Showing posts with label Joe McNally. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe McNally. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

New Exhibition: The Movies - and Flying With Michelle Yeoh

 

The opening image in the new exhibition "The Movies" is Joe McNally's stunning photograph of actress Michelle Yeoh suspended from a helicopter over the iconic Hollywood sign.


actress Michelle Yeoh suspended from a helicopter over the famous Hollywood sign, California, 1998


On a 2002 Jimmy Kimmel interview session, Michelle spoke about "flying" with Joe McNally as a stunt over the Hollywood sign, for a story in the National Geographic.






Joe McNally wrote about the making of this photograph on his blog, here.
"Jimmy Kimmel dryly observed that I should have been arrested for doing this to her. She recalls being very cold. I recall her being absolutely magnificent, hanging off those wires, just across from me, as I hung from the other skid."




Photographer Joe McNally and actress Michelle Yeoh suspended from a helcopter over the Hollywood sign in Californaia, 1998


The Movies is on exhibit through April 14, 2024. Join us for a public reception open house on Saturday, February 17, 4-6 pm.









Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Joe McNally is the #1 Most Inspiring Photographer (Again)

 
2015 Survey Results: Joe McNally is the #1 Most Inspiring Photographer (Again)
 
 

2015 Survey Results: Joe McNally is the #1 Most Inspiring Photographer (Again)

Via Photoshelter
 
For the third year running, we’re excited to release our annual survey results from The Photographer’s Outlook on 2015. This survey, sent to thousands of photographers worldwide from the greater PhotoShelter community, aims to provide the industry with a solid understanding of what photographers hope to accomplish in the coming year – including how they plan to invest their money, hone their craft, and build a presence online.

As we did in 2014, this year’s survey compares the similarities and differences between the business goals and challenges among photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.* The survey includes responses from 7,408 people total.
 
For the complete overview of The Photographer’s Outlook on 2015, download the full survey results here.


Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Iconic photographer Joe McNally presented with the 2015 Professional Photographer Award.





Woodbury, NY—

The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA) announced that Go Miyazaki , president and CEO of Fujifilm North America Corporation, will be receiving the 2014 Person of the Year Award at PMDA’s annual dinner on January 5, 2015 in Las Vegas. The distinguished award is being given to Miyazaki in recognition of his leadership of Fujifilm’s success in North America in both the output and capture sides of the imaging business.

Four additional awards will be accorded at the 4th Annual Imaging Night: Wataru Otani , head of New Business Development at Ricoh Imaging, will receive the Herbert Keppler Technical Achievement Award; John Clouse , former senior vice president of Sales for Nikon Inc., will be given the Norman C. Lipton Lifetime Achievement Award; Gabrielle Mullinax , president of Fullerton Photographics and a leader in creative photo printing and archiving, will receive the Visionary Award; and iconic photographer Joe McNally will be presented with the 2015 Professional Photographer Award.

"We’re pleased to be able to recognize these individuals for their accomplishments in the field of digital imaging,” said Dan Unger , president of PMDA. “Our event will once again shine the light on the many accomplishments and innovations that have kept the digital imaging business in the forefront of the consumer electronics revolution. And this year, we are celebrating both the capture and output sides of our business, which are both showing resurgences among consumers. It will certainly be a must-attend night.”

The awards will be presented at the 49th Annual PMDA Awards Dinner, which will take place on Monday, January 5, 2015 at XS Nightclub at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, on the eve of the International CES. The evening will include musical entertainment and a gallery of Joe McNally’s award-winning photography. PMDA has been recognizing individual contributions to the imaging industry since 1965. pmda.comOpens in a new window.


Joe McNally's photographs will be on exhibit during Photo LA 2015 January  15 - 18 at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Booth #203.


Related exhibition: Joe McNally, Photojournalist

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Joe McNally - A Retrospective


 
 
 
 

Via Joe McNally's blog

Joe McNally Photojournalist Exhibition at the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 3 - November 23, 2014. See the video of a 30 year retrospective of Joe McNally's diverse and dynamic images. Joe reflects on the passage of time, and Sidney Monroe discusses collector's rising interest in photojournalism as a fine art. View the exhibition images here.


