New Exhibition: WWII - Eighty Years and Free Film Screening

 

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to present a special exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the largest and most violent military conflict in human history. “WWII – Eighty Years” opens on Friday, April 18, with a special free screening of the HBO Documentary Film “Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro” on Saturday, April 19 at 5 pm. Seating is limited, RSVP required. The exhibition continues through June 22, 2025.

This anniversary reminds us of war’s cost and the courage to believe in humanity, even in the darkest times.

At the age of 21, Tony Vaccaro was drafted into WWII and was a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. The acclaimed HBO Films documentary “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” tells the story of how Tony Vaccaro survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone.

   

 Preview the exhibition here.

RSVP for the film screening here.

Loving Moments

Via The Albuquerque Journal

February 23, 2024

By Logan Royce Beitmen Journal Staff Writer 

Monroe Gallery of Photography presents Grey Villet’s tender images of the couple who legalized interracial love

Sixty years ago, Life Magazine photographer Grey Villet photographed Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial married couple who had been arrested and convicted under Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws. The Lovings were eventually vindicated in 1967 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia, a landmark civil rights decision that legalized interracial marriage and paved the way for same-sex marriage decades later. 

But in 1965, when Villet photographed them, the Lovings were still weary from their yearslong legal battle and publicity-shy due to threats of lynching. 

Villet’s photographs of the couple, on view at the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe through April 13, show them engaged in everyday domestic activities. As the late photographer’s wife, Barbara Villet, wrote in a New York Times essay, these photographs humanized the Lovings and showed that they were “a quintessentially ordinary couple extraordinarily in love with each other.” 

“Emotional content always mattered most to Grey in his work and pursuit of images ‘as real as real could get.’ It’s what gives his take on the Loving family its intimacy and strength,” she wrote. “Unlike many other celebrated photographers, he avoided posing his subjects, refused to manipulate the action and simply waited patiently for telling moments to emerge, in the belief that reality would supply more truth than any imposition of his own ego.” Villet was famous for his spending many days with his subjects and shooting only with available light and a hand-held long lens, which allowed him to disappear into the background. Even the Lovings, who were quiet, private people, felt comfortable enough in his presence to reveal their intimate lives.

In addition to challenging racist ideas, Villet’s photographs of the Lovings challenged notions of gender and class, as well.

In some of his photographs, including one where Mildred is mending Richard’s shirt button and one where Richard is reclining with his head in her lap, Mildred is positioned higher in the frame than her husband, whereas in most art directed photographs and films of that era, women were traditionally positioned lower. Villet’s authentic slice-of-life images subverted the prevailing gender hierarchy. 

His tender images also challenge stereotypes about working-class masculinity. As Barbara Villet wrote in the Times essay, her husband’s portraits of Richard Loving, in particular, revealed “the face of a laborer who, despite the macho exterior, is a sensitive man.” 

Monroe Gallery’s “Loving” gives viewers the opportunity to reflect on this unlikely, history-making couple 60 years after Villet first photographed them.

‘LOVING’ By Grey Villet 

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; through April 13 

WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe 

HOW MUCH: Free, monroegallery.com

History through the lens of legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge

Via Connecticut Public Radio

By Ray Hardman

June 6, 2024

Barbra Streisand in the dressing room of the Johnny Carson Show (The Tonight Show) January 1963. Photographer Bill Eppridge is standing behind her making a photograph of her reflected in the mirror. Life reporter Chris Welles is on the left behind Streisand.

Listen here

Bill Eppridge and his Nikon camera chronicled some of the most important events of the second half of the 20th century, including his iconic photograph of a dying Robert F. Kennedy shortly after he was shot in 1968.

Eppridge, who lived in Connecticut, died in 2013 at the age of 75. Since then, his widow, Adrienne Aurichio, has been cataloging his enormous body of work — photographs, negatives and other correspondence dating from his earliest days as a photojournalist.

“There is so much history in there that he didn't want any of that to be lost,” Aurichio said. “There's every note card, every postcard someone sent him, memos from editors all about his work, he saved everything because he said, ‘This is part of my legacy, part of my archive that people will want to look at later.'"

Eppridge was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lived in New Milford, Connecticut. But he grew up in Richmond, Virginia during segregation.

Aurichio reflected on those formative years.

“Something that stuck with him his whole life was seeing a white policeman get on a bus and make an elderly Black woman move because she was sitting in the front,” Aurichio said. “And he was with his good friend, they were maybe 10. And he said he never forgot that, you know, just the injustice of it.”

Aurichio said that sense of empathy and injustice is evident in all of his work, but especially when he was covering the Civil Rights Movement for Life Magazine in the 1960s.

She showed a picture she recently discovered in Eppridge’s archives, just one example of the historically significant photographs she continues to uncover. The black and white image is a closeup of a Black woman addressing a crowd. Aurichio is convinced the woman is civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, addressing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Convention in 1964, which she co-founded.

Julianne Varacchi
Connecticut Public Host Ray Hardman interviews Adrienne Aurichio in Danbury, Conn. for “Where ART Thou?” as they look at Bill Eppridge's photograph of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer from 1964. Aurichio is the widow and publishing collaborator of famed photojournalist Bill Eppridge. Adrienne and Bill moved to New Milford in 2004, where Adrienne still lives.

“I did some research and found her in some news photos,” Aurichio said. "She was wearing the same dress and she's at the convention and she's singing. And it was only a couple of days after Bill had photographed the funeral of James Chaney.”

