Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Tracy Barbutes Photographs Yosemite Protest Rally For The SF Standard

Via The San Francisco Standard
August 25, 2025

color photograph of people signing the same trans pride flag that fired Park Ranger Joslin and others helped hang on El Cap earlier this year

At the rally on Sunday, people sign the same trans pride flag that Joslin and others helped hang on El Cap earlier this year. | Source:Tracy Barbutes for The Standard


Protesters rally in Yosemite for ranger fired over hanging trans pride flag
The Yosemite community has been reeling since Shannon "SJ" Joslin’s firing. --Click to read full article

"...then an upside-down U.S. flag in February to protest the NPS budget cuts. None of the people who hung those flags faced consequences. That upside-down flag garnered international attention and showed the power of El Capitan as a symbol"


An upside-down American flag hangs from El Capitan near Yosemite National Park’s Horsetail Falls to protest the thousands of federal job cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration, February 22, 2025
©Tracy Barbutes


Monday, August 25, 2025

Remembering Hurricane 20 Years Later: Photographs By Stephen Wilkes


a tv is seen partially embeed in the sane on a beach after Hurrican Katrina, Mississippi


Katrina formed on August 23, 2005. It entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane before weakening to a Category 3 at its landfall on August 29 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.

Katrina was one of the most devastating hurricanes in the history of the United States. It is the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States since the Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee hurricane of September 1928. It produced catastrophic damage - estimated at $75 billion in the New Orleans area and along the Mississippi coast - and is the costliest U. S. hurricane on record. Stephen Wilkes photographed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Have we forgotten Katrina's lessons?


View the exhibition online here.

Thursday, August 21, 2025

The Alabaster Grave: Book Signing and Artist Talk With Cengiz Yar August 23

Graphic text announcing The Alabaster Grave: Book Signing and Artist Talk With Cengiz Yar August 23

 We are delighted to welcome Cengiz Yar for a book signing and talk this Saturday, August 23 at 5 PM - free!

This Alabaster Grave is Cengiz Yar’s first monograph exploring the overwhelming destruction and pain faced by the Iraqi city of Mosul, within the context of its history and unique, now largely ruined, architecture. The book questions the cost of the fight against ISIS and global war on terror as told through the lives and city that bore the brunt of its destructive force.

Cengiz is a documentary photographer and editor based in El Paso, Texas who has worked in visual journalism for over a decade, from reporting in the field to building groundbreaking online packages. He is currently a visuals editor at ProPublica, where he edits, photographs, and art-directs stories across the site.



open book with two photographs from The Alabaster Grave book


Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Tracy Barbutes' Transgender Pride Flag Photograph Leads NY Times Article

 Via The New York Times

August 18, 2025


color photograph of a transgender pride play draped in front of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in May, 2025

A transgender pride flag was unfurled by Shannon Joslin and other demonstrators on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif., in May.Credit...Tracy Barbutes, via Reuters

Yosemite Biologist Who Hung Trans Pride Flag From El Capitan Is Fired

The National Park Service terminated Shannon Joslin over the May 20 demonstration, which it said took place in a prohibited area and lacked the required permits. -Click for full article




On February 22, 2025 – almost exactly 80 years to the day after Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima Photograph - Tracy Barbutes photographed an inverted American flag — historically used as a sign of distress — off the side of El Capitan, a towering rock formation in Yosemite National Park, hung to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Park Service.


color photograph of giant American flag hung upside down in protest at El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in February, 2025




Monday, August 18, 2025

A Period in Time by Ed Kashi: A Legacy of Photography Shaping How We See the World

 Via Photography Zilla

August 16, 2025

screenshot of Ed Kashi "A Period in time" book cover with black and white photograph of person jumping over  a bonfire


"A Period in Time by Ed Kashi” arrives less as a conventional retrospective and more as a living dossier: over 200 photographs spanning 1977–2022, paired with essays and field dispatches that place the photographer’s eye directly within history. Published by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the book consolidates a career-long commitment to bearing witness — a clear reminder that archives and books can do more than preserve images; they can teach, provoke, and inspire future photo storytellers.

Click for full article


Save the Date: October 3, 2025 Ed Kashi A Period in Time Gallery talk and book signing 5-7 pm at Monroe Gallery of Photography. Exhibit continues through November 16, 2025. 

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Art Heals

 Via The Santa Fe New Mexican

August 17, 2025

"...that’s exactly why I documented the project: the educational purpose behind it is important. It needs to be shared; it’s healing for everyone."  Eugene Tapahe


screenshot of cover of Pasatiempo magazine with photograph showing 3 Native American women in bright Jingle Dresses and red face masks standing in the Salt Flats with blue sky behind them

"Art heals.

There it is. You can quit reading.

Instead, find Carolyn’s column on Page 7 of our hefty, glossy-covered 92-page Pasa magazine that came out Friday — the one with Native photographer Eugene Tapahe’s (DinĂ©) stunning visual on the cover, courtesy of the Monroe Gallery of Photography." 