Friday, November 14, 2014

Review: Joe McNally at Monroe Gallery




photograph
November/December 2014

Review
By Douglas Fairfield

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe

Yellowstone - Walkway in the Fog, 2006
Joe McNaIIy, Yellowstone - Walkway in the Fog, 2006.
©Joe McNaIIy. Courtesy Monroe Gallery

Being at the right place at the right time is a photographer's modus operandi, and photojournalist Joe McNally has had his share of right-place, right-time moments; moments that have resulted in memorable, if not iconic images. In a retrospective of the photographer's work - on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe through November 23 - more than 45 images stand testament to McNaIIy's discerning eye, both in formal and candid situations. Photos in color and black and white dating from 1978 to 2013 feature subjects of a most eclectic nature not typically associated with one photographer. But given a 30-year career in which McNaIly has contributed to TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and LIFE, among others, it is little wonder that his portfolio runs the gamut in terms of subject matter. This includes sports, politics, music, science, portraiture, the natural and urban landscape, and war. lnterestingly, McNaIIy carries the distinction of being the last staff photographer for LIFE, whose pages, over the years, were filled with photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt, John Loengard, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

Among the pictures on display are eight life-size portraits by McNaIly of individuals impacted by the events of 9/11 taken just days following the horrific attack. lncluded are former mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani and New York firefighter Joe Hodges, each part of McNally's larger document called Faces of Ground Zero, which traveled around the country and spawned a book by the same title. The one-of-kind, 80 x 40-inch Polaroid photos are mounted on freestanding stanchions placed down the center of the gallery. Whereas each picture by McNally holds a newsworthy narrative, a few nudge into fine art, like Yellowstone— Walkway in the Fog, 2006, in which an unoccupied walkway emerging from the bottom center of the composition curves gently to the right leading the viewer into an otherworldly environment of shimmering, copper-colored mineral water and fog-shrouded background. In the upper left corner is a snow-covered rise where barely visible trees appear like scratchings upon the photographic surface. History-making events and sheer beauty are fully captured through McNally's lens.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Joe McNally in Rwanda, 1997





Refugee Girl after the Genocide, Rwanda, 1997



I was in Rwanda after the genocide, which was very difficult. Not only was there the evidence and smell of death lingering in many places, but it was also distressing to see the tidal wave of human displacement, orphaned children, and people with literally no place to go. I shot this picture in panorama format, as I was trying to get across the enormous sweep of this very large refugee camp in the volcanic highland area of the Rwandan-Zairean border. (Zaire is now the Congo.) 

What you don’t see in this picture is the crowd of some 300 to 400 people watching me shoot it. She was standing there, alone, and her simple, sweet, uncertain stance certainly made for a photograph. But I had an enormous crowd following me around, as visitors to a refugee camp often become that day’s movie. I crouched on the ground behind my tripod, shooting quickly, begging everyone to stay behind me. And, even though I was concentrating on making the picture, I became aware of the light touch of children’s fingers on my skin and hair. They were gently pinching and rubbing my skin, and pulling my hair. A white person was still strange to them and I believe they thought my coloration would somehow rub off and there would the more familiar black skin they were used to underneath. And my hair? Well that was really different, and the object of much interest. --Joe McNally


 Refugee Camp, Rwanda, 1997
 

Monday, September 29, 2014

Joe McNally: View from Top of Burj Khalifa, Dubai, 2013


 
Archival pigment print from an iPhone
8 x 10 inches, signed, limited edition of 100
Special exhibition print now available, please
 
 


Watch: Photographer Joe McNally climbs to the top of Dubai's Burj Khalifa (the World's tallest building), in hopes is seeking an unusual vantage point:






And you can watch our conversation with Joe McNally about the exhibit here:


Friday, September 26, 2014

Joe McNally in Conversation with Sid and Michelle Monroe

Joe Self-Portrait from Empire State Building, 2001
Joe's Self-Portrait from Empire State Building, 2001


In advance of opening night (October 3) at the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, Nikon Ambassador Joe McNally talks with Sid and Michelle Monroe and tells some of the stories behind the photos featured in the visit. You'll get to see the gallery and get a feel for what goes into creating an exhibit like this one, and a special print announcement will be made.

Questions are welcome. 

Monday, September 29  10:30 AM Eastern Time

Event page to watch on the Google+ stream:


https://plus.google.com/events/cr3n1kvl1je3b7c9mt9um2hcb5o
 

YouTube link  for live or watching whenever
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLIZyIDO5vw




The exhibition will continue threough November 23, 2014.

Monday, September 22, 2014

The Giant Polaroid Camera and Joe McNally





The installation of the Joe McNally exhibit has started. First to arrive, the Giant Polaroids.