James Chaney was one of three civil rights workers killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964. Aurichio said some 60 years later, it’s still hard to believe that Eppridge, a young white photographer on assignment, actually went to the Chaney house and asked if he could stay with them in the midst of their grief and take pictures. They welcomed him in, and Eppridge captured a series of haunting pictures of James Chaney’s funeral for Life Magazine.

This “Fly on the Wall” approach worked well on another important assignment from earlier that year. In February 1964, Eppridge headed to JFK Airport to photograph a music group from Liverpool, England, called The Beatles, who were making their first trip to the U.S.

Aurichio said the assignment, which was only supposed to last a day, ended up lasting six days. Eppridge captured not only the youthful exuberance of the "Fab Four" on their first visit to the states, but also the fever pitch reactions of the hordes of fans fully in the throes of “Beatlemania.”

Bill Eppridge/©Estate Of Bill Eppridge

The Beatles with Ed Sullivan, February 8, 1964. New York City.

Eppridge continued to cover important assignments — Vietnam, revolutions in Central and South America, and Woodstock — but his defining moment as a photojournalist came while covering the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

“When he first heard the gunshots, he knew instantly it was a gun, and he immediately pushed forward to try and see what had happened,” Aurichio said.

Kennedy was assassinated after addressing a crowd of supporters gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Aurichio said Eppridge was one of the first to enter the hotel kitchen where Bobby Kennedy lay dying.

“It's somewhat extraordinary that he could make that picture,” Aurichio said. “So he had to have the wherewithal in a split second to say, ‘OK, I can't do much. There are other people closing in. What can I do as a photographer? This is history.’ And in his mind, he thought it really has to be documented because you don't want questions later, as there always are with JFK’s assassination.”

The photograph, that of a dying Kennedy laying in a circle of overhead light, his head cradled by a kitchen worker, is one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.

Aurichio said Eppridge never stopped taking photographs.

Even during his long bout with pancreatic cancer, Eppridge continued to be a “fly on the wall,” capturing the beauty and spontaneity of his subjects, just as he had done for decades.

Bill Eppridge's photographs are featured in the current "1964" exhibition though June 23, 2024. More of Eppridge's work may be found here.

Search Continues for Bill Eppridge's Skateboarder

 

Via SKATEboarding

May 1, 2024

Tony Hawk and Dan Rodo Are One Step Closer to Finding 'Central Park Mystery Skater' From 1965

The search for the dapper skater from LIFE magazine (1965) continues.

Brian Blakely
May 1, 2024



For as long as I can remember, Tony Hawk has periodically hopped on Instagram in hopes of identifying what he calls "the icon of style" in a photo shot by photographer Bill Eppridge in 1965 for LIFE magazine. Maybe you've seen it?

Well, on April 19th, artist (and downright impressive investigative journalist, whether he considers himself one or not), Dan James Rodo joined forces with the Birdman to see if the social media world could help them uncover the story of the mystery man in this iconic photo. They just dropped the fourth installment... and they're getting extremely close! This is getting good. Check it out:

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dan James Rodo - The Danocracy (@danocracy)

If you're just hearing about this, you should definitely stop what you're doing and follow Tony and Dan on Instagram (@tonyhawk / @danocracy) because they've really been digging deep to uncover this mystery, but like thousands and thousands of others, I've become personally invested. Again—Tony has been posting about this mystery skater forever and I'm pretty thrilled that they're not giving up.

They've been in touch with everyone from ex-LIFE magazine editors to Surfer magazine editors; the New York Parks Department to folks who were in Central Park during the shoot that day... as well as the gallery that represents photographer Bill Eppridge's work, his wife and so much more. This is the real deal!

There has been no shortage of comments on the posts either, offering potential leads, support and generally keeping the conversation going. It's so rad. Dan mentions that he plans on having another update posted within a week (honestly, these videos can't be that easy to make... so we salute you, Dan!) and we're all patiently waiting to see if he struck gold or uncovered anymore gems.

We'll be posting any updates here as they're available. In the meantime... keep it up, dudes! We're all rooting for you. Let's find this mystery man!

Bob Gomel Day Proclaimed

 

Bob Gomel Day

WHEREAS, Houstonian Bob Gomel has dedicated eight decades to the advancement of American photojournalism and imagery of world cultures; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel’s love of photography began in his youth in New York City, continued with his graduation from New York University with a journalism degree, through his service abroad as a U.S. Navy Aviator, and into his emergence as a professional photographer; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel captured the triumphs and tragedies of the 1960s as a photographer for LIFE magazine, making iconic and innovative images of world leaders and events, athletes and entertainers, and great moments in contemporary history; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel’s notable LIFE assignments included photographing President John F. Kennedy’s historic “We Choose to Go tothe Moon” speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel moved to Houston in the 1970s and opened a photography studio where he produced images of leading political, business, academic and medical figures, and he helped co-found the Houston chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel’s famous 1997 photograph, “Fireworks Over Houston,” is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel is the subject of the documentary Bob Gomel: Eyewitness directed by David Scarbrough, and Gomel’s work remains of interest to historians, news organizations and collectors around the nation; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel’s contemporary photography emphasizes world cultures and life abroad and includes images from Asia, Europe and The Americas; and

WHEREAS, Bob Gomel’s photographic archives have been donated to the Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin, and a newly published selection of his life’s work is exhibited at the 2024 Fotofest Biennial in Houston; and

 

WHEREAS, The City of Houston commends and recognizes Bob Gomel for his contributions to photojournalism in Houston and beyond;

 THEREFORE, I, John Whitmire, Mayor of the City of Houston, do hereby proclaim April 23 2024, as  Bob Gomel Day In Houston, Texas

 

Bob Gomel's photographs are featured in the current exhibition 1964

Bob Gomel: Artist Talk and Film Screening April 3

 Via The Alta Arts

Bob Gomel: Eyewitness is a documentary film that examines the stories behind the stories of some of the most significant events in the 20th century, especially the turbulent 1960’s.

