Richard Skipper Celebrates the world of Bill Eppridge with Adrienne Aurichio

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Monroe Gallery is pleased to welcome Adrienne Aurichio to Santa Fe on September 30 for a talk about the life and career of legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge. The talk opens a new exhibition of Eppridge's photographs that features many new, rare early works.

September 30 - November 20, 2022

 

BILL EPPRIDGE EXHIBIT FEATURES THE HISTORIC MASTER VINTAGE PRINT OF ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT

On the night of Senator Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles, LIFE was closing that week's issue. Bill Eppridge’s negatives were processed in Los Angeles by J.R. Eyerman, and then flown to the Time Life lab in New York for printing. The printer was Carmine Ercolano, and he made only one master print for reproduction purposes. The negative was very thin, and the face of the busboy had to be airbrushed to bring out his features. The airbrushing is visible on the print, as are the pencil instructions along the bottom in the white border. This master print was later copied on a 4 x 5 camera, in the Time Life lab, and all future reproductions were made using a copy negative.

The master print was given to Bill Eppridge by Doris O'Neill, then the Director of the Time Life Picture Collection, shortly after LIFE magazine ceased weekly publication in 1972. Bill Eppridge was reluctant to display the print in his home in Laurel Canyon, and he placed it behind a sofa. Sometime later, a canyon fire destroyed his home. When Bill returned to the house to retrieve belongings, he found the print had burned around the edges, but had survived the fire.

Writing in Black & White magazine in September, 2008, photography appraiser Lorraine Anne Davis stated:

"An artifact is a human-made object that gives information about the culture of its creator and its users, and reflects their social behaviors. An icon, from the Greek "image", is a representation that is used, particularly in modern culture, as a symbol representing something of greater significance.

"Several 20th-century photographs have attained icon status but few are considered artifacts. One example is Bill Eppridge's damaged photograph of Bobby Kennedy as he lay wounded in a kitchen passageway in Los Angeles.

"But how does one value such an object? What comparables are appropriate? Would it be possible to compare it with the film footage shot by Abraham Zupruder that captured President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in 1963? That film was deposited with the National Archives in 1978 by the family for safekeepimg. In 1992 a Federal law required all records of the assassination be transferred to the National Archives, passing ownership to the government. It acknowledged that the Zapruder family was entitled to reimbursement as owners of private property taken by the government for public use, but establishing the value was difficult. the case eventually went to arbitration, and a three-member panel awarded $16 million to the family, the highest amount ever paid for a historical artifact. One of the panel members disagreed - he thought that $3 - $5 million would have been more realistic, as the family had always controlled the licensing of images from the film. The issue lay with the value of the original film strip as a collectible object. Since there have been no documented sales of any other historically significant original film strips, the dissenting member of the panel felt the value was in the image and not in the film strip itself.

Like the film, the burned photograph belongs in a national museum - however, valuing it will be difficult because the event and the object are so emotionally charged that it will be difficult for any appraiser to remain dispassionate."


New York Times Lens: 50 Years Later, the Story Behind the Photos of Robert Kennedy’s Assassination

Via ABC News: From campaign to tragedy: A look at Robert Kennedy's final days

Bill Eppridge was one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he covered wars, political campaigns, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States, Vietnam, Woodstock, the summer and winter Olympics, and perhaps the most dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. Over the last 60 years, his work appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated; and has been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to announce an extensive exhibition of more than 50 photographs by Bill Eppridge (1938 – 2013). The exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, June 29, from 5 - 7 PM with Eppridge’s wife and longtime collaborator Adrienne Aurichio in attendance; and continues through September 15, 2018.

A new book of Eppridge’s photographs, “Becoming Barbra”, presents a never-before-seen look at Barbra Streisand as she was becoming a star. From the humble beginnings of Barbra Streisand’s career in 1963 to full-fledged stardom in 1966, Eppridge had full access to the young singer. “This is the first book of Bill’s photographs that he did not live to see published … It took so long because many publishers didn’t want to publish the book without Barbra’s approval”, said Aurichio, who will be signing copies of the book during the opening reception.

Bill Eppridge, noted photojournalist, will present keynote lecture on his experiences documenting the 1960s at Photo LA 2013

photo l.a. features new and established galleries from around the world that present classic, vintage and contemporary photography. Providing a visual discourse on photography's place in contemporary art, photo l.a. is an exciting forum for collectors and exhibitors.