 
 
 

Joe McNally tells a bit about the history of these magnificent photographs,  via his blog:


In 2000, I was assigned to shoot pictures for a very small story (which was never published) on a unique photographic instrument called Moby C, which at the time lived on the lower East Side of NY. Moby after the whale, not the musician.  This camera is the world’s only Giant Polaroid camera, invented at the behest of Dr. Land himself. It is the size of a one car garage. Its lens came from a U2 spy plane, according to legend. At f/45, you have about an inch of depth of field. You cannot focus the lens–you have to focus your subject by moving them back and forth in tiny increments.

There is no shutter, you have to work camera obscura at the moment of exposure. I used about 25,000 watt seconds of strobe, mostly run through a 12×12 silk. The strobe system was wired to a Mamiya RZ 6×7 camera, bore sighted under the Polaroid lens. We would pose the subject, then wait for the interior workings of the Polaroid to spool up (there are two technicians inside the camera when you shoot, and they have to prepare things, like switch on a Black and Decker wet dry vac to suck the Polaroid film to the giant backplate of the camera). Then I would go dark in the studio, pull the cap of the Polaroid lens, fire the Mamiya and thus render an instantaneous dupe, one a huge positive, and the other a 6×7 transparency.

Huge indeed. What results after the exposure is a life sized image, 40″x 80″. You lay it out on the floor of the camera, wait 90 seconds (it’s the same Polaroid paper that comes in your over the counter cameras) and then peel the chemical backing off. There you have it.

I had convinced the elegant and easy going Jennifer Ringer, a principal with the NYC Ballet, to come and work with me during this first, experimental day with the camera. We made some nice, big pictures of her. (I was chuckling inside during this shoot, harking back to our old philosophy at LIFE magazine: “If ya can’t make ‘em good, make ‘em big and in color!”)

Made seven successful images that day, which is a lot of production for this behemoth of a camera, and found I had a bit of an affinity for working it. (Try anything once, right? Just have faith and remember the Lord looks after a fool.)






 Hmmm. Things stick with you, right? A week after 9/11, I sent an email to the only guy I knew who had a bunch of cash and would give me a quick decision; the editorial director of Time Warner, John Huey. John’s basically an old Southern newspaper man who kind of looks at you sideways, lets you babble, and then tells you what he thinks. He’s smart as a whip, quick off the mark, and does not suffer fools or photographers gladly.

I sent him the email on a Thursday night. He gave me money for the project Monday morning. The pressure was on. He was taking a huge gamble with his company’s dough, $100,000, to be direct about it. He looked me in the eye and drawled, “Joe, you spend $20,000 and get me no pitchahs, that’s okay. You spend $100,000 and get me no pitchahs, we got a problem.” He kind of drew out the word, “prrroblem.” I gulped and left his office.


My notion was that this camera was made for people of stature, a heroic instrument, if you will. You have to literally stand for your portrait. You collect yourself in the dark, holding still, waiting for the strobe explosion. And then you are done. One shot. (90% of our subjects we did in one exposure. Each sheet of Polaroid cost $300. I dreaded blinkers.)


It became a document known as Faces of Ground Zero. It toured through seven stops, opening at Grand Central Station, and coming back to NY a year later. For the anniversary show they threw a huge tent over where they usually put the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. It was seen by lots of people. The Polaroids and the resultant book(s) helped the sponsors, Time Warner and Morgan Stanley, to donate close to $2 million dollars to the relief of downtown public education. In the tent at the Rock Center show, we sold about $40,000 worth of books in 3 weeks. All of it went to the downtown PTA’s.




My good friend, Louie Cacchioli. Louie saved a lot of people that day by keeping his head and telling them to follow his light. Out on West St., running from the second collapse, he was overtaken by the cloud of ash and soot. Blinded by the smoke, he felt along the ground and stumbled onto a discarded oxygen mask. He clapped it to his face. He estimates he had about 30 seconds left.



Jan Demczur, a Polish window washer who scraped through 6 inches of sheet rock with his squeegee blade and thus saved the 4 people he was trapped in an elevator with. His squeegee is in the Smithsonian.





Joe Hodges. A veteran firefighter who could have easily retired after 9/11, but chose to stay on. “The older guys have to stick around and show the younger guys the way,” was how he put it.






So we kept working. Our last subject was Rudy Giuliani. He finally came on the last night. We were out of money, out of time. We shot 2 Polaroids of hizzoner, and closed the doors.




Things you don’t think about while you are in the throes of a project like this, are, what happens next? After ebeing xhibited in seven cities in 2002, seen by almost a million, I became the owner, lock, stock and metal framework, of about 10 tons of photography. (The framed pieces, which form the traveling core of the show, are 4′x9′ and weigh about 300 pounds.) They reside in museum quality, climate controlled storage in a warehouse in New Jersey.


Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to include 6 Giant Polaroids in the forthcoming exhibit. The exhibit opens with a public reception for Joe McNally October 3, and continues through November 23. You can tune in to a special Google+ Hangout with Joe McNally and Sid and Michelle Monroe on Monday, September 29  10:30 Eastern time. Joe will tell some of the stories behind the photos featured in the visit. You'll get to see the gallery and get a feel for what goes into creating an exhibit like this one. Questions are welcome. To listen bookmark this link. (Also available live or for later viewing on YouTube here.


 
 
 
 
 
 



Friday, August 15, 2014

Joe McNally Exhibition October 3 - November 23, 2014




A young girl takes to an abandoned building for the shade in January of 1999, Mumbai, India

 


Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce a major exhibition by internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist, Joe McNally. The exhibition will open with a public reception for Joe McNally on Friday, October 3, 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition will continue through November 23. (The exhibit is now featured on www.monroegallery.com; also to be announced is a Google Hangout in September.)


The exhibit features more than 45 photographs from Joe McNally’s remarkable career that has spanned more than 30 years and included assignments in 60 countries. Joe was the last staff photographer in the history of LIFE magazine, sharing a legacy with his heroes and mentors—Carl Mydans, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gordon Parks, John Loengard—who forever influenced and shaped his work. McNally won the first Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Journalistic Impact for a LIFE coverage titled, “The Panorama of War.” He has been honored numerous times by Communication Arts, PDN, Graphis, American Photo, POY, and The World Press Photo Foundation. His prints are in numerous collections, most significantly the National Portrait Gallery of the United States and National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
McNally is often described as a generalist because of his ability to execute a wide range of assignment work, and was listed at one point by American Photo as one of the “100 Most Important People in Photography” and described by the magazine as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today.” His expansive career has included being an ongoing contributor to the National Geographic - shooting numerous cover stories and highly complex, technical features for the past 25 years; a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated; as well as shooting cover stories for TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

McNally’s most well-known series is "Faces of Ground Zero - Portraits of the Heros of September 11th", a collection of 246 Giant Polaroid portraits shot in the Moby c Studio near Ground Zero in a three-week period shortly after 9/11. A large group of these historic, compelling, life-size (9’ x 4’) photos were exhibited in seven cities in 2002, and seen by almost a million people. Sales of the exhibit book helped raise over $2 million for the 9/11-relief effort. This collection is considered by many museum and art professionals to be one of the most significant artistic endeavors to evolve from the 9/11 tragedy, and examples are included in the exhibit. Some of McNally’s other renowned photographic series include: “The Future of Flying,” cover & 32-page story, National Geographic Magazine, December 2003. The story, on the future of aviation and the first all digital shoot in the history of that venerable magazine, commemorated the centennial observance of the Wright Brothers' flight. This issue was a National Magazine Award Finalist and his coverage was deemed so noteworthy it has been incorporated into the archives of the Library of Congress.

He regularly writes a popular, irreverent blog  about the travails, tribulations, oddities and very occasional high moments of being a photographer, and has also authored several noteworthy books on photography, two of which, The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries, cracked Amazon’s Top Ten list of best sellers. While his work notably springs from the time-honored traditions of magazine journalism, McNally has also adapted to the internet driven media world, and was recently named as one of the “Top 5 Most Socially Influential Photographers” by Eye-Fi. His work and his blog are regularly cited in social media surveys as sources of inspiration and industry leadership. He is also among the rare breed of photographer who has bridged the world between photojournalism and advertising, amassing an impressive commercial and advertising client list including FedEx, Nikon, Epson, Sony, Land’s End, General Electric, MetLife, USAA, Adidas, ESPN, the Beijing Cultural Commission, and American Ballet Theater.
A sought-after workshop instructor and lecturer, he has taught at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, the Eddie Adams Workshop, the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian Institution, the Annenberg Space for Photography, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Disney Institute, and the U.S. Department of Defense. He received his bachelor’s and graduate degrees from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and returns there to lecture on a regular basis. Recently, he was named as a Nikon USA Ambassador, an honor which has a special reverence for him, as he bought his first Nikon camera in 1973, and for forty years, from the deserts of Africa to the snows of Siberia, he has seen the world through those cameras.

 
Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than four decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in 20th and 21st Century Photojournalism. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers.

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


 Preview the exhibit here.