Join us for An Evening with Bob Gomel – with Q&A to follow. Hear and see history unfold from the perspective of a legendary LIFE Magazine photographer.  Moderated by Don Carleton of the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas in Austin.

Admission is free – however, reservations are required.  Follow the book online link.

April 3, 2024 - 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The exhibition Bob Gomel: Eyewitness continue through April 13, 2024 at The Alta Arts.

Bob Gomel: Eyewitness at Alta Arts, Houston

 Via Alta Arts

March 1, 2024

Bob Gomel: Eyewitness Exhibition Opening Reception

March 7, 2024 - 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

The triumphs and tragedies of the 1960s provided photographer Bob Gomel extraordinary opportunities to help advance American photojournalism. As the images in Eyewitness demonstrate, when history was made, Gomel often was there, making iconic and innovative images of world leaders and events, athletes and entertainers, and great moments in contemporary history — including President John F. Kennedy, the Beatles, Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, and Marilyn Monroe.

This exhibition, presented by Alta Arts and sponsored by the Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin, and in conjunction with the 2024 Fotofest Biennial, serves as a retrospective of Gomel’s work and includes photographs from his personal collection that are featured for the first time in a public showing.

Born in New York in 1933, Gomel earned a journalism degree from New York University in 1955 and then served as a U.S. Navy aviator. Gomel joined LIFE in 1959 and shot for the immensely popular magazine for a decade. He later freelanced for Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Fortune and Forbes magazines, and shot national advertising campaigns for Audi, Bulova, GTE, Merrill Lynch, and Shell Oil, among others.

Eyewitness also features selections from the Bob Gomel Photographic Archive, part of the extensive photographic holdings of the Briscoe Center. The center’s photojournalism archives have flourished over the past two decades into a renowned collection of national-level importance. Gomel’s archive at the Briscoe Center ranges from 1959 to 2014 and includes film negatives, contact sheets, and exhibit prints.

Curated by Bob Gomel.

Contact Monroe Gallery of Photography for fine art print information.

Installation team:  J.P. Zenturo Perez and Alexander Uribe of Alta Arts.

Alta Arts

5412 Ashbrook Drive

Houston TX 77081

Greenwich Historical Society Exhibit Features 6 Women Photographers Whose Iconic Images for LIFE Magazine Helped Create Modern Journalism

Via Greenwich Free Press

February 29, 2024


Six pioneering women whose photographs for LIFE magazine skillfully captured events on a quickly evolving world stage will be the subject of Greenwich Historical Society’s new exhibition to debut March 6. These photographers enabled the public “to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events,” as described by LIFE magazine founder and editor-in-chief Henry Luce.

Martha Holmes, photograph from “Mr. B.,” LIFE, April 24, 1950 © LIFE Picture Collection, Dotdash Meredith Corp. Martha Holmes began photographing for LIFE in 1944. On view in the exhibition are Holmes’s 1950 photographs of mixed-race singer Billy Eckstine, including one of Eckstine being embraced by a white fan—a provocative image that Holmes felt was one of her best because she felt that it “told just what the world should be like.” Henry Luce supported this opinion.


LIFE: Six Women Photographers features iconic images from these talented women who helped create modern photojournalism through their work as featured in the pages of LIFE magazine.

On view through July 7, 2024, the exhibition presents more than 70 photographs by Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971), Marie Hansen (1918-1969), Martha Holmes (1923-2006), Lisa Larsen (ca. 1925-1959), Nina Leen (ca. 1909-1995) and Hansel Mieth (1909-1998).

“We are thrilled to showcase the works of these talented photographers who were on the vanguard of a transformative change in how twentieth-century Americans received and understood global cultural and political events,” said Maggie Dimock, curator of exhibitions and collections at Greenwich Historical Society.

“This insightful exhibition offers a glimpse into how each of these remarkable women used their camera to capture topics that dominated American discourse through the last century, including U.S. industrial strength, the role of women and the family in modern American society, race relations, World War II, labor movements and the Cold War.”

A long-time Greenwich resident, Henry Luce (1898 – 1967) was convinced that American political, economic, and cultural power would, and should, dominate the era and that photojournalism, or “photo essays” as he coined them, could effectively shape America as an international power, inspiring its people, in his words, “to live and work and fight with vigor and enthusiasm.”

For decades, Americans saw the world through the lens of the photographers at LIFE, and the magazine’s innovative photo essays became the publication’s trademark.

Of the 101 photographers on staff at LIFE during the magazine’s run as a weekly, only six full-time photographers were women. LIFE: Six Women Photographers highlights the work of these photographers while providing insight into the process through which they worked with editors to create visual stories, through the inclusion of photographs, vintage prints, copy prints and contact sheets. Published and unpublished photographs along with select memos, correspondence and other items from Time Inc. records show the editing process behind the final, published stories.

