”.

The sharpest decline in 2026 is attributed to Niger (120th, down 37 places) due to the “the deterioration of press freedom in the Sahel over several years”, amid “attacks by armed groups and (the) ruling juntas”, RSF said.

Saudi Arabia (176th, down 14 places), where the columnist Turki al-Jasser was executed by the state in June – “a unique occurrence in the world” – sits alongside Russia, Iran and China at the very bottom of the ranking, which is rounded out by Eritrea (180th).

By contrast, Syria (141st) has leapt 36 places following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In solidarity with Fall Of Freedom, Monroe Gallery is honored to present a preview of the important exhibition "America The Beautiful"

 

In solidarity with Fall Of Freedom, Monroe Gallery is honored to present a preview of the important exhibition "America The Beautiful", May 1 & 2.

On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “America The Beautiful” confronts the idea that “American” is a uniform, monolithic identity at a critical time when our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising, federal civil rights laws have been weakened, and the foundations of the country’s racially inclusive democracy are being challenged.

Opening reception Saturday, May 23, 4-6 pm.

Ryan Vizzions

Faces of Fascism, Minneapolis, January, 2026

Fall Of Freedom is a focused, urgent call to artists and arts institutions across all sectors to make art, music, plays, exhibitions, comedy, and beautiful protests foregrounding artistic labor and aligned with immigrants' rights organizing, to amplify all struggles against repression and state violence.

Due process gutted. Universities threatened and defunded. Students kidnapped. Migrants deported. Troops deployed. Racism rampant. Cruelty celebrated. Political leaders arrested. Citizenship stripped. Health care shredded. Women's rights rescinded. Wealth concentrated. Free speech eliminated. Genocide normalized. Science undermined. Arts assaulted. Journalism targeted. Departments shuttered. Grants rescinded. Trans banned. Lawyers capitulating. Coup makers pardoned. Budgets slashed. Abortion outlawed. Courts stacked. Boards replaced. Police unleashed. Nazis emboldened. Bombs dropped.

This is why we must resist. More here.

Behind the Lens With Ron Haviv

 Via Human Rights Educators USA

Behind the Lens


Go beyond the headlines with our speakers as they share the challenges, risks, and defining moments of documenting ICE and pivotal current events shaping our world today.

Stephanie Heimann – Photo Director at The New Republic, a veteran visual editor specializing in politics, global issues, and the environment.

Ron Haviv – Emmy-nominated filmmaker and award-winning photojournalist, co-founder of VII, whose work on conflict and human rights has shaped global conversations and appeared worldwide.

April 25th, 10am- 11am EDT

Register:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQOuy4AW0qqDa8QZRqV8yIPGoI2QFXYlC5CGH_mdlnpTmCOQ/viewform

Related: Friday, April 24 at 5:30PM Photojournalism: Witness + Vision   

Photographers Giles Clarke, Ron Haviv 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.

In an Age of Image Overload, AIPAD’s The Photography Show Reminds Us What a Photograph Can Do

 Via The Observer

April 23, 2026

Across historic masters, frontline documentarians and experimental voices, the fair builds a compelling case for a medium that keeps expanding without losing what makes it irreplaceable.

Ashley Gilbertson, Monsters on Halloween, 2025. © Ashley Gilbertson

Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

"In the booth of Santa Fe-based Monroe Gallery of Photography, whose mission is to champion precisely those images from the 20th and 21st Centuries that exist at the singular intersection of art and journalism, is a powerful wall ensemble: two photographic portraits by Ron Haviv of figures who have already become emblematic of our troubled era—Mamdani and Zelensky—are paired with recent works capturing, in unfiltered black and white, the silent violence of ICE raids across the country as well as the vital pushback of protests in Minneapolis and beyond. Included are dramatic images by Ashley Gilbertson documenting ICE actions in Chicago; his series Monsters on Halloween captures agents driving through neighborhoods in Niles, Illinois, for hours, stopping and detaining landscapers and construction workers as residents emerge from their homes to film and protest. Mark Peterson documents ICE protests at 26 Federal Plaza in New York, and Ryan Vizzions crystallizes into an image that already feels historical, capturing the memorials following the killing of Renee Good by ICE in Minneapolis. The people portrayed here are shown as vulnerable within broader systems and dynamics, yet resilient in the strength of community.