Photography publications, and artist produced books, have become increasingly more important in the field of photography and contemporary art. We are delighted to announce photoBOOK LA as a new platform for boutique publishers and book artists. Since it's inception photo l.a. has contributed to the increased appreciation of photography and collecting in Los Angeles. We are certain that photoBOOK LA will be an excellent addition to this tradition.

With over 10,000 visitors photo l.a. is the best platform for meeting with collectors, curators and artists in Los Angeles. Our outstanding programming series continues to address the most current topics in the converging worlds of art and photography.


• Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen (Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ) and Curator of Photographs at the Getty Research Institute, Francis Terpak (In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe), will discuss the simultaneous exhibitions of the artist's work.



• Matthew Thompson, curator and author of The Anxiety of Photography, will lead a round table discussion with a mix of younger Los Angeles artists including Andrea Longacre-White, Anthony Pearson and David Benjamin Sherry, who hybridize photography with some other practice to explore its materiality.



• Point Of View: selections from Los Angeles collectors will be on view. A round table discussion some of the collectors will elaborate on their collecting motivations



• Bill Eppridge, noted photojournalist, lectures on his experiences documenting the 1960s, specifically, Robert F. Kennedy's final campaign.



• Meg Partridge, Filmmaker, will speak about her father, Rondal Partridge, and his photographic work. The son of Imogen Cunningham, his mentors and colleagues included Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston



• Artillery magazine hosts one of its infamous Face Off Debates.



• New Sales Platforms roundtable with Heritage Auctions, 1stdibs and artnet.



• Private docent tours of the fair with experts in the field of photography history, the market and museum exhibitions.



• Josephine Sacabo, will discuss her trajectory from a documentary street photographer to her current work using the etched photogravure as her exclusive form of print making.



• photoBOOK LA, a new platform for boutique publishers & book artists at photo l.a.



photo l.a., the 22nd Los Angeles International Photographic Art Exposition, takes place January 18 - 21, 2013 at the historic Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Opening with a gala reception on Thursday, January 17, 2012. Please visit www.photola.com for fair and programming.

Visit Monroe Gallery of Photography during the fair at booth #M150.

June 5, 1968: “How many people died because of that assassination?"

Via Conneticut Magazine


When the gunshots that mortally wounded Sen. Robert F. Kennedy rang out in a California hotel that fateful night 44 years ago, Life magazine photographer Bill Eppridge was right behind the Democratic presidential candidate. Eppridge didn’t panic or run; instead he did what he had risked his life to do in Vietnam—he took pictures and recorded history.

“I was about 12 feet behind [Kennedy] and I heard the shots start,” Eppridge says in the living room of the New Milford home he shares with his wife, Adrienne. In his 70s, Eppridge has dark hair and a deep, penetrating stare. When he talks about his days with Kennedy he speaks slowly and deliberately, as if he’s reliving each moment.

The assassination took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968. The shots were fired by 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, and Eppridge himself was nearly hit by a stray bullet.

“One man [Paul Schrade], who was about four or five feet in front of me, standing directly in line with me and Sirhan, took a bullet in the head,” he says. Immediately, Eppridge began taking pictures. “One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was that JFK, when he had been shot, there were no still photographic records made of that. I thought now you’ve changed your job, you’re a historian.”

Among the photographs Eppridge took that night is the haunting image of a fallen Kennedy being cradled in the arms of Juan Romero, an Ambassador Hotel busboy who had shaken hands with the candidate just moments before. That powerful picture captured by Eppridge has become one of the enduring images of the assassination.
It was just that day that Kennedy had agreed to let Eppridge be a part of his immediate entourage for the night. Eppridge says that after making his speech, Kennedy left the hotel’s Embassy Room ballroom the same way he came into it—through the kitchen, despite the repeated protests of his lone bodyguard, William Barry. (It was only after the shooting that the Secret Service began protecting presidential candidates.)
“Barry knew the ropes and he knew that you don’t go out of a room the same way you came in,” Eppridge explains.

He had photographed Kennedy two years earlier and on the campaign trail they’d become friends, but at first Eppridge could not take time to grieve for his fallen friend. “After Frank Mankiewicz [Kennedy’s press secretary] announced that Bobby was gone, I went back to New York and met the plane there when they brought him in, photographed the funeral at St. Patrick’s, took that train ride to Washington, and then I cried,” he says.

