Showing posts with label Steve Schapiro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Schapiro. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2020

The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover






'It's a Picture of Someone Who Knows Who He Is.' 
The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover

Via TIME
By Okivia B. Waxman
July 21, 2020


In 1963, Steve Schapiro, then 28, was on assignment for LIFE magazine, photographing prominent civil rights activists, from James Baldwin to Fannie Lou Hamer. One day, while following Jerome Smith, a participant in the Freedom Rides that raised awareness of interstate bus segregation, he went to Clarksdale, Miss., to document one of the many training sessions that were taking place in church basements across the South. In those meetings, volunteers studied how to react to the racism they would encounter in their work. That day in Clarksdale, as Schapiro watched a line of ministers file into the church, he noticed among the group another well-known Freedom Rider, in a tie and button-down shirt: John Lewis. He asked Lewis if he could take his photo, and the young man agreed.

Weeks later, Lewis would become the youngest person on the speakers’ slate at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, addressing some 250,000 people from the Lincoln Memorial as the chairperson of the student arm of the 1960s civil rights movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Lewis, then 23, went on to represent Atlanta in Congress for three decades until July 17, when he died at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer. The picture Schapiro shot more than half a century ago is featured on the cover of the Aug. 3-10 issue of TIME, which dives into Lewis’s life, career and legacy.

“You can feel the determination in him to be who he is,” Schapiro tells TIME, reflecting on the photograph. “In this picture, you see he’s looking forward with an enormous amount of strength, in terms of how he sees the future. It’s a picture of someone who knows who he is, knows what he has to do, and for the rest of his life, after this picture, he did it.”


After that moment, Schapiro kept following the civil rights movement, too. He would go on to cover the March on Washington and voter registration efforts throughout the South. He covered the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., photographing Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young and Rosa Parks. LIFE also sent him to Memphis to cover the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968. In recent years, Schapiro, now 85 and living in Chicago, has covered the Black Lives Matter movement.

Schapiro says Lewis saw the photo in 2014, after the Monroe Gallery exhibited it, and Schapiro sent Lewis a signed copy. Then, in 2015, Schapiro saw the Congressman in person for the first time since 1963. As the nation marked the 50th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, the two saw each other at different events where veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement gathered. Lewis told Schapiro that 1963 image was one of his favorite photos of himself; Schapiro says that earlier this year, aides to Lewis reached out to him requesting a version of the photo for a belated birthday party for the Congressman.

Schapiro hopes the TIME cover will inspire young people to pick up Lewis’ lifelong fight for racial equality and human rights.

“This is who he was in his time,” the photographer says. “Let’s see who you are in your time.”







Monday, February 18, 2019

New Chicago Work: Photographs by Steve Schapiro





Via Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University


Opening Reception and Q & A with Steve Schapiro and WBEZ’s Jason Marck, Thursday, February 21st, 5-7pm. (Q & A begins at 5:30). Exhibition continues through May 9, 2019

Free and open to the public

This is the second of two exhibitions showcasing the historical and contemporary work of internationally acclaimed photographer Steve Schapiro. The first exhibition that closed on December 22, 2018, was devoted to his contact sheets from the civil rights era. This second exhibition highlights his current photographs from the Black Lives Matter and anti-violence protest movements in Chicago. A smaller exhibition featuring his photographs from Chicago’s Misericordia Heart of Mercy home will also be on display.

American photojournalist Steve Schapiro has documented six decades of American culture, from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy to Andy Warhol’s Factory and the filming of The Godfather trilogy. He has published a dozen books of his photographs, has exhibited his work in shows from Los Angeles to Moscow, and is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among others.

Sponsored by The College of Arts and Sciences, Roosevelt University with generous financial support from Susan B. Rubnitz, and Elyse Koren-Camarra, along with a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

A companion exhibition, “Activists and Icons: The Photographs of Steve Schapiro”, is on display at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie through June 23, 2019.

The exhibition features iconic as well as never-before-seen photos of the Civil Rights Movement and cultural and political change-agents of recent history. For more information, visit ilholocaustmuseum.org.