These are “images that are embedded in our collective consciousness and which form a shared visual heritage for human society,” founder Sid Monroe told Observer, when asked about the significance of photojournalism in an era of manipulated media. Also in the booth is a group of images from Diné (Navajo) photographer Eugene Tapahe’s “Jingle Dress Project,” which aims to bring global attention to Native American issues, including land acknowledgment, women’s rights and, most urgently, the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). A powerful image of fierce Native American sisters standing in the snow against a bright blue sky, dressed in traditional, colorful clothing—resolute and determined as they face the unknown horizons of their culture—is an absolute standout of this edition.

Eugene Tapahe, Togetherness, Sisters, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, Goshute and Timpanogos, 2023 Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

Completing the presentation are vintage photographs, including iconic shots by Tony Vaccaro, ranging from Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari cars to portraits of contemporary masters such as Alexander Calder in his studio. Notably, all works in Monroe’s booth—whether historically significant or iconic—remain relatively accessible, with most priced between $3,500 and $7,500."

Jingle Dress Project Photographer Eugene Tapahe At The Photography Show

 

We are honored to have Eugene Tapahe present in our booth B10 on Thursday, April 23 during The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD.

Tapahe is an artist inspired by his Diné (Navajo) traditions and modern experiences. His art reflects the beauty and resilience of Native American culture. 

A selection of never-before exhibited images from The Jingle Dress Project are featured in our booth.

Monroe Gallery of Photography
Booth B10

Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue

New York, NY

10065

Diné Artists' Photos Will Be Shown at Prestigious Photography Show

 Via Native News Online

April 21, 2016

Eugene Tapahe

Togetherness, Sisters, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, Goshute and Timpanogos, 2023

Diné multi-media artist Eugene Tapahe’s striking homage to the jingle dress will be on display at the Association of International Photography Art Dealers’ (AIPAD) acclaimed exhibition, The Photography Show. The show runs from Wednesday, April 22, to April 26. Tapahe will be on site on Thursday, April 23, to meet patrons.

Photographs from Tapahe’s Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project will be displayed among hundreds of featured collections and works from galleries and photographers around the globe.

The Jingle Dress Project was inspired by a dream Tapahe had during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project aims to bring the healing power of the jingle dress to places Native ancestors once walked.

Tapahe holds an MFA in Studio Art from Brigham Young University and 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).

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

Visit Monroe Gallery of Photography in Booth B10

World Affairs Lecture Series: Unbroken: Solidarity Through the Lens with Professor Nina Berman On April 23

 Via Fashion Institute of Technology

In this virtual World Affairs Lecture, Columbia University Professor Nina Berman will be in conversation with Dr. Souzeina Mushtaq, assistant professor of Communication and Media Studies at University of Wisconsin–River Falls, on the topic of “Unbroken: Solidarity Through the Lens.”

Lifelong New Yorker and photojournalist Nina Berman draws on decades of documenting the city’s defining upheavals. From the depths of the AIDS crisis to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the surge of COVID-19 and waves of protest, to illuminate the moments of collective care that rise amid crises. With a curated selection of photographs, she reflects on how New Yorkers forge bonds of compassion and mutual support even as neighborhoods transform. Berman weaves personal recollection with powerful imagery to reveal that resilience and community are as fundamental to New York’s identity as its skyline. Her work has been exhibited at more than 100 international venues from the Whitney Museum Biennial to the concrete security walls at the Za’atari refugee camp. Public collections include the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of the City of New York, the Harvard Art Museums and the Bibliothèque nationale de France among others. Berman is the recipient of a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Department of Social Sciences’ World Affairs Lecture Series fulfills FIT’s mission to foster an understanding of diverse cultures and politics within the international as well as domestic perspectives. It also embraces, supports, and expands upon the president’s campuswide initiative on civility. Find an archive of previous lectures online.

Join using this webinar link:
https://fitnyc.webex.com/fitnyc/j.php?MTID=mc120037050d78d810efa3827321be861

Webinar number: 2864 358 2945
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Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story at the Taos Film Festival April 24 & 26

 

Via Taos Film Festival

PHOTOGRAPHIC JUSTICE: THE CORKY LEE STORY is coming to Taos! All is Well Pictures LLC announces their screening at the Taos Film Festival in Taos, NM.

The award winning documentary on legendary photographer CORKY LEE coming April 24 and 26. “Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story” premiered at DOC NYC and has screened in festivals from Hong Kong to Hawaii. It is director Jennifer Takaki’s first film; the team also includes editor Linda Hattendorf, who is a resident of Taos and a board member of the Taos County Historical Society.