“The topic will provide fascinating historical context to the enormous changes underway today in media,” said Greenwich Historical Society Executive Director and CEO Debra Mecky. “And it will enable us to further our mission to strengthen the community’s connection to our past, to each other and to our future. Henry Luce was a Greenwich resident during the time he was arguably the most influential media figure in the twentieth century and one of the country’s most prominent citizens.”

LIFE: Six Women Photographers has been organized by the New-York Historical Society. The exhibition is curated by Marilyn Satin Kushner, curator and head, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections; and Sarah Gordon, curatorial scholar in women’s history, Center for Women’s History; with Erin Levitsky, Ryerson University; and William J. Simmons, Andrew Mellon Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Center for Women’s History. The New-York Historical Society holds the research archive of Time Inc., which was acquired by the Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith Corp.) in 2018.

A series of lectures, workshops and discussions, film screenings and other activity related to the exhibition will be presented by Greenwich Historical Society throughout the duration of the exhibition, beginning with two in March:

Women of Photos and Letters: Margaret Bourke-White, Clare Booth Luce and Annie Leibovitz
Thursday, March 14 from 6:00 – 7:00 pm


In honor of Women’s History Month, Louisa Iacurci of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame will explore the inspiring histories of Hall of Fame inductees whose work and lives are intertwined with social advocacy and journalistic activism, including photographers Margaret Bourke-White and Annie Leibovitz and writer, journalist and politician Clare Booth Luce.

LIFE: Six Women Photographers: A Lecture with Curator Marilyn Satin Kushner

Thursday, March 21 from 6:00 – 7:00 pm

In an illustrated lecture, Dr. Marilyn Satin Kushner, Curator and Head of the Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections at New-York Historical Society, will expand on the curatorial process for LIFE: Six Women Photographers.

The full program schedule is available online: https://greenwichhistory.org/life-six-women-photographers/

Guided Gallery Tours:
Tours will be offered on select Sundays through June, from 1:00 – 1:30pm. Free with admission, participants will enjoy an in-depth docent-led discussion of LIFE: Six Women Photographers, that shares insightful interpretation of the photographs on view, and a modern perspective to understanding the complex social backdrop in which they would have originally been seen by magazine readers.

Dates: March 10, 24; April 7, 21; May 5, 19; June 2, 16, 30.

For more information: https://greenwichhistory.org/event/guided-gallery-tour/.

Margaret Bourke-White, photograph from “Franklin Roosevelt’s Wild West,” LIFE, November 23, 1936 © LIFE Picture Collection, Dotdash Meredith Corp. Margaret Bourke-White became one of the first four staff photographers at LIFE in 1936.

This exhibition has been generously supported by Joyce B. Cowin, with additional support from Sara Lee Schupf, Jerry Speyer, Robert A.M. Stern and Northern Trust.

Support for this exhibition at the Greenwich Historical Society has been generously provided by Josie Merck and annual donors to the Greenwich Historic Trust.

 

BYU Museum of Art debuts new exhibit ‘Life: Six Women Photographers’

Via The Daily Universe

Oct. 26, 2023

BYU’s Museum of Art debuted its new exhibit “Life: Six Women Photographers” earlier this month, highlighting six influential women photographers’ work from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The exhibit features the work of photojournalists Margaret Bourke-White, Hansel Mieth, Marie Hansen, Nina Leen, Martha Holmes and Lisa Larsen.

Featured within the new installation are a variety of photos, such as Marie Hansen’s photo essay showcasing the 20th century Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and Margaret Bourke-White’s photographs depicting the impact of the American economic depression on the people of the 1930s. Photographer Nina Leen highlights the work of women and mothers, while portraits of Hollywood personalities are featured in Martha Holmes’ photos of Billy Eckstine. Hansel Mieth’s photos focus on depicting the reality of labor forces and the experiences of the general public.

BYU students, local community members and visitors now have the opportunity to visit the Museum of Art’s new exhibit and appreciate the talent of these six female photojournalist pioneers.

“I think it’s cool that we’re honoring female photographers,” Sally Bradshaw, a BYU junior, said.

Bradshaw continued to describe the photos in the exhibit as “down to earth.”

“They capture very emotional moments, it seems. It’s pretty inspirational,” BYU student Logan Berry said.

Life Magazine, which ran weekly from 1883 to 1972 and monthly from 1978 to 2000, focused on showing “The Most Iconic Photographs of All Time,” according to Life Magazine‘s website.

The “Life: Six Women Photographers” exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art gives visitors the opportunity to witness for themselves the photographs of the six featured photographers. The exhibit displays photos both published and unpublished by Life.

“It’s like a crazy cool opportunity to be able to see these things that at one point were just in a magazine but are now really important,” BYU student Katy Turner said.

Turner continued to express interest in the past and future BYU Museum of Art photography shows because of the focus on important events.

“A lot of times we try to make it a focus and like a point to remember prominent women in history or maybe women in history who were amazing but we don’t really know about,” Bradshaw said. “I think it’s really cool that BYU wants to give a space to that because we’re all about honoring amazing people.”

“Life: Six Women Photographers” was organized by the New-York Historical Society and will be on display in the BYU Museum of Art until Feb. 3, 2024.

There will be a panel discussion discussing the exhibit and photography, art history and journalism on Thursday, Oct. 26 at the Museum of Art. BYU professors and faculty members Heather Belnap, Melissa Gibbs and Paul Adams will be presenting.

Museum of Art educator Liz Donakey will also host a gallery talk regarding the exhibit on Wednesday, Nov. 29.

Students can schedule a tour of the exhibit on the Museum of Art website.