Thursday, October 26, 2017

Two Monroe Gallery Photographers Receive Lucie Award Statues




The Lucie Awards is an annual event honoring the greatest achievements in photography.  The photography community from around the globe pays tribute to the most outstanding people in the field. Each year, the Lucie Advisory Board nominates deserving individuals across a variety of categories.

For over 70 years, Art Shay has documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy.  Art Shay, now 95, will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York October 29, 2017. Art Shay: A Tribute” is currently on exhibit at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM, through November 19.
At the same time, renowned photographer Steve Schapiro will receive the Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. Earlier this year the Gallery presented the exhibition "EYEWITNESS" to celebrate the completion of a project based on James Baldwin’s 1963 book, “The Fire Next Time”. Steve Schapiro’s photographs documenting the civil rights movement from 1963 – 1968 are paired with essays from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin in a major book published by Taschen in March.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than five decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in classic black & white photography with an emphasis on humanist and photojournalist imagery. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.


Tuesday, September 5, 2017

September at Monroe Gallery of Photography



The acclaimed exhibition "Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace" has been extended through September 24, 2017.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was honored to welcome Tony Vaccaro to Santa Fe for the opening of the exhibition. Among the highlights of Tony's visit was his return  to the location near Georgia O'Keeffe's home where he made his iconic photograph of Georgia holding " "Pelvic Series, Red with Yellow.

Courtesy of The Tony Vaccaro Studio


In conjunction with the exhibit, Monroe Gallery sponsored two sold-out free screenings of the Emmy Award nominated HBO 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. “Underfire: the Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” was recently nominated for the 2017 Outstanding Historical Documentary Emmy.

Tony Vaccaro, now 94, was the keynote speaker at the recent 100th anniversary of the 83rd Infantry Division reunion in Cleveland, Ohio, August 2-6.

Opening October 6,  the gallery is pleased to present a major exhibition of photographs from one of America’s most accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs opens Friday, October 6 with a public reception from 5 – 7 PM, and continues through November 19.

For over 70 years, Art Shay has documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy. The Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in photography. Art Shay, now 95,  will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York October 29, 2017.

At the same time, renowned photographer Steve Schapiro will receive the Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. Earlier this year the Gallery presented the exhibition "EYEWITNESS” to celebrate the completion of a project based on James Baldwin’s 1963 book, “The Fire Next Time”. Steve Schapiro’s photographs documenting the civil rights movement from 1963 – 1968 are paired with essays from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin in a major book  published by Taschen in March.

Monroe Gallery is now representing Ryan Vizzions, a respected photographer who occupies Atlanta’s underground art circles. In 2014, Vizzions was awarded a Readers Pick for Best Fine Art Photographer in Creative Loafing’s Best of Atlanta issue. Beginning in September 2016, Vizzions, 33, went to the front lines at Standing Rock, North Dakota, documenting the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from scarring sovereign Native American land and tunneling underneath the Missouri River. Working as part of the media team for the Sioux Tribe’s Oceti Sakowin Camp, he photographed outside the mainstream media. One of his photograph, titled "Defend the Sacred," has appeared in publications including Newsweek and People magazine’s “Year in Pictures” spread, among others.







Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Monroe Gallery at The 2016 AIPAD Photography Show April 13 - 17


Lone Factory Worker, China, 2005
Stephen Wilkes: Lone Worker, China, 2005


Monroe Gallery of Photography is very pleased to be again exhibiting at the AIPAD Photography Show, this year April 13 – 17 in New York at the Park Avenue Amory, 643 Park Avenue. The gallery will be in booth # 104.

Celebrating its 36th year in 2016, The Photography Show features more than 80 of the world’s leading photography art galleries.

Monroe Gall ill be exhibiting specially selected photographs from the gallery's renowned collection of 20th and 21st Century master photojournalists. Among the highlights selected for this year's exhibition are: vintage prints from Spider Martin alongside other important civil rights photographs; a rare selection of never-before-seen vintage prints of photographs taken by Bill Eppridge on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated;  a rare vintage print made from the original negative of the iconic image from World War II by George Silk "An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942";  several large-scale color photographs from Stephen Wilkes’  acclaimed China and Day To Night collections, and an exciting previously unseen large scale photograph of David Bowie taken in New Mexico in 1975 during the filming of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” that is featured in the forthcoming book “Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro” which will be published in April, 2016 by PowerHouse Books, and many other exciting new additions to the gallery’s collection.

