Springfield Museums All Access: Our time with Bill Eppridge

Bill Eppridge (1938-2013)

Photo by R. David Marks, Courtesy Monroe Gallery

Via MassLive.com
By Holly Smith Bovè The Republican    
November 04, 2013 at 6:00 AM, updated November 04, 2013 at 8:14 AM



The staff and curators here at the Springfield Museums were saddened to learn that Time Life photographer Bill Eppridge had passed away on October 3. Bill had recently paid us two visits, both in conjunction with our recent exhibit, The Beatles: Backstage and Behind the Scenes. Bill’s work comprised the majority of that exhibit, and we were honored to have him join us just prior to the opening.

On a cloudy day in March, I met Bill and his wife, Adrienne Aurichio, at the D’Amour Museum for a quick meeting before he was due to tape an interview on WGBY’s Connecting Point. Our brief “hello” turned into an impromptu guided tour of the photos by Bill himself. As a Beatles fan, it was truly amazing to hear his recollections of meeting the Fab Four after their arrival at JFK airport, and how they charmed the press corps with their energy and enthusiasm– a far cry from the “drug fiends” that Bill and his colleagues were told to expect. Seeing a potential bigger story to tell, Bill quickly asked his editors at LIFE if he could stay on and photograph the group. Luckily, they agreed, and Bill’s photographs from those first weeks in the U.S. captured a critical moment in our national and cultural history.

Bill charmed all of us in that first meeting, stopping to chat with staff and even taking a picture with some lucky photography students from Sci-Tech who happened to be attending the exhibit. He, in turn, was transfixed by the Indian Motocycles and Rolls-Royces at the Wood Museum; he had always dreamed of owning a vintage Indian.

Bill guides Holly through his Beatles photos at the D'Amour Museum.  

Springfield Museums 

Bill returned to the Museums in April for a special talk in conjunction with the exhibit, during which he recalled his time with the Beatles and his many other major assignments. He seemingly covered every major news stories of the time – from the Civil Rights Movement to Vietnam, and from Woodstock to Apollo 13. His photos from even one of those assignments would have been the peak of any photographer’s career, but they were all eclipsed by Bill’s haunting photo of Robert F. Kennedy, mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet, his head cradled by a busboy. Bill spoke with obvious emotion about his time covering RFK’s campaign for president in 1968, and how the candidate inspired a truly diverse group of supporters. On that fateful day in Los Angeles, Bill was only steps behind Kennedy when the shots rang out. Bill was clearly proud of that picture, was haunted by it, and recognized its place in this country’s history.

In an industry where we meet many interesting and inspiring people, Bill truly stood out as one of the most memorable. Wherever he went, he was gracious and accommodating, and he always had his camera at the ready, fully prepared for that next great shot. We at the Museums mourn Bill’s passing, and we feel blessed to have had the chance to not only display his work and meet one of the true legends in his field but also to introduce him to our amazing city and community.

A selection of Bill Eppridge's photographs will be featured in the exhibition "The LIFE Photographers", Monroe Gallery, November 29 - January 24, 2014.

Related: Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure

LIFE Photographer Bill Eppridge: Presidents, Politicians, and Transitions: Photographing Political Campaigns - Then & Now

Via B&H Photo

Speakers: Bill Eppridge

Event Type: Photography

Skill Level: Intermediate

Register here

 Sunday, October 14, 2012 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

 

Join legendary Life magazine photojournalist Bill Eppridge as he takes a look back at the politicians and campaigns he photographed in the nineteen sixties and seventies, and talks about how the issues that were happening then are still prevalent in this country today. He will also talk about advances in the camera equipment he uses, and how he transitioned from film to digital cameras beginning in 2001. This is a unique opportunity to learn about history and political coverage from someone who experienced it with insider access.

Many people are familiar with Eppridge’s historic coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and his two books on Kennedy. Less well known and rarely seen are his photographs of President Lyndon Johnson during a campaign trip on Air Force One, and assignments covering the fear mongers of the early sixties - Governor George Wallace of Alabama during the Wisconsin presidential primary, and Robert Shelton, the grand wizard of the United Klans of America among other controversial figures of that time. He also covered both the Republican and the Democratic conventions in 1972, the year in which the Vietnam War was dividing the country and Richard Nixon was re-elected.