Related exhibit: The LIFE Photographers

LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography October 9, 2022–January 16, 2023

 Via Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Margaret Bourke-White, Flame Burner Ann Zarik, 1943

From the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, almost all of the photographs printed for consumption by the American public appeared in illustrated magazines. Among them, Life magazine—published weekly from 1936 to 1972—was both wildly popular and visually revolutionary, with photographs arranged in groundbreaking dramatic layouts known as photo essays. This exhibition takes a closer look at the creation and impact of the carefully selected images found in the pages of Life—and the precisely crafted narratives told through these pictures—in order to reveal how the magazine shaped conversations about war, race, technology, national identity, and more in the 20th-century United States. From Neil Armstrong’s photographs of the historic moon landing to Charles Moore’s coverage of the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations, the photographs on view capture some of the defining moments—celebratory and traumatic alike—of the last 100 years.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Life magazine’s picture and paper archives as well as photographers’ archives, the exhibition brings together more than 180 objects, including vintage photographs, contact sheets, assignment outlines, internal memos, and layout experiments. Visitors can trace the construction of a Life photo essay from assignment through to the creative and editorial process of shaping images into a compelling story. This focus departs from the historic fascination with the singular photographic genius and instead celebrates the collaborative efforts behind many now-iconic images and stories. Particular attention is given to the women staff members of Life, whose roles remained forgotten or overshadowed by the traditional emphasis on men at the magazine. Most photographs on view are original working press prints—made to be used in the magazine’s production—and represent the wide range of photographers who worked for Life, such as Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

Interspersed throughout the exhibition, three immersive contemporary “moments” feature works by artists active today who interrogate news media through their practice. A multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photographs by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel frame larger conversations for visitors about implicit biases and systemic racism in contemporary media.

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” offers a revealing look at the collaborative processes behind many of Life’s most recognizable, beloved, and controversial images and photo essays, while incorporating the voices of contemporary artists and their critical reflections on photojournalism.

The exhibition is accompanied by a multi-authored catalogue, winner of the College Art Association’s 2021 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award. “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” is co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Princeton University Art Museum.

Visit the Monroe Gallery of Photography exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

Coming in October: See ‘Life Magazine and the Power of Photography’ at the MFA Boston

 Via Boston.com

August 26, 2022

Flame Burner Ann Zarik, taken in 1943. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, Life picture collection

The museum displays photos from the archives of the publication that shaped American photojournalism.

The Museum of Fine Arts will display dozens of original photos from Life magazine’s archives in “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” this fall, highlighting Life’s cultural impact and the way its photos shaped American media throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Life printed in some capacity from 1883 through 2000. Published independently until 1936, Life was a light entertainment magazine heavy on illustrations, featuring the likes of Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell. Publisher Henry Luce bought the publication in 1936, turning it into the notable American photographic magazine we know it as today. The first of its kind, it defined photojournalism and chronicled historic moments of the last century, like the moon landing and the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations. Life was the first to publish Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square.”

The exhibit will display original photos alongside objects from Life’s paper archives like assignment outlines, memos, and layout drafts, taking a close look at how Life photo essays were constructed from assignment all the way through to completion. In peering behind the scenes of the magazine’s creation, the exhibit also examines how Life shaped conversations around topics like race, war, technology, and national identity. 

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” also displays three immersive contemporary works interspersed throughout the exhibit—a multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photos by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel all examine modern news media and themes like implicit biases.

The exhibit features the work of photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith, and runs Oct. 9 through Jan. 16 in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.

Related: Monroe Gallery Exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

LIFE Magazine Show Opens At Monroe Gallery Of Photography

The Truth in Tears….

 Via Joe McNally's Blog

June 27, 2022

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection: Navy CPO Graham Jackson as he Plays 'Goin' Home' on the accordion while President Franklin D. Roosevelt's body is carried from The Warm Springs Foundation, where he died suddenly of a stroke on April12, 1945 Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

One of the proudest associations I have enjoyed in my career is my long time affiliation with the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe. The gallery represents historically important photojournalism, and Sid and Michelle Monroe are fierce advocates of the importance of photojournalism, and equally fierce defenders of the artists who create the work they show on their walls. They are also amongst the most knowledgeable people in this industry, steeped in the history, legends and lore of this art and craft.

On Friday, July 1, they launch an important exhibit. “Imagine a World Without Photojournalism,” which is a date that coincides with the gallery’s 20th anniversary in Santa Fe. Their walls will simply vibrate with famous, important, provocative, challenging, memorable, sad and glorious slices of our life and times. The images enrich, enrage, dismay, and soothe the soul. Your eyes and heart will never be the same after seeing this collection of work.

Sid and Michelle are dear friends, and they know me well by now. Whenever I sell an image through the gallery, I never ask for the money. I leave it with them, building a bank account over time, at the gallery. When I have enough stashed to afford a print, I choose one. Such as CPO Jackson, above, in the banner photo. I have it on my wall, and see it every day.

Made by the formidable LIFE staffer Ed Clark, it depicts Navy CPO Graham Jackson as he plays “Goin’ Home” on the accordion while President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s body is carried from The Warm Springs Foundation, where he died suddenly of a stroke on April 12, 1945. According to accounts, he had a personal relationship with FDR, thus his grief, so poignantly manifest in this frame, is both about the loss of a leader, and a friend.