 
Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997
 



 

Monday, February 24, 2014

Joe McNally: A Life Behind the Lens



Via The Annenberg Center
Joe McNally
A Life Behind the Lens
From Thursday, January 16th, 2014
 
 
 
As a globetrotting magazine photographer, Joe McNally’s creative use of light has been the most notable aspect of his approach to shooting. Whether covering an editorial assignment for magazines such as TIME, Fortune and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, or shooting ad campaigns and corporate work for Fortune 500 companies, McNally embraces the power that light plays on a photo subject.
 
The recipient of numerous photo awards, McNally has been a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated, a staff photographer at LIFE and is an ongoing 25-year contributor to National Geographic. He teaches his craft globally and has penned several best-selling photo books. McNally also created “Faces of Ground Zero – Giant Polaroid Collection.” The resulting exhibit and book raised approximately $2 million for relief efforts.

Watch Joe as he discusses the trials and tribulations of his career, the problems and personalities he dealt with and the overriding sense of humor that gets him through the day.

Joe McNally's photographs will be exhibited at Monroe Gallery of Photography October 3 - November 23, 2014
 

Saturday, June 2, 2012

IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO...Live Facebook chat with Pulitzer Prize Photojounalist Nick Ut Monday at 2 Eastern

In this June 8, 1972 file photo, crying children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, run down Route 1 near Trang Bang, Vietnam after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places as South Vietnamese forces from the 25th Division walk behind them. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. From left, the children are Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim's cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

When photographer Nick Ut snapped the Pulitzer-winning image of Kim Phuc, neither knew what the next 40 years had in store. On Monday, June 4, the AP  will be hosting a live Facebook chat with Nick at 2 p.m. EDT. Start asking your questions now on the AP Facebook page, and Nick may respond during the chat.


Monday, September 5, 2011

"Like many New York based shooters, I had a bit of a love fest with the World Trade Centers"




A very good read:

Joe McNally Presents: A 9/11 Remembrance, In Pictures

Photogs. We’re storytellers, right? So, if you will, permit me a story. (It’s occasionally been a saga, and maybe, every once in a while, an opera.)

Like many New York based shooters, I had a bit of a love fest with the World Trade Centers. What was not to like? These twin exclamation points at the southern tip of Manhattan provided a sense of place, majesty, and graphic balance to your snaps, all at once. Full post with photographs continues here via Scott Kelby's blog.


Information here about donating to the ongoing maintenance and costs of the Giant Polaroid "Faces of Ground Zero" collection.

Friday, August 26, 2011

SCENES FROM A SHOW (FACES OF GROUND ZERO)

Via Joe McNally's Blog:

We set up the show on Tuesday night. When you need to get something done, it’s always good to have FDNY on your side. Louie Cacchioli rallied the guys, and over 25 firefighters showed up and worked tirelessly from 9pm through till 3am to get this in place for the Wednesday opening press reception. Pushing these frames around, many of which are close to 300 lbs., more than once I was like, “Why’d I have to shoot ‘em so big?”








I was just humbled, really, by the selfless way these guys, many of whom came from way out of town, just pitched in and got this done. My thanks also go out to Related, the owners of the building, which worked with me to allow this to happen. If we had to actually hire shippers and handlers to move it around, it simply would never get done because of the enormous cost. Louie, seen below, has been the face of the show since the book came out in 2002, and he ended up on the cover. I always tell people he’s firefighting’s answer to Robert DeNiro. He’s always been there to help.





It also would never have gotten done, were it not for the tireless efforts of Ellen Price, who has worked with the collection for almost 10 years. Her labors are done behind the scenes, organizing, cataloging, making sure it has been stored properly (24,000 lbs. of photography in museum quality, monitored storage!) and working with the 911 Museum to arrange for its’ eventual home. Below, Ellen works with the guys.




So it got done. It will be on floor of the Time Warner Center, free and open to the public, from 10am to 9pm every day until Sept. 12. After that, we’ll see what happens. More on that tk.




We had lots of press at the opening, and a bunch of subjects from the original project also graciously came. Below, Bill Butler speaks eloquently about the events of 911.




More than 75,000 people a day transit the TW Center. Which means that close to a million people will pass by these over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, they’ll stop for a moment, and remember.




Interviews: Watch on You Tube

More; http://www.facesofgroundzero.com

Joe McNally prints




Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sunday Focus: Joe McNally and the Faces of Ground Zero



Via JerseyStyle Photography
Because There's Style…And Then There's JerseyStyle…


The sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me then you disappeared into the dust
Up the stairs, into the fire
Up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs into the fire….
- Into the Fire, Bruce Springsteen, from The Rising


Sometimes it’s hard to believe it happened 10 years ago already.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe it didn’t happen just yesterday.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe 9/11 even happened at all.