Eppridge believes that politics is more important than the average person realizes, and that politics shape our daily lives, from health care to farming. He will also discuss the difference in access to candidates then as opposed to now. He went to a rally for then candidate Obama in 2008 to see this himself, and will share tips for covering local political campaigns, something that almost anyone can do nowadays.

Eppridge continues to work as a photographer today and will discuss how the technological changes of the past decades have made it easier for both professionals and amateurs.

Photograph by Bill Eppridge / LIFE / © Time Inc.

Bill Eppridge

 

Bill Eppridge is based in Connecticut where he continues to work on personal projects. He is producing books and exhibits of his recent photographs as well as work from his vast archive. He has been a working photographer for more than fifty years and has covered a wide array of subjects as diverse as the Beatles arrival in America; the Woodstock festival; heroin addicts in Needle Park; the Presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Olympics; The America’s Cup; Elephant soccer in Thailand, and much more. He was a staff photographer for the original weekly Life magazine until publication ceased in 1972. He later worked for as a photographer for Sports Illustrated for nearly 30 years.

He has been awarded some of photography’s highest honors including the National Headliners Award; NPPA’s Joseph A. Sprague award; The Missouri Journalism School Honor Medal, and was the 2011 Lucie Foundation Honoree for Photojournalism.

Photograph by Adrienne Aurichio

Photojournalist Bill Eppridge Has Devoted His Life to Covering "Wars, Riots, and Revolutions"-- and a whole lot more

The News Times

Fairfield Museum hosts photojournalist Eppridge show
Phyllis A.S. Boros, Staff Writer
Published 06:15 p.m., Thursday, May 26, 2011

In this photograph by Bill Eppridge, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy stands in front of a poster of his late brother, President John F. Kennedy, at a Democratic fundraiser at the Ohio Fairgrounds, Ohio, in 1966. This image ran on the cover of Life magazine on Nov. 18, 1966. The renowned New Milford photojournalist is now being honored with a retrospective at the Fairfield Museum and History Center.



Intrepid in his desire to document the world around him, photojournalist Bill Eppridge has devoted his professional life to covering "wars, riots and revolutions" -- and a whole lot more.

In a career that has spanned more than 50 years, Eppridge has managed to capture extraordinary moments in America's political and cultural history for the likes of National Geographic, Life magazine and Sports Illustrated.

His iconic 1968 photos of a dying Robert Kennedy -- lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel seconds after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan -- are part of the American experience.

Also familiar to millions of Americans are his photos from numerous Winter Olympic games, as well as those from such seminal events from the 1960s and '70s as the Beatles' first visit to America, the Woodstock music festival, the Vietnam War and the funeral of civil right activist James Chaney in Mississippi.

The Life magazine photograph by Bill Eppridge captures the Chaney family leaving for the burial of James Chaney in Meridian, Miss., in August 1964. James Chaney was one of three young civil rights volunteers who went missing in Mississippi in June 1964, abducted by the Klu Klux Klan. Their bodies were found several weeks later in an earthen dam. A retrospective honoring Eppridge, of New Milford, is on view at the Fairfield Museum through Aug. 28


His landmark photo essay for Life that focused on Manhattan's former so-called "Needle Park" inspired the Al Pacino movie "Panic in Needle Park."

And now the renowned photographer has turned his attention to the evocative beauty of old barns found in and around New Milford, where he and his wife live.

More than 65 images from these and other phases of Eppridge's career are now the subject of a three-gallery retrospective at the Fairfield Museum and History Center. The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 28 as part of the museum's Images 2011 celebration.



New Milford photojournalist Bill Eppridge captured this 1971 photo for Life magazine at the start of the Barstow-to-Las Vegas motorcycle race, with 650 entrants, by standing on the skid outside of a helicopter at 500 feet above ground. The photo is included in Images 2011 at the Fairfield Museum through Aug. 28.