The picture is just as searing, relevant and heart wrenching today as it was the day Mr. Jackson was playing that accordion, and Ed Clark clicked a shutter button. Without the hearts and minds of photojournalists, a picture like this doesn’t exist. Without the photographers who are risking their lives in Ukraine, we don’t know and thus can’t feel the weight and horror of the madness raging there.

Photojournalists are often not welcome, as we show, in unflinching fashion, things many don’t want to see or recognize. But visual storytelling is more necessary than ever. As our country devolves into vengeful tribalism, and skepticism flourishes, nourished by unalloyed ignorance, I look at CPO Jackson’s face from long ago. There is truth in the tears.

More tk….

LIFE Magazine Show Opens At Monroe Gallery Of Photography

Via Life.com

Written By: Jill Golden

Like thousands of New Yorkers, Sid and Michelle Monroe left the city after the events of September 11 to find a new home. They chose the art and cultural capital of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they opened the Monroe Gallery of Photography in April 2002. Now, twenty years later, they’re celebrating their gallery’s anniversary by revisiting the topic of their first show: the photographers of LIFE Magazine.

Opening on May 6, 2022, the show celebrates what the Monroes call LIFE’s “stunning affirmation of the humanist notion that the camera’s proper function is to persuade and inform.” Photographs from essays by LIFE icons such as Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans, and Andreas Feininger will be on display. LIFE photographer Bob Gomel, now 88, will also be in attendance at the opening reception from 5-7pm on Friday, May 6.

LIFE.com recently caught up with the gallerists Sid and Michelle Monroe over email to learn more about their show and their thoughts on LIFE, and, well, life in Santa Fe.

How did you become gallerists? Why did you choose to focus on photojournalism?

We both entered the museum field after college, Michelle with the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Sid with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Michelle was also a working artist and Sid was the director of a SoHo gallery specializing in fine art editions, where the gallery owner was exploring an exhibition with Alfred Eisenstaedt in collaboration with the LIFE Picture Collection. In 1985, we sat down with Alfred Eisenstaedt to discuss the exhibition and, then in our 20s, were were awed and engaged with his stories of an extraordinary life behind the camera.

We understood that we were in the presence of something bigger than we had ever encountered before. The work of Alfred Eisenstaedt is our collective history—we didn’t live this but this is what formed the world we were born into. In the eighties, photography was only beginning to gain a foothold in the fine art market, and most galleries were concentrating on the early “masters” of fine art photography. Eisenstaedt, and in general the field of photojournalism, had not been exhibited in a gallery setting. We believed immediately that a gallery which combined the realms of art, history, and reportage would be unique, and that set us on our course.

Albert Einstein, Princeton, NY, 1949
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Why a LIFE exhibition? Why now?

We had our beginning in New York, and over the course of the 1990s had the extraordinary opportunity to meet, get to know, and work with many of the legendary photographers of LIFE magazine, all in their retirement years. Through countless conversations, we learned how they saw the world and recorded it for the magazine, and more importantly, for history. Their work, and work approach, helped us gain insight into how to view their photographs, decades after they made them. Ever since, we have have worked conscientiously over the past 20 years to establish Monroe Gallery of Photography at the intersection between photojournalism and fine art, showcasing works embedded in our collective consciousness that shape our shared history. The Gallery represents several of the most significant photojournalists up to the present day, but the work of the LIFE photographers has been our foundation

.

Mother and child in Hiroshima, Japan, December 1945.

Alfred Eisenstaedt; The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

What do you wish collectors knew about LIFE? The general public?

The work of the photographers of LIFE magazine came to define the medium of photojournalism, and their photographs recorded history and informed us all for most of the twentieth century. It was long one of the most popular and widely imitated of American magazines, selling millions of copies a week. From its start, LIFE emphasized photography, with gripping, superbly chosen news photographs, amplified by photo features and photo essays on an international range of topics. Its photographers were the elite of their craft and enjoyed worldwide esteem. Published weekly from 1936 to 1972, the work of the photographers of LIFE magazine came to define the medium of photojournalism.

American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right), after winning gold and bronze Olympic medals in the 200 meters, respectively, raised their fists in a Black Power salute, Mexico, 1968. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left.
John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Do you have a favorite piece in the show?

Considering we curated the exhibit from potentially thousands of images, the exhibit itself represents our favorites—with enough left over we could easily do a “part two”!

Who are some of your favorite LIFE photographers? Are there some that may have been overlooked?

That’s a difficult question, as each LIFE photographer had their own individual and particular personality and style. We consider ourselves extraordinarily privileged to have been able to have known, and call friends, so many of these great photographers. To name only a few, Eisenstaedt was by many measures the “Dean” of the LIFE photographers and he taught us how to “see”; Carl Mydans left a deep impression on us with his humility and intense humanistic dedication; Bill Eppridge was deeply committed to documenting historic and deeply sensitive subjects; and Bob Gomel‘s versatility and ingenuity impresses us to this day.

 

John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul Mccartney and Ringo Starr, February 1964.
© Bob Gomel / Courtesy of Bob Gomel

And for people who plan to visit the LIFE show in Santa Fe, are there other favorite art spots in the area that you recommend?

Santa Fe is a gem of an art-destination city. There are over 200 galleries showing every possible form of art from ancient Native American art and pottery to cutting edge contemporary art. [We recommend] SITE Santa Fe, a contemporary art space; Institute of American Indian Arts; Museum Hill; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; and Meow Wolf, an ‘immersive art installation where visitors enter and discover that nothing is as it seems…

Do you have advice for young photojournalists who might want to display their works in a gallery?