--Bill Church is executive editor at The Santa Fe New Mexican.


Read the Pasatiempo Magazine article here.

Friday, August 15, 2025

Eugene Tapahe: Standing On Ceremony

Via Pasatiempo

By Brian Sanford

August 15, 2025


cover of Pasatiempo magazine with Eugene Tapahe photography of 3 Native American women in bright Jingle Dresses standing in Utah salt flats

 


When Eugene Tapahe (Diné) photographed his daughters and two of their friends posing while wearing Ojibwe jingle dresses at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the purpose was to provide healing during a tumultuous time, not to create art.

It was June 2020, and the world was reeling from the new realities of the pandemic’s social distancing, widespread masking, and living with the pre-vaccine terror that a friendly interpersonal encounter could be deadly. An aunt of Tapahe’s died from COVID-19; amid that emotional trauma, he dreamed he was sitting in a grass field at Yellowstone National Park, gazing at a herd of bison on the horizon. He detected a distinctive sound, then realized it was coming from jingle dress dancers who’d begun dancing with the bison. A sensation rose within Tapahe that most people don’t associate with 2020: hope.

The healing Ojibwe jingle dress dance is thought to have originated during the 1918 influenza pandemic, so its powers resonated especially strong during a remarkably similar calamity about a century later. What began with a 150-mile drive from the Tapahe family’s Provo, Utah, home to the salt flats grew into a nationwide healing journey to national parks and even New York City. Some of the results of that ongoing voyage are featured in Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project, an exhibition at Monroe Gallery of Photography coinciding with Santa Fe Indian Market, where Tapahe is also bringing his work.

Tapahe traveled with his wife, Sharon; twentysomething daughters Erin and Dion; and the daughters’ friends Sunni and JoAnni Begay. The latter four posed in the vibrantly colored dresses while wearing matching red face masks, their arms raised in unity, at Monument Valley for Solidarity, Sisterhood; on a rock with their backs to the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon coast in Warrior Women; and at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for Forever Enshrined. Some of the images are black-and-white, while others feature only three of the women.


color photograph of 4 Native American women wrapped in colorful blankets standing on fallen tree trunk on La Push beash in Washinton
Strength and Dignity, La Push Beach, La Push, Washington,

Tapahe, a native of Window Rock, Arizona, who holds a Master of Fine Art degree in studio art from Brigham Young University in Provo, recently chatted with Pasatiempo about the spookiness of traversing what amounted to a ghost nation in 2020, combating cultural ignorance, and the pandemic’s effects on both his psyche and his bottom line. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Do you always have such vivid, memorable dreams?

Many artists do sketches or preliminary work, but I conceptualize a lot of my works before I start doing art. I think it was a unique situation in that, even when I woke from the dream, it was still resonating with me. It really touched me and affected me to the point where I gave it life by sharing it with my wife and my daughters. The idea [at first] wasn’t to take it to the world; I just wanted to do one dance in a sacred place, to make the dream true.

But when we went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats — which is close to us — and the girls danced, that changed our whole perspective. We were the only people on the land, and there wasn’t a dry eye the whole time. The girls said they knew they weren’t dancing alone; they could feel the spirits of the ancestors of that land dancing with them spiritually. When the dance was over, Dion said, “Dad, we’ve got to take this to the land. We can’t just do it one time.” I said, “In my dream, I was at Yellowstone National Park, so let’s go to national and state parks.” Because those lands were colonized first — taken from the Native people — if we heal those lands and ancestors, they will come and help us heal during COVID.

You mention healing, and people suffered in numerous ways during the pandemic. How were you affected?

My family and I couldn’t go home to help our people and family, so it was difficult to see from afar the pain and death. Because of this, we felt it was important to go on this healing journey so that we could bring healing and unity through art.

Had you already visited all of the places featured in Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project?

At some points, it was the first time we’d ever been there. In many places, it was really tough because we didn’t spend weeks there; I knew as a landscape photographer that early mornings and late evenings were the best times to take photos and for the girls to perform the jingle dress dance, since the natural light would be better. During the days, we traveled and the girls did their homework, because at the time everything was online.

This project began in 2020; what years does it cover?

It started in June 2020 and continues to this day. We are being invited to universities and colleges to speak and serve on panels. This has given us a great platform to [bring attention to] not just the project, but also to address Native issues, such as missing and murdered Indigenous women, Native rights, Native lands, and land acknowledgement.


black and white photograph of 3 Native American women in Jingle Dresses with right fists raised in front of the Lincoln Memorial
Photographer Eugene Tapahe’s ongoing Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project at Monroe Gallery features images taken of his daughters and their friends at state and national parks during the pandemic. The images include Forever Enshrined, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC (2021, above). 
Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

How did Sunni and JoAnni get involved?

