May 17, 2024
Not to make anyone feel elderly, but the 1960s are now more than 60 years old.
That startling fact leaps to the fore when one considers Monroe Gallery of Photography’s newest exhibit, simply titled 1964. The gallery calls it the year the 1960s truly began, complete with inflection points such as the musical British Invasion, Muhammad Ali becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion, and the slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.
Several images show fans in states of euphoria over seeing — or preparing to see — The Beatles. In Bill Eppridge’s The Beatles With Ed Sullivan, about a dozen men hold cameras to document the band’s every move. It’s not unlike fans in 2024 using cellphones for the same purpose. In Bob Gomel’s Black Muslim leader Malcolm X Photographing Cassius Clay, Ali hams it up, while the usually stoic civil rights figure grins behind the camera. In Eppridge’s Kent Courtney, National Chair of the Conservative Society of America, Courtney tightens his tie, cutting a powerful image of buttoned-up status quo conformity.
The gallery will host a talk with Amalie R. Rothschild, a filmmaker and photographer who has created documentaries about social issues, at 4:30 p.m. June 8. — B.S.
details
Through June 23
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar Avenue
505-992-0800; monroegallery.com