"It's not important that people remember me. It's more important that they remember my photos."
- Corky Lee

A fierce advocate for inclusion of the Asian American Pacific Islander community in the national discourse, Corky Lee consistently challenged stereotypes and discrimination with his camera. He documented AAPI activism in the United States long before the Asian American Movement was acknowledged by the press.

Lee's images have played a key role in highlighting the many struggles and contributions of Asian American Pacific Islanders in modern American history, and in advocating for positive change and advancement of this often-overlooked community.

The film weaves together rare verite footage of Corky's daily life in New York; interviews with Corky and noted historians, authors, actors, and activists in his circle; archival footage; illustrations; and most importantly a rich trove of Corky's stunning photographs spanning 50 years.

Friday’s 7:30pm screening at the Harwood Museum will be followed by a Q&A with Director Jennifer Takaki and Editor Linda Hattendorf.

Passes and tickets here

 Via The Stranger

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Seattle-based photographer Nate Gowdy went to Minneapolis twice this year, to document the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge and photographed the civilian efforts to protect their communities from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. “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,” he wrote. “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.” Read more at The Stranger.

Video Produced by Dave Quantic. Assistant Editor Danielle Driehaus.

All images courtesy of Nate Gowdy

"Caught in the Crackdown" Tuesday, April 14 on PBS and Online

 Via PBS/Frontline

April 11, 2026

FRONTLINE and ProPublica trace the violence, protests and arrests stemming from federal immigration sweeps across the United States. The documentary examines the tactics, legal cases and impact — from Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis.

Premieres Tuesday, April 14 on PBS and online.

FRONTLINE is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.

Stream Here on PBS.org

Check Your Local Listings for Broadcast Schedules 

Gabriela Campos Photographs Albuquerque Lowriders For National Geographic

 Via National Geographic

April 9, 2026

A once-banned Mexican American tradition is making a comeback

Lowriding had been outlawed across the U.S. Now, it’s making a comeback — and nowhere more fashionably than in Albuquerque, thanks to a passionate group of locals.

The 1961 Chevrolet Impala leaps skyward with a bounce, chrome flashing in the New Mexico sun. At the wheel, Angelica Griego presses a switch on the dash and again sends the car bunny-hopping, leaping a couple of feet clear off the ground. Her window is down, two-inch hot pink nails resting casually on the doorframe, strands of cherry-red tinsel glinting in her hair. In the back seat, I grip the plush leather and do my best to look unfazed.

“Nice car!” hollers a man from across the street, followed by a long, appreciative whistle. Behind oversized sunglasses, Angelica remains cool as a cucumber, the honeyed tones of 1960s crooner Brenton Wood drifting through her speakers. We’ve been cruising through the heart of Albuquerque along Central Avenue, home to the longest urban stretch of Route 66, for barely 10 minutes and already he’s the third such vocal admirer. Others snap photos, eager to capture a fleeting glimpse of pure Americana rolling past.

I’ve come to the state’s largest city to delve into the world of lowriding, a tradition of driving low-slung cars, often intricately customised and lavished in symbolism, that’s part of Mexican American culture. It first emerged in the 1940s in the South West, among communities who faced social marginalisation and drew on the bright colours and intricate designs of traditional Mexican aesthetics. In New Mexico, where nearly half the population identifies as of Mexican descent — the highest percentage of Hispanic residents in the US — it became as much a state symbol as green chilli. --continue to full article

Monroe Gallery At The 45th Edition Of The Photography Show Presented By AIPAD

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to exhibit at the 45th edition of The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, returning to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City April 22 - 26, 2026.

Monroe Gallery will be located in booth B10, and are proud to present a distinctly curated exhibit, with a central focus on Diné (Navajo) photographer Eugene Tapahe’s “Jingle Dress Project”. “The Jingle Dress Project” brings global attention to Native American issues of land, water rights, women's issues, and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Another feature of the exhibit will be a selection of important contemporary photojournalism with a focus on American politics and the recent ICE enforcement crisis of militarization on communities.

The final highlight exhibit will be a special selection of Tony Vaccaro's iconic photographs of Art, Style, and Fashion.

Preview the exhibition here.

Tickets available here.