They’re good friends with Erin and Dion. We’re all Navajo, and during COVID, the Navajo Nation shut down and closed their borders, so we couldn’t go home to help or be with our family members. They were already in quarantine here in Utah with our family, and that’s how we managed to do what we did.

The world had largely shut down.

We kept to ourselves; all restaurant dining areas were closed, so we either packed our own food or ordered takeout. We only entered public spaces to get gas and use the restrooms, but we remained very cautious because none of us wanted to get sick. At that time, there were no vaccinations available. When we visited Yosemite National Park, the six of us and two rangers were the only people there. It was a deeply spiritual moment — yet also surreal and eerie. It was late June, and the rangers told us that normally, they wouldn’t have any available camping spots, and the park would usually be filled with thousands of visitors.

How did you get into the park?

At Yosemite National Park, the rangers happened to be Natives [Miwok] from that land, and they already knew who we were. So, when we reached the guard gate, they understood that our purpose was spiritual and healing, and they allowed us to enter. The girls danced at the Indian village, and afterward, the rangers wanted to give them a gift. They shared their popsicles, which were so refreshing on that hot day in June.

Did you have issues accessing other locations?

The only place we thought we might have trouble was Yosemite National Park, because there are only a couple of entrances, but we were fortunate that the rangers there knew what we were doing and understood our purpose. Most of the other parks didn’t have anyone at the entrances because of COVID.

One of your images features the since-closed Nicholas Galanin exhibition Never Forget, consisting of 45-foot letters spelling out “Indian Land” in Palm Springs, California, which was featured in Galanin’s SITE Santa Fe exhibition Interference Patterns. Did Galanin (Tlingit-Unangax) know about your visit?

The organization, Desert X, has a biennial art installation in Palm Springs. We wanted to go there to dance and do a photo session. I reached out to them to let them know we would be coming. They responded on the day of our trip and said they were working on getting Nicholas to fly out the next day to meet us. They also managed to get Congressman Raul Ruiz from Palm Springs to come, and we had an impromptu get-together with Galanin. The ceremony opened with a local Native community performance featuring a traditional Cahuilla bird song by John Preckwinkle III. It was a spiritual moment.

How much do the dresses weigh?

Between 8 and 12 pounds.

color photograph of 4 Native American women in brightly colored Jingle Dresses standing on rock outcropping with Monument Vallery in background

Nizhoni (Beautiful), Monument Valley, Arizona, 20200


You encountered ignorance about Native people during your travels. That likely wouldn’t happen in New Mexico; where did it occur?

Mostly in urban areas; it occurred a few times on the East Coast. When we talked at universities, some people said, “I didn’t know that Native Americans still existed,” or, “Do you still live in teepees?” That’s still out there. It’s still common.

That sounds infuriating. How did you respond?

Our project is both healing and educational. When I was younger, I would have gotten angry, but now I realize they’re not saying it out of racism. Especially on the East Coast, that’s all they learned. In high school, the textbooks focused on Plains Indians, and they learned that Native Americans all lived in teepees, rode horses, lost battles, and were eventually wiped out.

It sounds like this show would be even more educational if it were featured in other areas of the U.S. Do you know if it will become a traveling exhibition?

I really don’t, but that’s exactly why I documented the project: the educational purpose behind it is important. It needs to be shared; it’s healing for everyone.

What are you showing at Indian Market this year?

A few images from [Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project] will be in my booth, as well as landscapes and a lot of wildlife photography.

You’ve mentioned that the number 4 is considered sacred in Navajo culture. How did it manifest in this project?

We have four girls who represent the four worlds; in Navajo culture, we believe we’re in the fourth world. In the Four Worlds photo, there are four peaks on the Teton National Park mountains. During our photo session, the girls were facing me, and my daughter Dion set up the shot and poses. It turned out that they were almost in the same spots as the peaks on the mountains behind them. When we were ready to start printing the photos, that’s when we all saw it. It’s incredible how this project brought so much healing to us and to those who can see the images now. Art truly heals. 



details

The Jingle Dress Project

Through September 14

Monroe Gallery of Photography

112 Don Gaspar Avenue

505-992-0800; monroegallery.com

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Independent photojournalist Nate Gowdy was assaulted and detained by police while documenting a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on August 8, 2025.

 Via Press Freedom Tracker

August 13, 2025




Independent photojournalist Nate Gowdy was assaulted and detained by police while documenting a protest against immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles, California, on August 8, 2025.

Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. Raids at Home Depots in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a July 11 court order temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.

On Aug. 8, two days after an immigration raid in the parking lot of a Home Depot in LA’s Westlake neighborhood, protesters gathered at the store and marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown. The demonstrators and the journalists covering them encountered a violent response from Los Angeles Police Department officers, violating a court order protecting the press from arrest, assault or other interference.

Gowdy, who was visiting from Seattle, Washington, said he had been photographing the Aug. 8 protest with his partner, fellow journalist Carrie Schreck. The two began documenting the demonstration as protesters started to march. The protest remained peaceful, Gowdy said, until the LAPD arrived.