There are a number of things I’ll remember from that time. I was working for a pharmaceutical company back then, and living in Central New Jersey, about an hour from NYC. I remember my boss at the time coming into my office, on a beautiful early fall day, saying “A plane just hit the World Trade Center. It’s on CNN.” I remember going into his office to watch…and watching as reports broke that another plane hit the WTC.

I remember dust and rubble. I remember all of us there at work just not sure what was happening.

I remember, as I was driving home later that day, American flags flying at half mast. I remember going back to my apartment, walking my dog, still under an impossibly gorgeous sky, and then pouring myself a glass of Jack Daniels and watching the news for the rest of the night.

Fast forward a few months. I’m on the road, doing some corporate photo shoots with Joe McNally. I had known him for a couple of years at that point, and was always happy to get to work with him again (though my passion for photography hadn’t broken the surfaced yet.) I remember being somewhere in the Midwest with Joe and his assistant, and him telling me about this portrait project he did in the days right after 9/11..had something to do with a huge Polaroid camera.

Then came the first showing of the exhibit in NYC in 2002. Joe invited me to come see the opening. Joe, others, made speeches. Jewel sang. It was a big night out for me and this gal I was seeing then. I shot some crappy images with a 1.2 megapixel digital camera. (see above, regarding passion for photography item…)

NYC was rebounding.

Fast forward even further…ten years down the road… the gal I took to that opening is now my wife. People have married and divorced. Babies have been born, and children have grown up under the cloak of terrorism and war. We got Osama. NYC continues to rebound.

Joe is now blogging and tweeting. And he keeps shooting.

The portraits Joe shot soon after 9/11 continue to live on and draw inspiration. With the exhibit opening again this Wednesday, with some new portraits and video interviews included, I wanted to find out from Joe what has changed in the last 10 years, and what has stayed the same.

So, enough with this long preamble to the good stuff. Read on…
.
JSP Q: Take me back to 2001….after 9/11, how did you conceive this project and how did it all come about?

JM:
In the days immediately after the attacks, I was home, with the kids. Like everyone, I was a mixture and a mess of various feelings and sensations – sorrow, shock, anger, confusion. Being a photog, there was also that part of me that was screaming to get the cameras and just go there. But I didn’t. I couldn’t have added much at all to the immediate photographic record that was being compiled by the hundreds of photographers already on the streets of lower Manhattan. I stayed at home and tried to come up with some way of making a contribution, and harked back to this camera I had used once, a very singular, one of kind camera that made huge, instant photos – the world’s only giant Polaroid camera the brainchild of Dr. Land himself.
Fortuitously, it was located in a studio not too far from Ground Zero, and very near several FDNY firehouses that had suffered losses. I had the notion that this particular camera, which renders people life size, with a great deal of formality and stature, might be an appropriate instrument to use to document the people whose lives had intersected with 9/11 in dramatic fashion. I secured funding almost immediately, from Time-Life. We moved into the camera within about 10 days of the event, and started to work. All the shooting was completed within a month or so. During that month, I lived at the studio, sleeping in a loft bed over the camera, rarely straying more than a few blocks from it. We were taking crews from the pit at 2 a.m., 12 noon, late at night, you name it. We told everyone – if you come to the studio, we will take your picture.


Ladder Nine, Engine 33 was the first firehouse to come by. Word of mouth spread pretty rapidly about this project, and this giant camera. Ultimately the effort came to be known as Faces of Ground Zero, and it became a book and a traveling exhibit that assisted in the raising of nearly $2 million dollars for the relief effort. This is the core of the show that will be on the floor of the Time Warner Center, 10 years later.

JSP Q: You’re including a number of new portraits and interviews for the new showing of the Faces of Ground Zero. I know you’ve kept in touch with some of your Faces portraits subjects, like Louie Cacchioli, over the past 10 years. Have you kept in touch with others?

JM:
Yes, quite a number. I’m a “friend of the house” at a couple NYC firehouses, and I do photography for them when they have things like medal days etc. I’m close with a few people, and families. Doing this update 10 years later has been a welcome excuse to reach out to all these people again. They’re an amazing, resilient group of folks.




JSP Q: What were some of your biggest challenges working on the project back then and what were some of the challenges this time around?

