GREY VILLET: A Portrait of LIFE in America

Farm Collapse: Sarah Vogel, leader of class-action case on behalf of 240,000 farmers to stop USDA from seizing family farms, visiting neighbors who are facing foreclosure, North Dakota, 1982

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to announce an extensive exhibition of compelling photography of LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet. The exhibition runs from May 5 through June 30.

Born in South Africa, Grey Villet traveled America and the world for LIFE magazine like an observant explorer, mapping its emotional contours in the faces and lives of its people. His in-depth, personal studies of the American scene of the 1950s through the 1970’s illuminated the complex reality of those years with a truth that, in his own words, were "as real as real could get." His images of presidents and revolutionaries, sports heroes, and everyday people struggling for their rights tell an emotional and compelling story of an era that shaped the present.

Fidel Castro, Hometown Greetings, 1959

Grey Villet was born in a sheep herding center called Beaufort West in the Karoo desert of South Africa in 1927. His father expected him to follow him into medicine and Grey was duly enrolled in the pre-med program at Cape Town University.  It didn't take; he spent most of his time at a cafe downtown where there was music and a lot of smoke...At about this time his sister's fiancé gave him a camera and that did take...It was the excitement of seeing his own pictures emerge in a friend's   dark room that set the course of his life.  By the late 1940's, his despairing father sent him to London to study photography---but after a few months Grey left school to earn a meager living doing wedding snaps while living in a trucker's stop hostel. At 20 he landed a job on the Bristol Evening News--and within 2 years had moved up to Reuters International in London on the strength of his newspaper work. At 24 he returned to South Africa and a job at the country's leading newspaper, the Johannesburg Star--but the pomposity of management's objection to his disheveled look after a night of chasing a rough news story decided his future. Already determined to become a "magazine photographer" he quit the Star on the spot and soon set off for New York hoping to land a chance at LIFE. So it was that Grey's Villet’s career with LIFE magazine began in April of 1954. Within a year of being added to LIFE’s legendary roster of photographers in 1955, he won photojournalism’s most prestigious award when he was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. Other honors followed, including multiple firsts from NPPA and Gold from World Press Photo.

Villet excelled at LIFE’s acclaimed essay format, which exemplified his mastery of the medium, attesting to his credo that every story be, in his words, "as real as real could get". To achieve this, he generally used only available light and while shooting became as unobtrusive as a "fly on the wall" to allow meaningful moments to emerge naturally from a fluid reality.  

Featured in the exhibition are excerpts from Villet's intimate images of the interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. The 2016 film “Loving” Loving”, from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols starred Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the roles of Richard and Mildred Loving. 

“Unwilling to promote himself, Grey Villet modestly rejected the idea of organizing his own retrospective only months before his sudden death in 2000. “The work will tell” he told me then, “the work will tell.” Self effacing, quiet, Grey was truly a quintessential photojournalist in the service of truth.” -- Barbara Villet

In an era before any digital tinkering with results was possible, Grey Villet’s technique was one that required intense concentration, patience and understanding of his subjects joined with a technical mastery that allowed rapid use of differing cameras and lenses to capture and compose the "right stuff" on film as it happened. “RIGHTS, RACE & REVOLUTIONS:A Portrait of LIFE in 1960s America by Grey Villet” was exhibited at the Museum at Bethel Woods April 2 – December 31, 2016. 

THE LOVINGS: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT, a new book that documents the extraordinary love story of Mildred and Richard Loving, was published in April by Princeton Architectural Press and is available in the gallery.

NEW BOOK DOCUMENTS THE LOVE STORY OF MILDRED AND RICHARD LOVING

The Lovings
An Intimate Portrait
Grey Villet, Barbara Villet, Stephen Crowley
Princeton Architectural Press
10 × 8 inches, Hardcover, 128 pages, 82 duotones
Now available from the Gallery $24.95

The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait documents the extraordinary love story of Mildred and Richard Loving. The Lovings presents Grey Villet's stunning photo-essay in its entirety for the first time and reveals with striking intensity and clarity the powerful bond of a couple that helped change history. Mildred, a woman of African American and Native American descent and Richard, a white man, were arrested in July 1958 for the crime of interracial marriage, prohibited under Virginia state law. Exiled to Washington, DC, they fought to bring their case to the US Supreme Court. Knowledge of their struggle spread across the nation, and in the spring of 1965, the Life magazine photojournalist Villet spent a few weeks documenting the Lovings and their family and friends as they went about their lives in the midst of their trial. Loving v. Virginia was the landmark US civil rights case that, in a unanimous decision, ultimately ended the prohibition of interracial marriage in 1967.

Grey Villet (1927--2000) was an award winning photographer and photojournalist who worked at Life magazine for more than thirty years.

Barbara Villet is an author and journalist who was a photo editor at Life and collaborated on many of Mr. Villet's projects.