“They basically lined up and without any provocation, in order to move people, started just swinging their batons indiscriminately,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Gowdy watched as one journalist, Nick Stern, waving his press badge to officers, was struck in the face with a police baton. Gowdy himself was thrown to the ground by several officers, scraping his elbow and damaging the metal connectors on the strap holding his spare camera lenses.

“They were so aggressive and wild-eyed and violent,” he said of the LAPD.

After police declared the protest an unlawful assembly, officers pushed demonstrators farther from the detention center. Gowdy and Schreck had stopped photographing and were leaving the area when they were suddenly kettled, or herded by police, along with a handful of journalists and demonstrators, just three blocks from Schreck’s apartment.

Some had press credentials, but Gowdy said officers ignored them.

“They said they didn’t care, and that everyone should have to line up against the wall,” Gowdy recalled.

The journalists’ hands were placed in zip-tie restraints. While some were released, Gowdy and Schreck remained detained for not having physical press badges. Despite carrying camera gear and being vouched for by their colleagues, the officers questioned their legitimacy and denied their requests to speak with a public information officer.

Gowdy offered to show digital credentials and suggested a quick online search to verify his work with major news outlets, but was told he’d be cited for failure to disperse. He and Schreck were taken to a nearby police station and eventually released after more than two hours in custody.

Gowdy said such traumatic encounters can discourage journalists from covering protests.

“In this case, the law was on our side,” he said. “But they didn’t seem to know the law, or they willfully disregarded it in order to intimidate and harass us.”

Gowdy said he doesn’t wear a press badge when he covers protests in Seattle, after it made him a police target. Covering the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, he saw how press credentials can also attract threats from demonstrators. Still, he said this incident convinced him to carry one just in case.

The LAPD did not respond to a Tracker request for comment about the detained journalists. In a statement posted to the social platform X, the department’s Central Division wrote that an unlawful assembly was declared “due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.”

“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse,” it continued. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”


The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to tips@pressfreedomtracker.us.

Monday, August 11, 2025

“If journalists are not willing to report on the ongoing attacks against the free press, who will?”

 Via Freedom Of The Press Foundation

August 11, 2025


A ‘massive failure’ in Kansas: Two years since the Marion County Record raid

The police raid of the Marion County Record’s newsroom on Aug. 11, 2023, shocked the country but proved to be just one of a series of alarming attacks on local journalism that year. It was also a preview of how lawless and incompetent governments can use strained constructions of the law as pretext to retaliate against journalists they dislike, as we now see not only in small-town America but at the federal level. As the death of Record co-owner Joan Meyer the next day tragically proved, by the time justice takes its course — if it ever does — the damage has often already been done.


We asked investigative journalist Jessica McMaster to reflect on her award-winning coverage of the raid for KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. The interview is below. You can also read about or watch our discussion with Record publisher Eric Meyer earlier this year. --full article here

Friday, August 8, 2025

Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project, an exhibition coinciding with Santa Fe Indian Market

 Via Pasatiempo

August 8, 2025

Four Native American women in brightly colored Jingle Dresses stand in tall greet grass with snow-capped Teton mountains in background

Dress Dream

The inspiration for Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project, an exhibition coinciding with Santa Fe Indian Market that’s showing at Monroe Gallery of Photography, can be traced to a dream that artist Eugene Tapahe (DinĂ©) experienced during the pandemic.

The dream featured the Ojibwe jingle dress dance, an Indigenous dance with roots in healing and spiritual practices — which resonated with Tapahe during a time of widespread illness and social upheaval. Tapahe since has traveled thousands of miles photographing or taking videos of family members and friends performing the dance, documenting a striking combination of brightly colored dance garb and sweeping natural backdrops at national parks and monuments.

A reception is 5-7 p.m. Thursday, August 14, and at 5:30 p.m. Tapahe will discuss the work and preview a documentary he’s developing. Originally from Window Rock, Arizona, he has won awards including best of show in 2018 at the Cherokee Indian Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma. — B.S.


Note: Tapahe talk will be available on Zoom, register here.

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

September 4 On Refractions: A Conversation with Sidney Monroe and Michelle Monroe

 Via B & H Photo


SAVE THE DATE

Thursday Sep 4, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm ET

Speakers: Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe - Stephen Mallon

Event Type: Photography


On this episode of Refractions, Stephen is joined by Monroe Gallery of Photography owners, Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe.

Where to watch/listen

Refractions are live videocasts hosted by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Stephen Mallon. Conversations will be with a select group of guests discussing creativity, imagery, business, fine art, and light! Curators discuss working with new and established artists. Photographers talking about their careers. Festival directors sharing what challenges face them. Directors will talk about all aspects of filmmaking. Photo editors will discuss the changing world of editorial and what they need from today’s assignment shooters. The mostly one-on-one conversations will have a diverse group of image makers and the people that work with them.