In addition to the Eppridge retrospective, Images 2011 also includes the museum's third annual Juried Photography Exhibition, featuring one gallery devoted to more than 70 photos -- all deemed noteworthy by a panel of four judges that included Eppridge --in student and professional/serious amateur adult divisions.

Born on March 20, 1938, in Argentina to American parents (his father was stationed there as a chemical engineer for DuPont), Eppridge spent his formative years growing up in Richmond, Va.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Wilmington, Del.

During a recent telephone chat, Eppridge said that he first became interested in photography at about age 10 for reasons that were anything but altruistic.

"Sibling rivalry -- that's the reason. I have this older sister who has always been a very fine artist. She draws, paints, sculpts -- and I can't draw a straight line. I wanted to do something (creative) so I could compete with her. So I went to her and asked her to show me how to use a camera, and she begrudgingly agreed," he recalled, laughing.

By high school, his interest in photography had blossomed into a full-blown passion. After a short stint at the University of Toronto, Eppridge headed for the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, where he graduated with a major in photojournalism in 1959.

In that same year, while still a student, good fortune would visit Eppridge -- and shape his life for years to come.

"I had this friend who was a horse" at a nearby farm, Eppridge said, as he began a story about shooting an award-winning photo for the cover of this college newspaper's farm supplement.

"This horse knew me . . .Whenever I would drive by, I'd always give him a lump of sugar." So Eppridge headed to the farm to photograph "his friend" when the newspaper's editor announced that he was in desperate need of a last-minute photograph. "But when I got out of the car, I slipped and I spooked him -- and he took off running."

Eppridge had the opportunity to shoot just one photo -- and that photo would become "Stormy, Columbia, Missouri, 1959," a dramatic photograph of a white horse charging through a field with "tornadic" storm clouds in the distance.

That photo won him the National Press Photographer's Award/First Prize Pictorial. And that award, plus the distinction of being named College Photographer of the Year, caught the attention of Life photography director Roy Rowan -- subsequently leading to his long affiliation with the magazine.

"Hard to say whether I made luck happen, or whether luck happened to me," he said, again laughing.

Eppridge said that he has always gotten great joy from plying his art and craft no matter the subject. But he noted that one of the most fascinating periods of his life was spending more than a year on the road with Bobby Kennedy, covering his presidential campaign for Life magazine. He says he came to admire Kennedy enormously -- "I thought he was the right man for the time" -- and documenting his assassination was terribly sad.

But Eppridge said he has remarkable eye-hand coordination (a product he said from playing lots of pinball in college) and shooting those iconic photos of a fallen Kennedy were instinctual.

Renowned in recent years as a teacher devoted to mentoring a new generation of photojournalists, Eppridge says he advises students to "never put that camera down . . . it always has to be with you. And you really, really have to want to do this.

"This is an extraordinary time in history . . . with ideas traveling around the world with incredible speed. It all has to be documented. It has to be done, and as photojournalists, we have to do it."


ANNUAL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW

More than 650 images from about 220 photographers were submitted for consideration in this year's photography show. From that pool of entries, 71 works from 50 photographers were chosen to be featured in Images 2011 in six categories: abstract, architecture, landscape, nature, photojournalism and portraiture. A regional competition, the event is open to those who work or live in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York.

Joining Eppridge on the judge's panel were photo editor Adrienne Aurichio, of New Milford; photographer Stephen Wilkes, of Westport; and photographer/teacher Thomas Mezzanotte, who was Fairfield Arts Center's 2010 Artist of the Year.

Taking top honors in the professional/serious amateur category is Sandy Gennirch, of Stamford, who presented two works: a nature photo, "Horseshoe Crab Ritual," and an abstract "Dry Docked." Her prize is a 10-day exhibition at Southport Galleries at a yet undetermined date.

Winner in the student division is Daria Lombroso, of New Rochelle, who submitted three portraits while a senior at Wesleyan University in Middletown. Her three photos are titled: "Jaime, White Plains," "Tomato and Cheese Sandwich, White Plains" and "Jorge and Andrew, Scarsdale." Lombroso will receive a professional review of her work by Wilkes.