Show information:

April 22 - 26, 2026

Thursday, April 23

12:00pm – 8:00pm Public Hours

5:00pm – 8:00pm Collector Cultivation Evening

Friday, April 24

12:00pm – 7:00pm Public Hours

5:00pm – 7:00pm Night of Photography, presented with ICP

Saturday, April 25

12:00 pm – 7:00pm Public Hours

Sunday, April  26

11:00am – 5:00pm

Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10065

Eugene Tapahe

Togetherness, Sisters, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, Goshute and Timpanogos, 2023

Ryan Vizzions

Faces of Fascism, Minneapolis, January, 2026

Tony Vaccaro

Givenchy by the Pool, South of Paris, France, 196

 

Iconic photo ‘The Soiling of Old Glory’ still makes an impact 50 years later; will be featured in "America The Beautiful" exhibit

Via WGBH

By Diane Adame

April 3, 2026

This April 5, 1976 photo of a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, assaulting a Black man, lawyer and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark, with a flagpole won the Pulitzer Prize for spot photography. The photo was taken during a protest against court-ordered desegregation busing.

Stanley Forman (used with permission)

It has been 50 years since the Pulitzer-Prize winning photo “The Soiling of Old Glory” was taken as a busing desegregation protest erupted throughout City Hall Plaza in Boston.

The photo, which was taken on April 5, 1976, shows a young white man gripping an American flag and aiming it at a young Black man during the protest. The image drew national attention for how it vividly captured racial unrest during the busing crisis in the 1970s.

“The photograph has had significant impact over the decades because it was taken during a bicentennial year where the country was celebrating a number of democratic principles which in fact were being contradicted by what the photo depicts,” said Theodore “Ted” Landsmark, the Black man captured in the photograph.

Stanley Forman, the newspaper photographer who took the photo for the Boston Herald American, still remembers that day.

“It was a Monday… I asked the editor, Alvin Saley, what was going on. He told me there was a demonstration — we went to demonstrations every day — it was an anti-busing demonstration at City Hall,” he said. “I asked if I could go to it, and he said, ‘Sure.’”

The protest was one of many happening in Boston at the time ever since the city began busing students outside of their neighborhoods in 1974 in an effort, mandated by the courts, to desegregate schools.

Forman said he was switching his camera lens when he saw a group of white student protesters walking through the plaza.

“I saw a couple of Black men taking the turn, coming up from Court Street to come onto the plaza, and they were attacked,” he said.

“Ted got the worst of it,” he said. “ They threw things at them, they kicked them, knocked them down and in the end, Joseph Rakes, who was holding the flagpole, whacked him in the nose.”

Landsmark said he was on my way to a meeting in Boston City Hall to discuss affirmative action efforts to bring more employment to people of color in the city.

“I thought that if I simply continued to walk straight, I’d be able to get into City Hall without really encountering the front edge of the demonstrators,” he told GBH in an interview remembering the incident. “But a number of the students walked by me and then several circled back, yelling racial epithets at me.”

Michael Curry, a member of the NAACP national board of directors and head of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, said the photo continues to have an impact because it didn’t happen that long ago.

“It made it even more clear for a generation of us that Boston was a tale of two cities, one where people came for opportunity if you were Irish, Italian, Polish, and Jewish,” Curry said, “And another city that had also resisted black political, economic and educational progress in the city.”

Landsmark said he never anticipated that the photo would still be a topic of discussion all these years later.

“Many of the issues that were raised by that photo remain a salient issue, and — unfortunately — unresolved today,” he said. “My hope would be that looking back at it a half century later, we would reflect on the amount of work that remains to be done in order to achieve racial equality in the United States in this year.”

Forman said the photo often gets compared to more recent pictures racial tensions in the U.S.

“The picture gets resurrected every few years because of something happening in this country,” said Forman. “Thankfully, it hasn’t been outdone yet, but nothing lasts forever. Although this picture I think will last the test of time.”

"The Soiling of Old Glory" will be featured in "America The Beautiful", an exhibition of compelling and provocative photographs illustrating America, American life, and the American people as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday amid the erosion of civil rights, human rights, and democratic norms May 23 - April 9, 2026 at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

She Shot Factories, Dictators and History – Up Close

Via The Story Exchange

March 31, 2026

By Victoria Flexner

The groundbreaking photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White grabbed her camera and headed to the frontlines.

Editors Note: In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re sharing profiles of influential women in journalism.

Margaret Bourke-White is arguably one of the most influential photojournalists of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, she photographed factories and skyscrapers, world wars, poverty in the American South and political violence across the globe. She famously photographed Mahatma Ghandi hours before he was assassinated, and captured a rare smiling image of Joseph Stalin. Along the way, she blazed trails for women in the media, becoming the first female photographer for LIFE Magazine, the first Western photographer allowed in the Soviet Union and one of the first journalists to document the Nazi concentration camps in 1945.