Monday, August 4, 2025

Andrew Harper: "Art in Santa Fe - a few favorite discoveries from my last trip"

 Via Andrew Harper

"The idea I had for this newsletter back in 1979 – to share information about peaceful and unspoiled sanctuaries with a limited and compatible group of sophisticated travelers – remains at the core of its identity today. There is no concealing my disdain for crowds, noise, rudeness, fast food, packaged destinations, characterless hotels and copycat resorts.”

August, 2025


graphic title page for article about art in Santa Fe with a color photograph of a statues of a Native American woman in a field of yellow flowers


While Santa Fe may not be the site of the country’s first art colony (that’s in New York) or the third-largest art market (highly disputed), a fact-challenged tour guide we overheard was right about one thing: The city has a long and rich history as an artist community. Synonymous with Georgia O’Keeffe, Santa Fe became an art-world darling in the 1980s and ’90s, helped along by artist transplants like Judy Chicago, Bruce Nauman and Susan Rothenberg. Visitors today can browse exhibitions in nine museums and more than 250 galleries. These are a few favorite discoveries from my last trip.


Monroe Gallery of Photography


color photograph of four Native American women wrapped in colorful blankets standing in snow with Teton mountains in background, Wyoming
“Ancestral Strength, Teton National Park, Wyoming, Cayuse, Umatilla, Newe Sogobia and TsĂ©stho’e, 2023,” by Eugene Tapahe

Specializing in 20th- and 21st-century photography, this downtown gallery showcases images “embedded in our collective consciousness,” and a visit is eye-opening and deeply moving. The owners, a husband-and-wife team with deep knowledge of the medium, have personal relationships with world-renowned photojournalists. Their gallery documents the highs and lows of our shared history through powerful snapshots in time. In a single visit, you might see how Tony Vaccaro captured the brutality of the battlefield and the beauty of fashion, how Charles Moore and Grey Villet snapped unsettling scenes from the Civil Rights Movement, and other notable photographers caught intimate moments with celebrities, athletes and heads of state. Taken together, the collection provides a chance to reflect on where we’ve been and where we may be going. Co-owner Sidney Monroe indicated that emotional reactions are commonplace here: “It is as it should be,” he deadpanned.

112 Don Gaspar Avenue. Tel. (505) 992-0800

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Save The Date: August 14, Eugene Tapahe Artist Talk During Indian Market Weekend In Santa Fe

 



 Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a special event during the renowned Santa Fe Indian Market weekend, the world’s largest and most prestigious Indigenous art market in the world, now in its 103rd year.

An Evening with the Artist Eugene Tapahe.

Diné (Navajo) artist Eugene Tapahe will present an artist talk and preview the in-development documentary film Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project on Thursday, August 14 at 5:30. The important exhibition featuring a photography series by artist Eugene Tapahe titled Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project is on view through September 14, 2025.

Please contact the Gallery for further information.


Read In The Eye of Photography Monroe Gallery of Photography Eugene Tapahe : Art Heals, The Jingle Dress Project

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Santa Fe: The Southwest City That Turned Itself Into an Essential Art Outpost

Via The New York Times

July 28, 2025


At Site Santa Fe, 71 artists were inspired by Southwestern figures, from healers and novelists to Navajo code talkers. Here’s a guide to the highlights.

Santa Fe is a place that can literally leave you breathless.

Reeling from a long flight and unacclimated to the altitude, I thought about this as I staggered up the 9,125-foot summit of Atalaya Mountain, with skittering lizards, wildflowers and 360-degree views of the city and its majestic environs.

I was steeling myself for the marathon of Site Santa Fe’s “Once Within a Time,” a citywide exhibition of work by 71 regional, national and international artists that turned out to be revelatory even for those of us with red chile in our veins, who have visited this city for decades.

Site Santa Fe opened in 1995 in a former warehouse turned nonprofit gallery in the city’s art-filled Railyard District, but it stretches to museums and unconventional venues nearby, including a much-beloved novelty store and a boutique-y cannabis dispensary. The cast and locales were chosen by the veteran curator Cecilia Alemani, artistic director of the 59th Venice Biennale and director and curator of public art for the High Line in New York.

Storytelling is at its core, with an only-in-New-Mexico cast of characters inspiring artists’ creations. They included boldface literary names like Willa Cather and D.H. Lawrence, who spent quality time in Taos, to more obscure historical “figures of interest” like Francis Schlatter, an Alsatian cobbler turned mystical healer, and Doña Tules, the “Queen of Sin” who ran a notorious gambling den off the city’s Plaza. (Fictional narratives are also thrown in for good measure.)  Full article here

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

The Palazzo Magnani Foundation in Reggio Emilia presents the exhibition Margaret Bourke-White: The work 1930-1960

 Via Finestra sull'Arte

July 27, 2025



graphic advertisement for Margaret Bourke White exhibit with photograph of Bourke-White in a flight suit next to ariplane while holding a camera