Foremost, understand and dedicate yourself to the profession and its specific ethical requirements. Respect its role as the fourth estate and its check on power. Do the work. The role of photojournalists has perhaps never been as vital and important as it is today.

Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi reading next to a spinning wheel at home. (Photo by Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection © DotDash Meredith)

The LIFE Photographers exhibit will be on display at Monroe Gallery from May 6 through June 26, 2022. For hours and location, please consult the gallery’s website.

Jill Golden is the director of the LIFE Picture Collection, an archive of more than 10 million photographs created by—and collected by—LIFE Magazine.

In the Gallery with: Sid and Michelle Monroe

 Via 1854 - British Journal of Photography

December 8, 2021

“I think some of the greatest photojournalism contains information that we were never meant to see”

In 1985, Michelle and Sid Monroe sat down with Alfred Eisenstaedt to discuss the possibility of exhibiting the famed LIFE magazine photographer’s work at a Manhattan gallery. Then in his 80s, Eisenstaedt regaled the young couple, then in their 20s and engaged to wed, with stories of an extraordinary life behind the camera. (direct link with slide show)

The Monroes experienced a powerful moment of revelation as Eisenstaedt recounted memories of fascism spreading across Europe and the harrowing realisation he would have to leave Germany to survive. “It was the meeting of a lifetime,” says Sid. “It was remarkable to see this person who had witnessed and photographed history. We were in the presence of something bigger than we had ever encountered before. This is our collective history — we didn’t live this but this is what formed the world we were born into.”

Hitler's Window. Germany. 1945 © Tony Vaccaro, courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography.

The encounter with Eisenstaedt opened their eyes to a new path, one that combined the realms of art, history, and reportage. At a time when photography was still striving to receive proper recognition from the art world, the young couple decided to devote themselves to uplifting, supporting, and preserving the work of photojournalists with the creation of Monroe Gallery in a classic street-level Soho loft on Grand Street. “It was like falling in love,” says Michelle. “It wasn’t a strategic decision that either of us made but more like listening to a piece of music that you were completely moved by.”

Sid concurs. “It became a passion that probably wouldn’t have made any sense if we had thought critically about it, but we decided: this is it. It was a remarkable time. We met many of Eisenstaedt’s colleagues for LIFE, who were all in their 70s or 80s. Although they had retired, they still had offices at the Time-Life Building and were treated like royalty. When we opened our gallery, we thought we hit the jackpot and assumed everyone was going to feel what we feel.”

But in the 1980s, photojournalism wasn’t sexy, it wasn’t conceptual, and although it was reasonably priced, it was a hard sell. At the time, dealers were focused on selling vintage prints, while the Monroes were breaking new ground selling multiples and limited editions. “It was a little bleak in the beginning because people didn’t understand,” Sid says. “But, on the flip side, that allowed us to develop our focus and it became our domain.”

Mrs. Chaney and young Ben. James Chaney funeral. Meridian, Mississippi. 1964 © Bill Eppridge.

After 9/11, the Monroes left downtown Manhattan and headed west, settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “It gave us more freedom,” says Michelle. “In New York, you’re always going to be a relatively small gallery and competing for attention. In Santa Fe, you stand out just by doing what you do.” 

Santa Fe living also allows for a distinctive change of pace. “In New York, it’s ‘I’ve got five minutes, show me what you’ve got’,” says Sid. “Here it’s more relaxed. We can sit and talk with collectors — but it’s still a hustle.” 

Indeed, the Monroes have worked diligently over the past 20 years to establish the gallery at the intersection between photojournalism and fine art, showcasing works embedded in our collective consciousness that shape our shared history. The gallery roster includes Bill Ray, Tony Vaccaro, Bill Eppridge, Eddie Adams, Nina Berman, Cornell Capa, Ruth Orkin, and Nina Leen — photographers who not only documented their times but have also transformed the very way we see.

“Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, they taught us how to look at history, and the people we represent are part of the same family tree. Over the past 10, 15 years, we’ve seen more work that has the same visual impact,” says Michelle. The gallery roster has expanded to include more women and artists of colour such as Anna Boyiazis, Gabriela E. Campos, Whitney Curtis, and Sanjay Suchak.

“We are fortunate to have had direct personal relationships with these photographers from the very beginning,” Michelle says. “Initially it’s visual attraction but we’ve learned the consciousness of these photographers and it becomes one and the same with what they are driven to do. To sit across from them and bear witness to what they have seen gives us the motivation to show their work to the world. I think some of the greatest photojournalism contains information that we were never meant to see.”

Tony Vaccaro at 99 is on show at Monroe Gallery until 16 January 2022.

About the author

Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer focusing on art, photography, and culture. Her work has been published in books by Arlene Gottfried, Allan Tannenbaum, and Harvey Stein, as well as magazines and websites including Time, Vogue, Aperture, Dazed, AnOther, and Vice, among others.

In a League of Her Own: Ida Wyman, Girl Photographer in a World of Men

 

Via Blind

By Miss Rosen

March 17, 2021

A new exhibition looks at rare color photographs of documentary photographer Ida Wyman made on the streets of New York in the 1940s.

American photographer Ida Wyman (1926–2019) achieved her every dream except one — the opportunity to publish her illustrated memoir Girl Photographer: From the Bronx to Hollywood and Back before she died. Though Wyman was humble, she never lacked for confidence or nerve, becoming one of the few women photographers working for Look and Life magazines in the 1940s.