Born in 1904 in New York City, Bourke-White studied at several universities, including Cornell, where she began serious experiments with photography. She discovered that the camera could translate her fascination with machines, structures, and patterns into striking visual images (many of which are now owned by the Museum of Modern Art).

In the late 1920s, Bourke-White opened a studio in Cleveland, Ohio, and began specializing in industrial subjects, such as the Otis Steel mill. Undaunted by the difficulties of photographing in physically challenging conditions, where molten heat could literally melt her film, she documented steel production and American factories. She quickly attracted national attention and corporate clients.

The publisher Henry Luce hired Bourke-White in 1929 as the first staff photographer for his new business magazine Fortune. There, Bourke-White produced ambitious photographic essays on American industry, architecture and economic life. While her work demonstrated the immense power of American industry, Bourke-White also chose to expose the human cost of technical advancement – particularly in the American South.

In the mid-1930s, she worked with novelist Erskine Caldwell (whom she would later marry and divorce) to document the lives of poor sharecroppers and rural families in the Dust Bowl. The resulting photos became the book, You Have Seen Their Faces, which was published in 1937. Portraits of stoic subjects, and landscapes of desolate farms and makeshift homes, drew attention to the profound inequalities of the era. Historians note that her use of the photographic essay—sequenced images that built a narrative—became a hallmark of her style and a model for later documentary work in film and journalism.

By 1936, Luce was getting ready to launch his next venture, LIFE Magazine, which would be centered around visual storytelling. Bourke-White became the magazine’s first female photojournalist, and her image of Fort Peck Dam in Montana graced LIFE’s inaugural cover. Bourke-White worked for LIFE until the late 1950s, becoming one of the magazine’s defining visual voices. 

Early on at LIFE, Bourke-White was assigned to photograph industrialization in the Soviet Union, a project that would see her make a number of trips behind the Iron Curtain at a time when access to Russia was extremely guarded. Bourke-White somehow managed to obtain official permission to travel through the country’s factories and construction sites, producing images of steel mills, the construction of the Dnieper Dam, but also snapshots of everyday life, like peasant women eating Borscht. Her most notable visit came in 1941 at the beginning of World War II, when Moscow came under Nazi attack – Bourke-White was there covering the invasion. It was during this visit to the Soviet Union that she photographed Stalin himself. 

According to The New York Times, Bourke-White wrote of that meeting, 

“I made up my mind that I wouldn’t leave without getting a picture of Stalin smiling…I went virtually berserk trying to make that great stone face come alive…I got down on my hands and knees on the floor and tried out all kinds of crazy postures searching for a good camera angle. Stalin looked down at the way I was squirming and writhing and for the space of a lightning flash he smiled—and I got my picture. Probably, he had never seen a girl photographer before and my weird contortions amused him.”

During World War II, Bourke-White’s career entered a new, perilous phase, as she became the first American female war photojournalist. She covered the siege of Moscow, flew on bombing missions over North Africa, and later accompanied General George Patton’s Third Army into Germany. She survived torpedo attacks at sea, enemy fire, and a helicopter crash, earning the nickname “Maggie the Indestructible” from her colleagues at LIFE. Her photographs of the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp—gaunt survivors, piles of corpses, the stark infrastructure of genocide—were among the first images to confront the American public with the full horror of Nazi atrocities.

In the late 1940s, Bourke-White’s attention turned toward the upheavals of decolonization and racial injustice. She covered the 1947 Partition of British India into the new nations of India and Pakistan, producing graphic images of mass migration and communal violence. She also photographed Gandhi by his spinning wheel only hours before his assassination in 1948. Shortly afterward, she reported from South Africa, documenting the early years of apartheid. She later covered the Korean War for LIFE.

In the 1950s, Bourke-White’s output slowed as she began to suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Even as her health declined, her work continued to circulate widely in books, exhibitions, and magazine retrospectives, cementing her reputation. She died in 1971 at the age of 67. 

Today, historians credit Bourke-White with helping invent the modern photographic essay. Her photos are not just works of art, but important artifacts in their own right. By capturing war, conflict and modernization from the front lines, Bourke-White created some of the most valuable visual documentation of the 20th century.   Full article here

Margaret Bourke-White: Photojournalist is on exhibit through April 26, 2026