Steve Schapiro: David Bowie,  New Mexico, 1975
(“The Man Who Fell To Earth’)

We hope to see you!

Saturday, April 9, 2016

David Bowie and the Photographs of Steve Schapiro


In this previously unpublished photo, David is seen with goggles and bike. Los Angeles, 1974.
In this previously unpublished photo, David is seen with goggles and bike. Los Angeles, 1974
©Steve Schapiro

Via TIME LightBox

Bowie, a new collection of archival photographs by Steve Schapiro, captures the fleeting moments when the mask dropped.

In addition to offering a host of iconic images from the mid-1970s, Bowie, a new collection of archival photographs by Steve Schapiro, captures the fleeting moments when the mask dropped, when the effort it took to create all of this wondrous puffery showed at the seams, when he occasionally made—unbelievable!—fashion blunders. Bowie, it turns out, looked terrible in mandals (a faux pas he made while renting a West Hollywood house previously inhabited by Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe). His ghastly white toes weren’t helped by the addition of high-waisted navy blue trousers paired with purple suspenders and a plaid newsboy’s cap. Read the full article here.

At the AIPAD Photography Show April 13 - 17, Monroe Gallery of Photography will feature an exciting previously unseen large scale photograph of David Bowie taken in New Mexico in 1975 during the filming of “The Man Who Fell To Earth”. The photograph is included in the forthcoming book “Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro” which will be published April 15, 2016 by PowerHouse Books.

Steve Schapiro’s Bowie is published by powerHouse Books and is available now.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Steve Schapiro remembers David Bowie, his muse

David Bowie
David Bowie in his dressing room while filming "The Man Who Fell to Earth" in 1975.
(Steve Schapiro)

The Chicago Tribune
By Rick Kogan
January 14, 2016

World-renowned photographer Steve Schapiro, who moved to Chicago with his wife, Maura, in 2007, has in his lengthy career taken millions of photos, many of them collected in stunning books.

He is in his early 80s, and the list of his subjects is almost surreal in its breadth: Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., Chevy Chase (Schapiro and his wife are the godparents of the actor's daughter), Jerry Garcia, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Johnny Depp, Mae West, Satchel Paige, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr, Ike and Tina Turner (together), Buster Keaton, Richard Pryor, Sophia Loren … It goes on.

He also shot David Bowie. One of his photos was used for the cover of 2014's "Nothing Has Changed" and, in the wake of the artist's death, Schapiro remembered:

"It was 1974 when I first photographed David. From the moment he arrived, we seemed to hit it off. He was incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas.

"He talked a lot about Aleister Crowley, whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. And when he heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his heroes, we talked about him and immediately became friends.

"Our first session started at four in the afternoon. David would come out in incredible costumes, each seemingly turning him into a different person. I would raise my camera to shoot and he would say, 'Wait just a minute, I have to fix something,' and 20 minutes later he would come out in a totally different outfit.

"We decided to do a close portrait on a dark green background because we felt it would make the worst possible color for a magazine cover. We laughed about it, but eventually it did become a cover for People magazine (in September of 1976).

"That session lasted from four in the afternoon to four in the morning, and the last photograph of David was on his bike, lit by the headlights of a car.

"Over these many years I would find photos of David in my files, photos that I had totally overlooked, unexpected and pleasant surprises. Working with an amazingly talented person can be collaborative, often unspoken. The photographs I took were David's ideas, brought from his imagination into the real world. I was merely the conduit from genius into the light of day."

Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune

Steve Schapiro's photographs of David Bowie are included in the exhibition "The Broke The Mold", on view through February 7, 2016.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Book Signing: Bliss: Tranformational Festivals and the neo Hippie




Bliss

Bliss

Images from Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie; courtesy powerHouse Books

Via PASATIEMPO
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Friday, October 30, 2015           

The famous counterculture of the 1960s always had two lifestyles, one urban and the other more oriented to quiet, country living — including in pioneering communes in New Mexico and elsewhere. Half a century later, a contemporary hippie movement flourishes in hundreds of eco-villages, and its members come together for the annual Rainbow Gathering and other summer festivals.