From October 25, 2025 to February 8, 2026, the frescoed halls of the Chiostri di San Pietro in Reggio Emilia will host Margaret Bourke-White. The Work 1930-1960, a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Margaret Bourke-White (New York, 1904 - Stamford, 1971), one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century photography. The initiative is promoted by the Fondazione Palazzo Magnani in collaboration with CAMERA - Italian Center for Photography, and curated by Monica Poggi. The exhibition presents 150 images spanning three decades of the author’s activity, including industrial reportage, war scenarios, social transformations and geopolitical conflicts. Born in New York in 1904 and passed away in 1971, Bourke-White was able to build an international career distinguished by her ability to deal with extreme contexts, both in terms of logistical difficulties and political implications, establishing herself as a direct witness to the events that marked the century. The exhibition is divided into six sections, following a chronological and thematic criterion, including industrial reportage, conflict and major social transformations.  Click to read full article


Related article: Margaret Bourke-White. The work 1930-1960

Monday, July 28, 2025

New Book and Upcoming Exhibition: A Period in Time by Ed Kashi

Via Photo.com

July 25, 2025


Looking Back while Moving Forward, 1977–2022
Related Exhibition and Launch Event:
Monroe Gallery of Photography
“A Period In Time”
On View: October 3 – November 16, 2025

''When I first fell in love with photography, I had a deep desire to tell stories that could have an impact on both individuals and the greater good. I wanted to produce stories that would contribute to positive change in the world. But what’s truly captivating about being a visual storyteller is the privilege to learn about the world and observe individuals who are doing inspiring acts or living through traumatic and trying times.''— Ed Kashi

One of the world's most celebrated photojournalists and filmmakers, Ed Kashi has dedicated the past 45 years to documenting the social and geopolitical issues that define our era. His newest book, A Period in Time: Looking Back while Moving Forward: 1977–2022, is a stunning and expansive retrospective of photographs spanning the world and his prolific career. Over 200 images collected in this book reflect his commitment to bear witness. Essays and contextual writings combine with the photographs to provide a personal, in-depth look at significant historical events.

No single book could possibly capture and sum up the entirety of a career as rich in scope and breadth as Kashi's, and that is not what this book sets out to accomplish. Rather, this moving retrospective highlights the essence of Kashi's belief about the unique power of photography to see, record, and share both the overt and the subtle details of the human experience. His work covers dramatic global events, while also accentuating the less visible background moments that often go unnoticed.



black and white photograph of young boy with toy skeleton in his mouth with soccer stadium in background
© Ed Kashi


black and white photograph of masked person carrying a painting with Jesus leading modern people in Ireland
© Ed Kashi

In his Introduction, Kashi reflects, ''Photography is a kind of diplomatic passport to worlds unseen, unveiling issues that need illumination, documenting history in the making, and capturing the human experience and the many awe-inspiring places in our fragile world. I’ve witnessed too many powerful moments to recount them all. This book is a testimony to some of the most important stories I was motivated to pursue and dedicate myself to. My life has been shaped by these stories, the people I had the privilege to observe and learn from, and the places and narratives that have shaped who I’ve become.''

The book includes both color and black and white images and is divided into sections by timeline and project. The book opens in 1977 where Kashi's career in photography began. After almost a decade of magazine assignments, he undertook his first long-term documentary project in 1988 exploring the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. This photographic work would lead to his illustrious tenure with National Geographic.

From 1991-2005 Kashi documented the struggles and perseverance of the Kurdish people, the largest ethnic group in the world without a nation. From the impacts of World War I to the Gulf War to the genocide of Saddam Hussein, Kashi writes, For anyone who encounters the Kurds, it is impossible to remain silent. These photographs are a tribute to the strength and dignity of the Kurdish people.

The book also includes sections with images from Berlin, Ukraine, Cairo, Vietnam, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq, the Niger Delta, India, and Nicaragua, among others. A section on the Middle East spans 1991-2008 and connects to his heritage. His parents were born in Baghdad, Iraq, and immigrated to the United States in 1940. Kashi shares, ''My work and travels in the Middle East finally opened my eyes and heart to my familial origins, not the assimilated reality of a first-generation American.'' Kashi has photographed in 12 of the 22 countries in this region.

Kashi has also worked domestically, notably on an eight-year project with his wife chronicling what it means to age in America. This body of work challenges assumptions, while also looking honestly and compassionately at the inherent hardships of growing old.



color photograph of a young man carrying the carcasses of freshly killed goats are roasted by the flames of burning tires at the Trans Amadi Slaughter, the largest abattoir in the Niger Delta
© Ed Kashi


color photograph of a woman walking with flaring gas burning behind her in the Niger Delta
© Ed Kashi


A distinguishing element to this book is what is learned about the artist behind the photographs. Kashi offers us an intimate view into the personal effects and impressions of being in the field. He also shares deep insights into the relationship with his wife Julie Winokur, through Dispatches or emails, he exchanged with her while away on assignment. These dispatches are interspersed throughout the book providing a personal voice that reveals authentic, raw glimpses into the situations he witnessed and challenges he experienced.