JM:
A big challenge back then was simply trying to not sound like an unhinged lunatic on the phone with people. I mean, imagine getting a call during this highly emotional, stressed time period from someone you don’t know, trying to convince you to come to some outlandish, giant camera on the lower east side of NY. People were in shock, people had experienced grievous losses. The idea of coming to pose for a photo sounded ridiculous, even to me. But I think what overrode other feelings was people’s need at the time to be part of something, to tell their story, and to have a voice. The project gave them a dignified way of doing that.

So our success rate of persuading people to come to the camera was very high, indeed. The cumbersome nature of the giant Polaroid actually played in my favor here. Every sheet I used cost $300. So when people asked those familiar questions, “How long will this take? How many pictures are you going to shoot?” I could honestly say that it wouldn’t take long at all, because I would only make one picture. And that proved to be true, most of the time.

Challenges this time around involved updating the show with a series of photos that have power and clarity all on their own, and speak to the person’s life now, ten years later. Additionally, we did video interviews as well, so there’s an additional component to the visual reporting that we have done. The new photos have to compete with their very large counterparts, all these years later, in terms of interest and pictorial power. That was a big challenge.



JSP Q: Any surprises this time around?

JM:
No real surprises, I would say, maybe more of a refreshing feeling of relief. I knew right from the get go, from back in 2001, that these were very strong people. And sure enough, here they are 10 years on, still strong, still doing their jobs, still being who they are. They were not crushed by 9/11. There’s an enormous sense of the positive they exude. Ten years of raising kids, fighting fires, doing their work, helping other people – the power of life ongoing is very strong. I remain in awe of the whole bunch.

JSP Q: It seems as though you have special connection with the people that you shot for this project. Do you expect to continue shooting portraits to for this project?

JM:
Yes, I hope to. We will continue, and also continue our efforts to raise money for the support of the collection as it makes its’ transition to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where it will reside in perpetuity.



It has been a bit of a saga, for me, as a lone freelance photographer, to shepherd this project for the last decade. But, it is a part of me, and I owe a great deal to the subjects of the project to safeguard their images, and to continue.

I guess to me, photographs have always been, very importantly, about memory, and the preservation thereof. Hence I continue to preserve these pictures and add to it as time goes on.



JSP Q: What’s next for Joe McNally?
JM: I would imagine, the next picture, the same way it has been for the last 35 years.
******************************************************************

Joe McNally and I have known each other for over 10 years now – first as business associates, then as friends. I’ve never asked him to be part of the my little Sunday Focus’. While he’s given me equal parts encouragement and inspiration towards my passion for photography, I never wanted to intrude on his time or play off that friendship for one of these posts.

But this one is a little different. I want to try to help get the word out about the new Faces of Ground Zero exhibit, so I asked Joe if he’d do this interview. I appreciate Joe taking the time to answer these questions in such a thoughtful manner. It was more than I expected, frankly, but then again, Joe doesn’t do anything halfway.

Nikon Inc. is the exclusive photographic equipment sponsor of the Faces of Ground Zero – 10 Years Later exhibit at the Time Warner Center. The free exhibit will take place from August 24 to September 12, 2011, and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday – Saturday and from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Adorama, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and others are also sponsors.
If you’re in the city and you get to see the exhibit, stop back here to let us know what you thought about it. Or if you Tweet about it, hashtag it #FGZ so that we can find it. It’s going to be powerful, I’m sure.

To find out more about the exhibit, or any of Joe’s work, follow him on Twitter and/or subscribe to his blog.

© Mark V. Krajnak 2011 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, images captured with a Canon 50D, SanDisk digital film, finished with PS4 or PSE6 and Nik Software
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

JOE McNALLY: TEN YEARS ON EXHIBIT OPENS AUGUST 24



Via Joe McNally's Blog
In Friends, News at 6:11am

Bill Butler was with Josephine Harris and five other members of Ladder 6, inside the North Tower of WTC when it came down. They resolutely stuck with Josephine, refusing to leave her, despite her painfully slow rate of descent. Bill half carried her, cajoling her all the way about seeing her grandchildren again. The building came down, and the miracle of Josephine’s pace put all of them in a fourth floor stairwell that remained intact. Somehow, as the building came down, crushing everything around it, they, and Josephine, survived.



Bill Butler, 2001, Firefighter, Ladder 6, FDNY

While trapped with Harris and his ladder company in Stairwell B, Butler used a cell phone to call emergency numbers but couldn’t get through. As a last effort, he called his home in Orange County, N.Y. His wife, Diane, answered.