Photographer Steve Schapiro offers a revelation of modern hippie humanity in his new book, Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie (powerHouse Books, 2015). At gatherings in California, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota, and Hawaii, he captured people dancing, meditating, chanting, hugging, and blissing out on the sky and earth and one another.                                                                                               
The journalistic photographer’s portfolio includes covers for Vanity Fair, Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, Look, Paris Match, and People. His books include American Edge, Taxi Driver, and Then and Now. Over the years, Schapiro has documented cultural milestones, such as the civil rights movement, Chuck Berry playing on the Hullabaloo TV show, and outtakes of actors on the set of The Godfather. He photographed Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedys, ballplayer Satchel Paige, and Andy Warhol.

He also took pictures of the original hippies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and throughout America. The new photos are strikingly similar. Some commonalities are lots of hair and clothes — either multicolored or absent. There is a focus in the new series on the “bliss ninnies” subculture, whose participants chase ecstasy with meditation and dancing. Rather than experimentation with psychedelic drugs, the emphasis is on yoga, prayer, movement, and a vegan diet. “There are more communes in America now than there ever were in the ’60s,” Wavy Gravy declares in the book’s afterword. “Check out Communities magazine for a listing near you! Just follow your bliss and kiss the ground.”

Monroe Gallery (112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800) hangs a selection of the Bliss prints, opening on Friday, Oct. 30. Schapiro will be at the gallery for a book signing that day from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Steve Schapiro will be signing copies of his new book "BLISS" October 30 in Santa Fe



 


Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, will host a book signing by Steve Schapiro of his newest book, BLISS. The book signing will take place on Friday, October 30, from 5 – 7 PM. One of the most respected American documentary photographers, Steve Schapiro has photographed American history over the last six decades.

In “BLISS: An Exploration of the Current Hippie Counterculture & Transformational Festivals”, Steve Schapiro, famous for his photographs of the 60s–including Haight-Ashbury and the hippies of that era–documents the hippies of today and their lives in and out of transformational festivals. With a specific focus on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as “Bliss Ninnies,” these individuals are focused on meditation and dancing as a way to reach ecstatic states of joy. The book features images from festivals across the country and provides an overview of a new contemporary hippie life within America. The 60s are still here. You just have to find where. Published by powerHouse Books, October, 2015, 256 pages.

Steve Schapiro is a distinguished journalistic photographer whose pictures have graced the covers of Vanity Fair, Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, Look, Paris Match, and People, and are found in many museum collections. He has published five books of his work, American Edge, Schapiro’s Heroes, The Godfather Family Album, Taxi Driver, and Then and Now In Hollywood. Steve Schapiro has photographed major stories for most of the world’s most prominent magazines, including Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, People, and Paris Match.

 

Thursday, October 8, 2015

OCTOBER NEWS

 

Dear Friends:

The New Yorker featured the new Stephen Wilkes “Remnants” exhibit this past Friday, you can see the feature here.

"I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding. There are moments in journalism when the media captures the visual details of a disaster, yet sometimes misses the true scale of devastation. It’s my hope that these images serve as a wakeup call — whether that call is about global warming, infrastructure, or just the recognition that the world is changing, it’s a reminder that we need to take special care of our fragile world."  -- Stephen Wilkes

Also included in the exhibit is Stephen’s newest Day To Night image, taken in the Serengeti, Tanzania, earlier this year.


Serengeti, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015
Stephen Wilkes: Serengeti, Day To Night, 2015
 

Recycled Cans
 
 
 Stephen Wilkes: Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1

The “Remnants” exhibit will continue through November 22.

Later this month, Steve Schapiro will be signing copies of his new book BLISS in the gallery on Friday, October 30, from 5 – 7 pm. In Bliss: An Exploration of the Current Hippie Counterculture & Transformational Festivals, Steve Schapiro, famous for his photographs of the 60s--including Haight-Ashbury and the hippies of that era--documents the hippies of today and their lives in and out of transformational festivals. With a specific focus on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as "Bliss Ninnies," these individuals are focused on meditation and dancing as a way to reach ecstatic states of joy. The book features images from festivals across the country and provides an overview of a new contemporary hippie life within America. “The 60s are still here. You just have to find where.