One of photojournalism's most distinguished practitioners, Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Crowley of the New York Times credits the influence of a Grey Villet Life essay with his decision, at age nine, to become a photographer.

Monroe Gallery will exhibit rare vintage prints from GreyVillet's Loving's photo essay on our booth #53 4during the AIPAD Photography Show in New York March 30 - April 2. A special book signing of The Lovings with Barbara Villet will take place in our booth # 534 on Saturday, April 1, from 3 - 4 PM.

Monroe Gallery Announces Three Exhibitions For November

Monroe Gallery of Photography announces three timely exhibits for November, two of which coincide with major film releases.

Beginning November 1, LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet's intimate images of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown, will be on exhibit.

Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. On November 4, the feature film “Loving” opens, from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols and starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the roles of Richard and Mildred Loving. Grey Villet’s photographs are on exhibit November 1 – December 31, 2016, and will then be exhibited at Photo LA, January 12 – 17, 2017.

Monroe Gallery of Photography will present a pop-up gallery exhibition in collaboration with veteran curator and art critic Peter Frank: “Tony Vaccaro: War, Peace, Beauty”, November 11 to 21, 2016, at 508 West 26th Street, 5th floor, in the West Chelsea Arts Building in New York City. The exhibit opens with a reception for Tony Vaccaro, Friday, November 11, 6 – 8 pm. Sidney and Michelle Monroe will be in attendance. Tony Vaccaro’s photographs will be on exhibit concurrently at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, through December 31, 2016.

The Vaccaro exhibits coincide with the HBO premiere on Monday, November 14, of the documentary film “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony 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.

Finally, on November 25 Monroe Gallery presents a major exhibition of photographs from one of America’s most accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs opens Friday, November 25 with a reception for the 94-year old photographer from 5 – 7 PM, and continues through January 22, 2017.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 Daily, admission is free. For further information, please contact the Gallery.

The Story of Richard and Mildred Loving

Photograph by Grey Villet

Richard and Mildred Loving laughing and watching television

in their living room, King and Queen County, Virginia, 1965

Exhibit of Photographs Coincides with Feature Film “Loving” Premiere

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of  Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to exhibit  LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet's intimate images of an interracial couple, Richardand Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. Grey Villet’s photographs are on exhibit November 1 – December 21, 2016.

On November 4, the feature film “Loving” opens, from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols and starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the roles of Richard and Mildred Loving.

The families of Richard Perry Loving and Mildred Delores Jeter had lived in Caroline County, Virginia for generations. Richard first met Mildred while listening to her brothers play music at the Jeters’ home. They dated for a few years before deciding to marry. Interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia and in twenty-five other states. For this reason, on June 2, 1958, Richard brought to his bride-to-be to Washington, D.C., where there were no racial bans on marriage.

Based on an anonymous tip that the Lovings were illegally living as a married, sheriff Garnett Brooks and two deputies burst into the Lovings’ bedroom on July 11, 1958 at 2 a.m. When Richard explained that the woman in bed with him was his wife, Brooks replied, “Not here she’s not.” They were arrested for unlawful cohabitation and both pled not guilty. Richard only spent one night in jail while Mildred had to spend four; Richard was told that he would be put back in jail if he tried to bail out his wife.

In October 1958, the grand jury of the Circuit Court of Caroline County charged the Lovings with violating two sections of Virginia’s 1924 Racial Integrity Act. Because Richard was white and Mildred was African American and Native American, their marriage was illegal and a felony offence in Virginia.

On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the felony charge of miscegenation and Judge Leon M. Bazile sentenced them to one year in prison. The sentence was suspended if the Lovings agreed to be banished from Virginia for twenty-five years. On appeal, Bazile refused to set aside his original verdict, thereby propelling the Lovings’ case toward the U.S. Supreme Court, stating, “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

Banished from Virginia, the Lovings’ moved to Washington, D.C. In June 1963, Mildred wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, asking if the new Civil Rights legislation would help her family return to Virginia. Kennedy responded that Mildred contact the American Civil Liberties Union, who had been actively pursuing anti-miscegenation test cases since the late 1950s. ACLU attorneys Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop took the Lovings’ case, filing a brief in November 1964. The Loving v. Virginia decision delivered on June 12, 1967, found all miscegenation laws unconstitutional.

From Chief Justice Earl Warren’s 1967 unanimous opinion:
"Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State."

In an era before any digital tinkering with results was possible, Grey Villet’s technique was one that required intense concentration, patience and understanding of his subjects joined with a technical mastery that allowed rapid use of differing cameras and lenses to capture and compose the "right stuff" on film as it happened. “RIGHTS, RACE & REVOLUTIONS:A Portrait of LIFE in 1960s America by Grey Villet” was exhibited at the Museum at Bethel Woods April 2 – December 31, 2016. Grey Villet died in 2000.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 Daily, admission is free. Visit www.monroegallery.com for more information.