UPCOMING EVENTS

In conjunction with Images 2011, the Fairfield Museum has scheduled several upcoming events including the following:

Screening of PBS American Experience/"Freedom Riders," about the civil rights movement, post-film discussion with artist Tracy Sugarman; Thursday, June 2, 7 to 9 p.m.; free.

"The Soiling of Old Glory: The Power of a Photograph" lecture by Louis Masur of Trinity College, Hartford; Thursday, July 14, 7 to 9 p.m.; $8, students $5.

Behind the Lens guided tours; Thursdays June 23, July 28 and Aug. 18; 10 to 11 a.m.; included with regular admission.

Family Day, with special activities for children, Sundays July 31 and Aug. 21, noon to 4 p.m.; included with regular admission.

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is at 370 Beach Road, behind Fairfield's Independence Hall (exit 22 off Interstate 95). Hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekends noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $5, $3 for students 6 through 22 years of age and senior citizens; free for children 5 and younger. Call 203-259-1598 or visit http://www.fairfieldhs.org/.

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

October 9, 2010 would have been John Lennon's 70th Birthday.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, New York

Across the world, special events will recognize what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, October 9th, 2010. In New York's Central Park, home of the John Lennon "Imagine" memorial, a free, public screening of the American Masters film “LENNONYC” will be held on October 9th, 2010.

The screening, which will be first-come, first served, will take place at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (best reached by entering the park at 69th Street and Fifth Avenue). The screening, which will take place rain or shine, will include picnic style seating so viewers are encouraged to bring blankets. People interested in attending should visit www.thirteen.org/lennon for more information. The screening will start at 7:00 p.m. and doors open at 6:00 p.m. People are encouraged to line up early given there will be limited seating.

The Santa Fe Film Festival has announced a screening of LENNONNYC during the 11th edition of the film festival (October 22-24) at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Tickets for all Santa Fe Film Festival films go on sale October 8 here.  The film will air nationally on PBS on November 22 at 9pm.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, The Dakota, New York

In conjunction with the Santa Fe Film Festival, Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to welcome Brian Hamill to Santa Fe for a very special exhibition of his intimate photographs of John Lennon; as well as his photographs from the sets of classic movies. Brian Hamill will join us Friday, October 22, from 5-7 pm for a public reception. (The photographs are on exhibit now)

Brian Hamill was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the late 1960s, Hamill began a career as a photojournalist covering the Rock & Roll scene as well as the boxing world. He also worked as an assistant to several top fashion photographers.

In the early 1970s he traveled to Northern Ireland to photograph the troubles there, and widened his scope into unit still photographer jobs on movie sets. Since then he has worked as a unit still photographer on over seventy-five movies including twenty-six Woody Allen films, resulting in the much acclaimed coffee table photo book entitled “Woody Allen At Work: The Photographs of Brian Hamill” (Harry N. Abrams, 1995).

Hamill’s work has also appeared in numerous other books, publications and exhibitions including a one-man show at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1995.

See Brian Hamill's photographs here.

Related: Other John Lennon photographs here, and Beatles photographs here.



A DAY IN THE LIFE

Bill Eppridge: Beatles Press Conference, 1964

Photos of the Fab Four's first visit to North America show the lads at their cheeky best

 
(C) The Winninpeg Free Press
By: Alison Mayes
 
On Feb. 7, 1964, a contract photographer for LIFE magazine was assigned to capture the arrival in North America of four mop-topped lads from Liverpool.


Bill Eppridge was only 25 years old, but already an experienced photojournalist. He and the other photographers who waited for the Beatles' plane to land in New York assumed the band would be "a crew of weirdos" -- likely dishevelled drug addicts.

Everybody was waiting to have a good laugh," Eppridge, now 71, recalls by phone from his home in Connecticut.


"Then the door of the plane opened, and out come these four young gentlemen in dark suits and ties, so neatly dressed you couldn't believe it... It surprised the hell out of all of us."

Eppridge, who would go on to capture some of most iconic images of the troubled 1960s, spent several days shooting the witty, carefree John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- and the mounting Beatlemania that surrounded them -- as they toured Central Park, hung out in their suite at the Plaza Hotel, gave their five-song debut performance on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, rode a train to Washington, D.C. and performed at the Washington Coliseum.