Recently, “BLISS” was featured on the TIME LightBox, and several of Steve Schapiro’s iconic civil rights photographs were in this summer’s acclaimed  “The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson” exhibition.

 

Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001
Steve Schapiro: Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001

 

Our best,
Sid and Michelle Monroe





 

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA
505.992.0800

www.monroegallery.com

Friday, September 11, 2015

"For decades, Steve Schapiro’s iconic photographs have been witty visual documents of American cultural and social movements"



Via Time LightBox

For decades, Steve Schapiro’s iconic photographs have been witty visual documents of American cultural and social movements. He’s captured significant moments like Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march to Selma as well as intimate portraits of Hollywood celebrities such as Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.

To this day, the American photojournalist and documentarian still gives his audience compelling testimonies of the social and cultural flaws that society has survived, capturing an intriguing side of a multifaceted complexity. And his latest body of work is no different. In Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie,  slated for release in October by powerHouse Books, Schapiro chronicles today’s hippie counterculture movement throughout the U.S. and in parts of Europe.

Continue to full article here.


Steve Schapiro's iconic photographs are included in the exhibition "The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson" at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, through September 27.





Saturday, January 24, 2015

"inspired by the photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march that are everywhere again"




 
 Barry Blitt drew the January 26, 2015 cover, inspired by the photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march that are everywhere again. “It struck me that King’s vision was both the empowerment of African-Americans, the insistence on civil rights, but also the reconciliation of people who seemed so hard to reconcile,” he said. “In New York and elsewhere, the tension between the police and the policed is at the center of things. Like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, Martin Luther King was taken way too early. It is hard to believe things would have got as bad as they are if he was still around today.”
 
 
 
 
 
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas,
James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
 



 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, January 1, 2015

PHOTO LA 2015




Winter has set in to Santa Fe, and we are looking forward to heading west and exhibiting again at this year's edition of photo la, January 15 - 19, 2015. Monroe Gallery of Photography will be in Booth #203, just to the right of the main entrance to the fair.

To mark the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the Selma March, the gallery will showcase a very special selection of photographs from the 1965 March, alongside other iconic images from the civil rights era. We will be also exhibiting a wide variety of important photojournalism; including Stephen Wilkes iconic photograph of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Aditionally, we will show several of Wilkes acclaimed Day To Night collection; alongside many other classic photographs.

Be sure to attend the Photojournalism and Its Role in the Fine Art World panel discussion Sunday, Jan. 19, 11:30 - 1.



About photo la: The international photographic art exposition photo la returns for its 24th year at The REEF, located in the historic LA Mart building in downtown Los Angeles, January 15 - 18, 2015. Downtown LA has become an international destination for art patrons and enthusiasts. In addition to photo la and the LA Art Show, downtown LA will also welcome the highly anticipated opening of the new Broad Museum in 2015, along with the ongoing arrival of new cutting-edge and blue-chip galleries, such as Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. Inspired by downtown's growing vitality and creative energy, photo la relocated to The REEF for its 2014 edition, attracting an unprecedented attendance of 16,000 guests.

The 2015 edition of photo la will expand its uniquely diverse and far-reaching showcase of photographic art, ranging from 19th Century works to contemporary and innovative photography-based art. Alongside galleries, dealers, museums, and nonprofit organizations, photo la will also expand its acclaimed programming to include more lectures, roundtable discussions, special installations, and docent tours with distinguished members of the photographic/arts community. This year, photo la is pleased to honor Catherine Opie, and the fair's exclusive VIP opening gala will celebrate her lifelong contributions to the arts. Additionally, all proceeds from the opening gala will go towards photo la's 2015 beneficiary “ The United Way of Greater Los Angeles and The Painted Brain.

Buy Tickets

Concurrent events

Classic Photographs Los Angeles

The LA Art Show

Related: "I’m also glad Monroe Gallery of Photography (Booth #203) is returning this year."




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Steve Schapiro: "The Long Road"

On the Road, the Selma March, 1965
© Steve Schapiro


The New Yorker has a portfolio of unpublished photographs from the 1965 Selma March by Steve Schapiro.