If Kennedy hadn’t been murdered, Eppridge believes that history would have taken a vastly different course. “I don’t think people realize the significance of that assassination and what would have happened had he not been shot,” Eppridge says. He believes Kennedy would have became president instead of Republican Richard Nixon and would have ended the Vietnam War immediately—saving the lives of more than 20,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of North and South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.

“How many people died because of that assassination?” Eppridge asks. “That’s stuck with me, it bothers me.”

In addition to the tragic end of the Kennedy campaign, Eppridge covered many iconic moments in the 1960s for Life magazine, including the Beatles’ arrival in America in 1964 and the Woodstock music festival in 1969. In 2008, he compiled his photographs and wrote about his time with Kennedy in the book A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties.

Eppridge doesn’t subscribe to any of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, especially that there was a second gunman and more than eight shots fired that night.

“Somebody had supposedly taped 16 gunshots; there were not [16 shots],” he says. “I counted the number of shots and there were eight. So all this stuff about there being somebody else there shooting—no, there wasn’t.”

Besides security being light around the candidate, the campaign was very open, making Kennedy an easy target. Also, Sirhan is on record saying that he hated Kennedy because of his support of Israel.

“One plus one equals two sometimes,” Eppridge says. “I really think it was just one wacko, and a number of guys who were on that campaign have also said that, but you know, you can always be wrong. Always.”

This article appeared in the June 2012 issue of Connecticut Magazine


Related: Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure Review "An Eye On The Times"

THE Magazine: "Eppridge's work was as epic at the times themselves"

THE Magazine
Santa Fe's Monthly Magazine of and for the Arts
August, 2010

BILL EPPRIDGE: AN AMERICAN TREASURE
Exhibition continues through September 26

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM. 992-0800

More than 50 images in color and black and white by eminent photojournalist Bill Eppridge are guaranteed to awaken memories of the sixties: family members attending the funeral of a civil rights victim, the Beatles arriving stateside, marines in Vietnam. By far, however, Eppridge's name is associated with the picture of Bobbie Kennedy campaigning for the presidency. His photographs of RFK's life bleeding out while a busboy tries to comfort him in June, 1968. is. like so many images from the late sixties, sadly iconic. Eppridge's first professional assignment was a nine-month, worldwide shoot for National Geographic. That story ran thirty-two pages. The magazine wanted to put him on staff, but on advice from the soon-to-become Geographic editor, Eppridge went to New York City to renew some friendships he had made at LIFE. Eppridge's work in LIFE, beginning in 1962, was as epic at the times themselves.



Copyright THE Magazine

THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL - Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure Review "An Eye On The Times"

Sunday, July 25, 2010


An Eye on the Times


©THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
By Dan Mayfield

Journal Staff Writer

From the civil rights movement, the murder of Robert F. Kennedy, wars in Vietnam, revolutions in South America and environmental disasters such as the wreck of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker, Bill Eppridge has seen it all.

His favorite work, he said, was following Robert F. Kennedy on the campaign trail. In this image, Bobby Kennedy campaigns in Indiana during May of 1968, with various aides and friends: former prizefighter Tony Zale and (right of Kennedy) N.F.L. stars Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, and Deacon Jones, members of the Los Angeles Rams' "Fearsome Foursome" 

Eppridge is a photographer who started his career with National Geographic, moved to become a staff photographer for Life magazine and later Sports Illustrated, where he was assigned to cover the most important events of the last half of the 20th century. For Life he covered the civil rights movement and was one of five photographers on hand when Robert F. Kennedy was shot. For Sports Illustrated, from 1974 until his retirement just three years ago, he covered outdoor events like sailing, hunting and the Olympics.

Eppridge has a new show of his photojournalism work from the last 50 years at the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe through Sept. 26.

Eppridge, who grew up during World War II, said he was a fan of the great photojournalism work that appeared in Life and would wait by the kitchen table every Wednesday for the new issue of the magazine to appear in his hometown of Richmond, Va.

"I remember hanging out under our dining room table for the mail just to look at the pictures," he said. "When you grow up like that, it sticks with you."

When he went to high school, he said, his sister taught him to use a light meter so he could take pictures for the school paper. Later, in college at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he said, he dived headfirst into the business, photographing revolutions in Hungary and Eastern Europe.

"Of course, when you start to do that, your grades slip," he said. But he moved on and when he graduated, was sent on a 27-city trip around the world for National Geographic.