CBS staff photographers also documented the band's every move, continuing as the quartet -- aged 20 to 23 -- frolicked in Miami Beach, Fla., and made their second Ed Sullivan appearance there on Feb. 16, live from the Deauville Hotel.

The week that revolutionized pop music is recalled in The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes, a touring, Florida-based exhibition of 84 never-before-published black-and-white photos. The show opened Friday at the Manitoba Museum and runs to April 11.

It features 38 of Eppridge's images and 46 from the CBS archives, displayed on walls painted red, white and blue to evoke the Union Jack. The museum has set up a mock-1960s living room with a vintage TV to bring back memories of the historic Sullivan broadcasts.

The show reflects the museum's recent commitment to bring in high-profile exhibitions that "show the world to Manitobans," such as the Dinosaur Dynasty and Robots + Us shows, which attracted about 18,000 and 12,500 visitors respectively.

Eppridge estimates that he shot more than 2,000 frames of the Beatles. LIFE published only three or four. The unused shots were stored in LIFE's archives, then reverted to Eppridge when the magazine folded. He hadn't looked at them in years, he says, when the exhibition curators (including his friend John Filo, who shot the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the Kent State massacre) asked him to select some for this 2001 show.

The distinguished Eppridge was later behind the lens at Woodstock and in Vietnam. He covered the funeral of civil-rights activist James Chaney in Mississippi, shot a landmark photo essay on heroin addiction in Needle Park, and took the iconic photo of a busboy cradling Robert Kennedy seconds after he was fatally shot.

By comparison, he says, the Beatles images bring back an innocent, joyful moment in U.S. history. The Fab Four were not the least bit jaded as they gamely posed in matchy-matchy outfits -- even goofy deck shoes and short terrycloth beach robes.

"It was totally delightful," remembers Eppridge, who never met any of the four again. "They were enjoying the ride. I never heard a complaint. I found them generally unaware of their importance.

"They were truly funny, like four comedians. They were really tight, mentally."

The lads are seen clowning on the train, with Harrison borrowing a porter's uniform and serving drinks. "It was genuine," says Eppridge. "They decided it was going to be fun."

The photographer remembers being jolted by the freshness of the band's sound. "When I'm working, I use one sense: my eyes. To get me out of that mode is difficult. But at times, their music took me right out of that."

In a few photos Lennon wears sunglasses and a dark cap -- perhaps a hint that he would rebel against the group's wholesome, uniform image. Eppridge says he didn't pick up on any rebellion. But he felt Lennon had a greater presence than the others. "Lennon seemed to be bigger... He just seemed to have more enormity to him."

Eppridge says he recognized that the Beatles were going to be fashion icons. One of his photos is a closeup of three pairs of feet in the pointy-toed boots that started a craze.

"I was trying like hell to get four pair in one picture, and I couldn't... because one of them was not feeling well," he says. (Harrison is missing from some of the New York photos because he was resting up with a sore throat.)

Eppridge and LIFE reporter Gail Cameron got their own taste of Beatlemania when they emerged after dark from the Plaza Hotel. Four teenage girls accosted them and asked if they had met the Beatles. When Cameron said yes, the girls inquired whether the lads had signed autographs. The reporter made the mistake of saying that they had actually used her pencil. Then all hell broke loose.

"Those four jumped her so fast!" says the photographer, chuckling. "They knocked her down, trying to get that pencil. I had to toss a couple of them off of her. I grabbed Gail and we took off running down the street."


The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes

Manitoba Museum, to April 11
190 Rupert Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0N2, Canada

(204) 956-2830
Beatles show only, $5 (youth/senior/ student $3, family $16)
Ticket price discounted when added to museum, planetarium or science gallery admission

View Bill Eppridge's Beatles collection here. View the current exhibition of photographs of musicians, "The Art of Sound", here.

Bill Eppridge will be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at Monroe Gallery July 2 - September 26, 2010. His historic Robert Kennedy and James Chaney Funeral photographs will also be on view during the AIPAD Photography Show in New York in Monroe Gallery, Booth # 317.