Monroe Gallery at the 2020 Photo LA Fair

We are pleased to again be exhibiting at the longest-running international photography fair on the West Coast, the Photo LA Fair. This year the fair takes place January 30 – February 2, at The Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave, Santa Monica. Monroe Gallery will be located in booth #A02, just to the right of the main fair entrance.

The gallery will be exhibiting a selection from the just-concluded acclaimed exhibit “La Dolce Vita” that celebrated Tony Vaccaro’s 97th birthday alongside photographs by Ida Wyman (1926–2019), whose work for Life, Look, and other magazines went unrecognized for decades. A special exhibit will showcase work of the new wave of fearless frontline photojournalists that are covering 21st-century events.

The fair will feature photography from more than 60 local and international galleries and dealers, but will also welcome collectives, leading not-for-profits, art schools, and global booksellers. Moreover, the fair will present renowned lectures, panel discussions, special installations, and docent tours.

The Private Vernissage will take place on Thursday, January 30th, from 4 to 6 p.m, while the Opening Night Preview will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. The doors of the fair will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets and more information can be found here.

August 11, 1965: Watts

Caption from LIFE "Children in Watts grow up with the signs of fear, desperation and hatred all around. The words painted last August on this little grocery store, telling rioters that it is owned by a Negro and urging them to burn something else, were left on the walls for months afterwards -- just in case." Photography by Bill Ray.

The Watts Riot, which raged for six days and resulted in more than forty million dollars worth of property damage, was both the largest and costliest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights era. The riot spurred from an incident on August 11, 1965 when Marquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white California Highway Patrolman, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. As a crowd on onlookers gathered at the scene of Frye's arrest, strained tensions between police officers and the crowd erupted in a violent exchange. The outbreak of violence that followed Frye's arrest immediately touched off a large-scale riot centered in the commercial section of Watts, a deeply impoverished African American neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. For several days, rioters overturned and burned automobiles and looted and damaged grocery stores, liquor stores, department stores, and pawnshops. Over the course of the six-day riot, over 14,000 California National Guard troops were mobilized in South Los Angeles and a curfew zone encompassing over forty-five miles was established in an attempt to restore public order. All told, the rioting claimed the lives of thirty-four people, resulted in more than one thousand reported injuries, and almost four thousand arrests before order was restored on August 17.

Throughout the crisis, public officials advanced the argument that the riot was the work outside agitators; however, an official investigation, prompted by Governor Pat Brown, found that the riot was a result of the Watts community's longstanding grievances and growing discontentment with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Despite the reported findings of the gubernatorial commission, following the riot, city leaders and state officials failed to implement measures to improve the social and economic conditions of African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood. The Civil Rights Digital Library

Bill Ray's photographs from Watts are included in the exhibition "The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson" through September 27, 2015.

A year after the Watts Riots in 1965, LIFE magazine revisited the neighborhood through a series of color pictures by photographer Bill Ray. (Via Time.com)

January 17-21: Photo L.A. Fair Strengthens Emerging-Artist Focus

Via artinfo.com

SALE: Photo L.A.
LOCATION: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
DATE: January 17-21

ABOUT: Many of the auction houses are still on winter hiatus, but photography collectors know to scout out the wealth of vintage, contemporary, and multimedia works this time of year at the photo l.a. fair at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Among the 45 galleries and nonprofits participating in the 22nd annual edition, the Monroe Gallery of Photography brings the work of legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge, who is also speaking about his time shooting Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s as part of the fair’s lecture series, which also includes appearances from Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen, filmmaker Meg Partridge, and an Artillery Magazine-hosted debate.

In the department of unusual character studies, visitors will find shots from Frank Marshall’s immersion with a subculture of African cowboy metalheads in Botswana, including one of a leather-clad man named “Bound by the Moon,” on offer for $1,500 at Bekris Gallery. And Polish photographer Leon Borensztein’s intimate glimpse of unsmiling Americans can be found at Smith Andersen North.

More experimental forms can be found at Susan Spiritus Gallery, which is exhibiting Fran Forman’s nostalgic photo assemblages, like a print of a carousel sinking underwater, priced at $950 (unframed).

The fair has made a push this year to welcome not just collectors, but photographers, too, particularly those just starting out. It has partnered with the Emerging Focus Photo Expo, held across the street at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel. There, photographers can stop by with their portfolios for classes and on-the-spot critiques. Or, for those with publishing ambition, this year marks the launch of photoBOOK LA, where experts offer photographers advice on their book proposals.
General admission starts at $20 at the door, $25 online.

— Rachel Corbett

 

(Photo: Fran Forman, “Carousel Escape,” $950 at Susan Spiritus Gallery, at photo l.a.)