"It's kind of an awesome first assignment," Eppridge said.

Though the company offered him a staff photographer job, he elected to instead take a staff job at Life, his childhood favorite.

At his show in Santa Fe, most of the images are from his Life days.

Bill Garrett, who later became National Geographic's editor, encouraged a young Eppridge to join Life.

"When he explained to me that if you haven't photographed a war, or been in that situation, you don't know what to do with your life," Eppridge said. "You have to know what that experience is and what happens when all hell breaks loose."

He was sent to Vietnam, Panama, Nicaragua and other hot spots throughout South America, and it prepared him for one of the seminal moments of his career. He was about 12 feet behind Robert F. Kennedy when he was shot in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

"I know that I was 12 feet behind him when it happened," Eppridge said. "Had I been in the normal position where I should have been, I would have been back-walking 2 feet in front of him when Sirhan (Sirhan) had that damn gun.

"As soon as the gunfire started, I knew what it was. I knew where it came from. I was pretty close to the caliber in my mind. By the time it finished, I knew what had been used. It was things that I learned in wars and revolutions. I knew what incoming sounded like. That instinct, right there, all of those years of working, when it hits that fan ... it goes from your eye to your brain to your finger to hit that button."

His images of the moment, of a busboy holding RFK's hand, to his body lying on the floor, have become part of the American tapestry of images.

His images, too, of the civil rights struggle, such as the funeral of slain civil rights worker James Cheney, are in the show at the Monroe Gallery.

Photographer Bill Eppridge was assigned to cover many of the 1960's toughest issues, including the civil rights struggle. He photographed the funeral of James Cheney, a civil rights worker who was slain in 1964. Eppridge photographed Mrs. Cheney and her son, Ben, at the funeral.

When Life closed, Eppridge moved to Sports Illustrated, where he photographed "any sport without balls."

Casey Stengel, NY Mets Manager, New York, 1962

He spent time with hunters and sailors, and at the Olympics, he said. But he most enjoyed the magazine's rare pieces on the environment. He covered both the post-eruption destruction of Mount St. Helens and the Exxon Valdez oil spill for the magazine.

Once the magazine shifted focus to covering mainly the biggest sports and the biggest athletes, he said, it was time to go.

"The magazine changed, and I was not doing that," he said.

On one of his early assignments for LIFE. Eppridge photographed the Beatles on their 1964 American tour, including John Lennon relaxing on the train from New York to Washington, DC

If you go

WHAT: Photo exhibition by Bill Eppridge

WHEN: Through Sept. 26

WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, 505-992-0800

HOW MUCH: Free



©The Albuquerque Journal

BILL EPPRIDGE: AN AMERICAN TREASURE ON AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY

©Bill Eppridge: Bobby Kennedy campaigns in Indiana during May of 1968, with various aides and friends: former prizefighter Tony Zale and (right of Kennedy) N.F.L. stars Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, and Deacon Jones

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a very special exhibition of photographs by the renowned photojournalist Bill Eppridge. Mr. Eppridge will be our guest at the opening reception in his honor on Friday, July 2, from 5 to 7 PM. Mr. Eppridge will also be in the gallery Saturday, July 3. This is a rare opportunity to meet one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century. The exhibition will continue through September 26.

Bill Eppridge has captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he has covered wars, political campaigns, civil rights, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States, the summer and winter Olympics, Vietnam, Woodstock, (see the special 40th Anniversary audio and slide shows from the New York Times and Life), and perhaps the most dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. Over the last 50 years  his work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated. He is the recipient of the 2009 Missouri Honor Medal for Lifetime Distinguished Service in Journalism awarded by The Missouri School of Journalism.

©Bill Eppridge: The Chaney family as they depart for the burial of James Chaney, Meridian, Mississippi, August 7, 1964

Recently, The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes, a photography exhibition of Bill's images of the band was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C, before starting a world tour. In 2008, his photographs were included in the exhibition Road to Freedom: Photographs from the Civil Rights Movement 1956 - 1968 at the High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia, later traveling to the Skirball Center in Los Angeles and the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York. Additionally, Eppridge's photographs are included in the exhibitions Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera since 1870; Tate Modern, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2010); and A Star is Born: Photography and Rock Music Since Elvis Presley, Museum Folkwang, Germany (2010).

View the exhibition on-line here.