The book is being published by the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, also the home of Kashi’s expansive archive. Don Carleton, the center's executive director, wrote the book's Preface, which highlights the importance of such a collection: “An archive of photographic images can have the potential of being not merely a stagnant repository, but a dynamic way for images from the past to bear witness. Such an archive provides us with opportunities to look deeper at the world around us—as it has been, as it is now, and how it might be in the future.

As Carleton notes, the information preserved on film and in the accompanying words and ephemera not only serves as evidence, but also as context for understanding history, people, and events. One of the primary missions of the Briscoe Center is to collect the work of outstanding photojournalists and documentary photographers because their images can be rich sources of visual historical evidence that can be read and interpreted in the same way as textual documents. If critically analyzed and evaluated, that characteristic can allow them to serve as important sources for research and teaching.

This retrospective book is a slice of Kashi's extensive archive, but the thoughtfulness in which the images and writings were compiled, results in a powerful overview. In Kashi’s own words, his archive is a growing, thriving, and continually evolving organism that has become a living library with profound value.Kashi’s work celebrates the strength, courage and resilience in the people he has witnessed. This book also acknowledges the toll this work has taken on him.

The book concludes with a reflective essay entitled 'Home,' where Kashi divulges a sense of isolation that comes from constantly traveling. He describes a life lived in between either home or a far-flung corner of the globe. Home, in the trusted definition of the word, is an anchor, a compass point, and for Kashi, that place is wherever his wife and kids are.



black and white photograph of people outside a care facility, man in wheelchair in foreground and man on crutches in background
© Ed Kashi


black and white photograph of women carrying a large wood cross in a procession
© Ed Kashi

About the Artist:
Ed Kashi is a renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator who has been making images and telling stories for over 40 years. His restless creativity has continually placed him at the forefront of new approaches to visual storytelling. Dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times, a sensitive eye and an intimate and compassionate relationship to his subjects are signatures of his intense and unsparing work. As a member of VII Photo, Kashi has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition. Kashi’s innovative approach to photography and filmmaking has produced a number of influential short films and earned recognition by the POYi Awards as 2015’s Multimedia Photographer of the Year. Kashi’s embrace of technology has led to creative social media projects for clients including National Geographic, The New Yorker, and MSNBC. From implementing a unique approach to photography and filmmaking in his 2006 Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook, to paradigm shifting coverage of Hurricane Sandy for TIME in 2012, Kashi continues to create compelling imagery and engage with the world in new ways. Along with numerous awards from World Press Photo, POYi, CommArts and American Photography, Kashi’s images have been published and exhibited worldwide. His editorial assignments and personal projects have generated fourteen books. In 2002, Kashi in partnership with his wife, writer + filmmaker Julie Winokur, founded Talking Eyes Media. The non-profit company has produced numerous award-winning short films, exhibits, books, and multimedia pieces that explore significant social issues. Kashi is represented by Monroe Gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

All about Ed Kashi



color photograph of a man walking through the rain with reflections on store windows on Hamra street, Beirut, Lebanon
© Ed Kashi

About the Contributor:
Dr. Don Carleton is the founding executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and the J. R. Parten Chair in the Archives of American History at The University of Texas at Austin. A specialist in American political and news media history, he is the author of 14 books, including Red Scare; Conversations with Cronkite; Struggle for Justice: Four Decades of Civil Rights Photography; and The Governor and the Colonel: A Dual Biography of William P. Hobby and Oveta Culp Hobby. He is also the executive producer of two PBS documentaries: When I Rise (2010) and Cactus Jack: Lone Star on Capitol Hill (2016). Prior to the creation of the Briscoe Center, he served as founding director of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC), an urban history archive. A native of Dallas, Texas, Carleton earned his doctorate in United States at the University of Houston.  don-carleton



color photograph of masked and armed rebels on boats in Niger river
© Ed Kashi

About the Publisher:
As one of the leading history research centers in the nation, the Briscoe Center for American History collects, preserves, and makes available archival evidence that encompasses key themes in US history. The center fosters public exploration of history through research services, exhibits, books, public programs and digital humanities projects inspired by archival holdings. From its inception, the center has collected photography that provides evidence of the people, places, and events of American history. Recognizing the importance of photography for historical research and interpretation, in the early 1990s the center began extensive efforts to collect the archives of major American photojournalists. Those efforts soon expanded to include documentary and commercial photography, resulting in a collection that now contains more than 10 million images and spans from 1849 to the present.  briscoecenter.org



color photograph of young boy with a veil and cooler on his head
© Ed Kashi

About the Distributor:
The University of Texas Press is a book and journal publisher—a focal point where the life experiences, insights, and specialized knowledge of writers converge to be disseminated in both print and digital formats. Established in 1950, UT Press has published more than 4,000 books over seven decades.
utpress.utexas.edu