"A half century ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, spoke of the “creative battle” that twenty-two million black men and women in the United States were waging against “the starless midnight of racism.” A few months later, in March, 1965, that battle came to Selma, Alabama, the birthplace of the White Citizens’ Council. The issue was voting rights. As King pointed out, there were more blacks in jail in the city than there were on the voting rolls. James Baldwin, who was among the marchers, had written, “I could not suppress the thought that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.” The series of marches there––the first was Bloody Sunday, a bloody encounter with a racist police force armed with bullwhips and cattle prods; the last, the fifty-four-mile procession from Selma to the State House, in Montgomery––pushed Lyndon Johnson to send voting-rights legislation to Congress. The nonviolent discipline of the marchers, the subject of a new film by Ava DuVernay, and portrayed here in Steve Schapiro’s photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, became such a resonant chapter in the black freedom struggle that Barack Obama, in 2007, went to Selma to speak, at Brown Chapel, just weeks after declaring for the Presidency. Almost eight years later, as Selma is being commemorated, demonstrators against racial injustice are employing as a despairing slogan the last words of Eric Garner, an African-American man on Staten Island in the grip of a police choke hold: “I can’t breathe.”"




Thursday, July 3, 2014

JULY 4 IN SANTA FE




© Steve Schapiro: Boy with Flag, Selma March, 1965


2014 Pancakes on the Plaza

2014 Pancakes on the Plaza

It's almost automatic. When locals think Fourth of July in Santa Fe, Pancakes On The Plaza comes to mind first. From the deliciousness of the pancakes to the cool cars on display ... from the toe-tapping music to the unique art show, Pancakes On The Plaza has something for everyone. And as it brings the communities of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico together to celebrate our nation's birthday, the proceeds generated from Pancakes on the Plaza make a big difference in the lives of people in need.

Get All Your Pancake Info here


Then, stroll over and preview the Steve Schapiro exhibition "Once Upon A Time in America". The gallery will be open Friday, July 4 from 9 to 3, and Saturday July 5 from 10 - 5. There will be a public reception welcoming the renowned photographer Steve Schapiro to Santa Fe and celebrating the official opening of his exhibit from 5 - 7 Saturday evening.


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Once Upon a Time… Veteran photog Steve Schapiro serves up poignant history





Boy with Flag, Selma March, 1965



Via The Santa Fe Reporter
July 1, 2014
By Enrique Limón


 More than 50 iconic photographs by LIFE veteran Steve Schapiro go on display this Saturday at Monroe Gallery’s Once Upon a Time in America.


Over the last five decades, Schapiro has documented the transcendent and the mundane surrounding some of the country’s greatest battles, accomplishments and cultural milestones—ranging from Robert F.Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign to candid moments depicting Marlon Brando on the set of The Godfather.


 A lifelong practitioner of the craft, Schapiro developed a love for photography at age 9, when he would try to emulate the shots of the father of photojournalism, Henri Cartier-Bresson.


“This is a show about America and different aspects of America,” Schapiro tells SFR from his Chicago home.


 Aspects like 1965’s MLK-led Selma to Montgomery marches.


 “It was really a turning point, in the sense that so many people were mobilized,” Schapiro reminisces, “because, really what a lot of the Civil Rights movement was about was trying to energize people in the South—particularly black people—to vote and to feel that it was safe to vote and that they could vote, despite the fact that the culture of the times was against them.”


Witnessing several interruptions and threats of violence during the marches, Schapiro kept on shooting and at one point captured a youth resting under the shadow of an American flag.


“It’s symbolic of the spirit that kids have regarding their feelings that things were only going to get better, and that nonviolence was the proper course to take."


That particular picture wasn’t selected by magazine editors at the time, but was like many in his oeuvre, one that came to be by chance after he went through his old contact sheets.


 “Sometimes you look at pictures and you don’t know why they’re iconic or why people relate to them,” he says. “It’s a subtle thing, but there are just moments where all of that happens and the image presents a statement that goes in some ways beyond what you’re seeing.”


 Once Upon a Time in America
Opening Reception with Steve Schapiro: 5-7 pm Saturday, July 5
Exhibition continues through September 21, 2014
 Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar Ave., 992-0800
www.monroegallery.com