 

 

Park Avenue Archway, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

As with many things, Wyman was ahead of the times. “She never wanted to be the most famous,” says Heather Garrison, her granddaughter and executor of the Ida Wyman Estate. “I think in her later years she finally understood how important her journey was as a woman in a male dominated industry. She took meticulous notes and records, and had her archive well organized. She wanted to put it all into one piece.”

Despite the fact Wyman did not live to see her book published, her work is receiving its proper due in the new exhibition in Santa Fe, Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color, which showcases a recently discovered collection of Ektachtomes Wyman made at the age of 21. The only color body of work from the period, Wyman’s photographs offer a poignant portrait of working class life in New York after the war. Neither activist nor ethnologist, Wyman was a humanist with a profound love for street portraiture. She eschewed the term “street photography,” seeing it as an anachronistic term to describe the documentation of urban life.

 

Street scene in East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

A Magical Process

Born to Askenazi Jews who immigrated to the United States, Wyman was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and raised in the Bronx, where her family ran a small grocery store. “Ida was very practical and frugal, and a lot of that came out of necessity, how her parents raised her, and the era she grew up in,” Garrison says of Wyman’s childhood throughout the Great Depression. “She had a lust for life, and found that in normal, accessible ways: laughter, music, dancing, and beauty in the most ordinary things.”

 

The shoe shine man, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

At the age of 14, Wyman bought a camera and immediately got to work documenting her community and joined the Walton High School Camera Club, where she learned to develop and print photographs. “[Photography] seemed like a magical process, allowing me to hold forever on film what my eyes saw and my heart felt, as I explored the various neighborhoods of New York City,” Wyman wrote in an artist statement.

Bernard Hoffman, a staff photographer at LIFE magazine, met with students of the camera club, and encouraged Wyman to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer. After graduating high school in 1943, Wyman took a job at age 16 as the first “girl” mailroom boy at Acme Newspictures. After being promoted to printer, Wyman purchased a 3¼ x 4¼ Graflex Speed Camera, loaded up her film holders, and took to the street during her lunch break.

 

Guess your age, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

The Keymaker, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

After three years at Acme, Wyman came to understand her true passion was not in news photography but in making photo essays and telling stories of daily life. She created assignments for herself, crafting a body of work that she could sell to picture magazines. In 1945, Wyman sold her first story to Look. It was fortuitous timing, for that fall she lost her job at Acme after the company dismissed her in order to give her position to a returning military veteran.

“Photography has enabled me to understand the lives of others, lives different in experience and age from my own.”

A League of Her Own

In 1946 Wyman married Acme staff photographer Simon Nathan, who introduced her to Morris Engel, a member of the illustrious New York Photo League. “I considered myself a documentary photographer, and the League’s philosophy of honest photography appealed to me,” Wyman wrote in Girl Photographer. “I also began to understand the power of photographs to help improve the social order by showing the conditions under which many people lived and worked. Even after leaving the League the following year, I continued to emphasize visual and social realities in my straightforward photographs.”

Stickball on St. Nicholas East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

Wyman’s photographs in East Harlem are a testament to a shared vision of photography as a tool to amplify the political, economic, and social issues of the times. But Wyman was not overtly political with her work; she sought to tell a story without using it as a cudgel. Her vibrant color photographs of working class life are empathetic but devoid of a moralizing tone; she sees her subject as equals worthy of veneration as individuals, rather than objects to serve a larger agenda.

“Everyday life and where it was happening was what interested me,” Wyman said in her artist statement. “Taking pictures enabled me to hear the stories of the people I photographed, which satisfied an immense curiosity to learn and understand the lives of others, lives different in experience and age from my own.”

Man with guitar, East Harlem, 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

Bobby Soxer Makes Good

Although Wyman could be shy, the camera afforded her the ability to engage with people and connect, creating a space for mutual recognition. Her photographs are imbued with tenderness and intimacy, in no small part due to the fact that she sought to obtain her subjects’ consent before making the photograph.

“She would introduce herself and ask permission,” Garrison says. “She was able to connect with people and put them at ease. Even though the photograph was candid and unposed, she was never trying to surprise them or grab the shot. Connecting with people brought her a lot of joy.”

Man on Fire Hydrant, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

The stringless Banjo, East Harlem, NY 1947

© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

As one of the few professional women photographers working at the time, Wyman could move through the streets openly without catching people off guard; that they may have underestimated her worked to her advantage every time. Garrison explains, “She was a girl in bobby socks taking pictures and I think people were endeared to that. They would relax because it was a girl taking pictures — no big deal, no stress, no high stakes. She got better photos because people were at ease and not putting on airs for the photograph.”



By Miss Rosen

Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer focusing on art, photography, and culture. Her work has been published in books, magazines, and websites including Time, Vogue, Artsy, Aperture, Dazed, and Vice, among others.


Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color
Through April 11, 2011
Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
https://www.monroegallery.com/

Send your greeting to Tony Vaccaro

UPDATE April 26, 2020 - Tony has recovered fromCovid-19 and is doing well, Thank you for your kind messages that helped Tony through his illness!

Tony Vaccaro survived World War II, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk. After the war, Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day.  In recent years there has been a career renaissance for Tony with exhibits world-wide.  In addition to his beautiful family Tony’s great love has been meeting and sharing his work with you.

Having been isolated from both family and friends for his safety during the Covid-19 crisis, Tony’s spirit is suffering. Please take a moment to record a message or short video for Tony to let him know that he is important to you.

Send it to us and we will forward to our dear friend Tony:

by email

Card or letter: c/o Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87501

Thank you.