Mirrors in the Citadel Frame Shop, opposite Erbil’s historic citadel, reflect the movements and energy of this prospering and peaceful Kurdish city. IRAQ 2005⁣
© Ed Kashi


Related Exhibition and Launch Event:
Monroe Gallery of Photography
“A Period In Time”
On View: October 3 – November 16, 2025
Opening with Ed Kashi: October 3, 5-7pm
Ed Kashi in conversation with Don Carleton at 5:30pm
More Information about the Exhibition

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Ashley Gilbertson On The Courage Effect Podcast

 Via Suzanne Weller The Courage Effect Podcast

July 24, 2025

An unflinching conversation with award-winning photojournalist and writer Ashley Gilbertson, who has spent over two decades documenting conflict, migration, and pivotal moments that shape our world. From the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to the halls of the US Capitol on January 6th, Ashley brings us face-to-face with uncomfortable truths through his lens.

In this deeply personal conversation, Ashley shares the magic that drew him to photography at 13, the weight of witnessing history, and why he believes documenting difficult stories is more crucial than ever. We explore his groundbreaking work,  his evolution as a storyteller, and what it means to find courage in the darkest places.

Content Warning: This episode discusses war, conflict, domestic terrorism, and loss. Listener discretion is advised.

"The harder the work is, the better the work will be. When you get really deep into it and you want to stop, that is exactly the moment that you have to try twice as hard." -Ashley Gilbertson


Tuesday, July 22, 2025

CBS Evening News Feature On Stanley Forman's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a fatal fire escape collapse

 Via CBS Evening News

July 22, 2025


How a photo of a deadly Boston fire sparked change

In 1975, Stanley Forman took a  Pulitzer Prize-winning photo during a Boston apartment fire. That photo would spur the city to enact new regulations to keep fire escapes safe. Mark Strassmann has the story.

Online lecture July 23: Nina Berman on work made in 1987 when she traveled with a group of American Vietnam War veterans on their return trip to Vietnam


Via Pemumbra Foundation

July 21, 2025


Penumbra is excited to host a series of online public lectures in July 2025, where artists will share insight into the projects being digitized through this program.

On Wednesday, July 23, Nina Berman will discuss work made in 1987 when as a young photographer and journalist she traveled with a group of American Vietnam War veterans on their return trip to Vietnam. The experience had a significant impact on her and influenced her later work more generally on the costs of war and American warmaking.



July 23, 7-8PM | RSVP here


Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, journalist and educator.  Her work explores American politics, militarization, environmental issues and post violence trauma.  She is the author of Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, (Trolley, 2004) portraits and interviews with wounded American veterans, Homeland, (Trolley, 2008) an examination of the militarization of American life post September 11, and An autobiography of Miss Wish (Kehrer, 2017) a story told with a survivor of sexual violence which was shortlisted for both the Aperture and Arles book prizes. Additional fellowships, awards and grants include: the Gugggenheim Fellowship in Photography, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Press Photo Foundation, Pictures of the Year International, the Open Society Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the Aftermath Project. 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 in Jordan. 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. She has participated in workshops around the world for young photographers and is a professor at Columbia Journalism School where she directs the photojournalism/documentary photography program.

Monday, July 21, 2025

Tour The Exhibit "Fragments In Time" With Ashley Gilbertson July 26

 


graphic design for "Fragments in Time" exhibition at Mod Rose gallery featuring photographs by Ashley Gilbertson and Franco Pagetti,  with a private tour by Ashley Gilbertson July 26


MAD ROSE GALLERY, in collaboration with Monroe Gallery of Photography,  is honored to present the work of distinguished photographers Ashley Gilbertson (Australia) and Franco Pagetti (Italy). Their photographs trace the subtle topography of human experience— where stillness carries weight and absence speaks. From snow-laden vineyards to fractured interiors, each image is an act of bearing witness: restrained, exacting and quietly profound. Here, the visible and the invisible are held in tension— not explained, merely observed.

FRAGMENTS IN TIME: Ashley Gilbertson & Franco Pagetti, July 4 - August 30.

Brunch and tour Saturday, July 26. Space is limited, RSVP and info: natalie@madrosegallery.com.

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York City, recognized for his critical eye and unique approach to social issues. Gilbertson is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, ProPublica and UNICEF. Gilbertson’s photography is in museum permanent collections across the world, including The Smithsonian, Centre Georges Pompidou, National Gallery of Victoria, Harvard Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, and The National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York. 

Franco Pagetti has spent years working in conflict zones, though he has never considered himself a war photographer. His enduring focus lies with the people, traces that history leave on faces, gestures and places. With a background in science and a past in fashion, his eye blends rigor with instinct. His photographs have appeared in TIME, The New York Times, Newsweek and in campaigns for brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, San Pellegrino, Nespresso and Armani. Whether in Baghdad or backstage, Pagetti doesn’t chase events, he observes what they leave behind. A contributor to The VII Foundation. When not on the road, he lives in Milan, Italy.