“I just said, “Hi, what are you doing?” I was trying to be nonchalant. She said, “Where are you?” I said “We’re at the World Trade Center.” She asked, “Is everything okay?” Then I said, “Well, we have a little problem. We’re trapped in the Trade Center, but we’re okay.” Then she started to cry a little bit, because she knew there was no World Trade Center. At that point I said, “Listen, you can’t cry. I have to give you some information. You have to call the firehouse or call someone and tell them where we’re at.”



Lieutenant Bill Butler, FDNY, Aug. 3, 2011


Ten years later, Bill is a lieutentant with FDNY, serving at Ladder 56, Engine 48, up in the Bronx. His memories of the day are still vivid, even with the passing of time. Shot this, along with a video interview with Bill, just last week. The interview, and the portraits open at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, on Aug. 24th.
Exhibition made possible with the generous sponsorship of Nikon USA, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan, and friends of the collection.

More tk….




Tuesday, December 28, 2010

"NO FIREARMS ALLOWED"

Via Joe McNally's Blog:

The show at the Monroe Gallery I mentioned a couple weeks ago went well. You can always tell you’re having an exhibit in New Mexico when you see one of these:



Sorta makes you wish anybody who shows up really likes your work, ya know? More tk…." --Joe McNally



Related: Holiday Book Signing and Exhibit With Joe McNally

Friday, December 17, 2010

JOE McNALLY RECEPTION TONIGHT



Rooftop Ballerina  (Nadia Grachevo, Prima Ballerina), Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997
Joe McNally: Rooftop Ballerina (Nadia Grachevo, Prima Ballerina), Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997




Please join us tonight, Friday December 17, from 5 - 7 as we welcome Joe McNally for a reception, book signing, and special exhibit. Joe will be signing copies of his new book, The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need To Shoot Like The Pros.

Also on view, "'Tis The Season", photographs with a winter theme or setting. A perfect way to look at snow - inside!

Hope to see you!


Thursday, December 9, 2010

SPECIAL HOLIDAY BOOK SIGNING AND EXHIBIT WITH JOE McNALLY

Water Polo Boys, (U.S. Water Polo Team, Long Beach, California) 1996
Joe McNally: Water Polo Boys, (U.S. Water Polo Team, Long Beach, California) 1996

We are pleased and excited to welcome Joe McNally for a very special book signing and exhibition. We will celebrate Friday, December 17, from 5 to 7 PM with a public reception during which Joe will sign copies of his newest book: The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need To Shoot Like The Pros (256 pages; $29.95). A special selection of Joe's photographs will be on exhibit through January 30, 2011.

Just in time for the holidays, Joe McNally, one of LIFE's master shooters and the most recent in a long line of distinguished LIFE staff photographers, has prepared a fool-proof guide that covers tips of the trade; step-by-step instruction on focusing, lighting and composition; and features photos from his personal portfolio.




In The LIFE Guide to Digital Photography, McNally walks readers carefully through the do's and don'ts of shooting digital and concentrates on five fundamentals: light, the lens, design elements, color, and composition. He offers his expert advice on everything from shooting fireworks and family portraits, to telling a story with texture to choosing color or not — framing all discussions with his own personal experiences as a photographer.

Joe says: “The LIFE Guide is just that–a guide. It can take a newbie right from opening the box containing the new digital picture machine right through composition, light, lenses, and color.

I wrote this book for my alma mater, LIFE magazine. What a long strange trip photography is. I shot my first job for the magazine in 1984, and managed somehow to survive editor changes, shifts in format, style, and even the change of the physical size of the magazine to keep shooting for them right through the nineties. Just about 1995 they asked me to become their first staffer in 23 years, which also meant I became the last staff photographer in the history of the magazine, as it is no longer publishing. As I always point out, being the last in a series of 90 staff shooters at this illustrious picture magazine probably means that someone writing the history of this field will probably associate my name with the death of photojournalism :-)" --Joe McNally


Rooftop Ballerina  (Nadia Grachevo, Prima Ballerina), Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997
Joe McNally: Rooftop Ballerina (Nadia Grachevo, Prima Ballerina), Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997


Please join us Friday, December 17 for a holiday book signing with Joe McNally, along with a very special exhibit of his photography, during a reception from 5 - 7 PM. Or contact the gallery now to reserve a signed copy. Also be sure to check out Joe's highly acclaimed workshops, including his Santa Fe Workshop.




Related: Joe McNally: Faces of Ground Zero

Faces of Ground Zero: Louie Cacchioli, Firefighter, Engine 47, FDNY

Joe McNally: Faces of Ground Zero: Louie Cacchioli, Firefighter, Engine 47, FDNY, 2001