The Beatles photographs of Bill Eppridge at the Museum at Bethel Woods Center For the Arts, AIPAD, and Monroe Gallery

The Beatles wait to disembark, Pennsylvania Staion, NY, 1964

Copyright Bill Eppridge

 

Photos of the Fab Four's First U.S. Visit by LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge & Beatlemania Memorabilia from the Rod Mandeville Collection

The Museum at Bethel Woods                   

Saturday, April 5 - Sunday, August 17, 2014
Open during regular museum hours

Included in regular museum admision; $5.00 for Special Exhibit ONLY

ON SALE: Tickets by phone: 1-800-745-3000
4/5/2014 10:00 AM

Never-seen photographs shot by LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge as he spent six days photographing the young pop stars during their first visit to the U.S., and their performances on the Ed Sullivan Show. The exhibit will also feature an amazing collection of albums, posters, figurines, pins, fan club ephemera, and collectibles as it explores the idea of fan devotion and Beatlemania.

 

Many of Eppridge's Beatles photographs will be on exhibit during The AIPAD Photography Show April 10 -13 in Booth #421, Monroe Gallery of Photography. On Thursday, April 10, there will be a special book signing with Bill Eppridge's wife and editor, Adrienne Aurichio, of Six Days that Changed the World. The book was created before Mr. Eppridge died in 2013, and was published posthumously.

 

From April 25 through June 22, the exhibition Bill Eppridge: 1964 will be on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

More information about the photographs may be seen on the New York Times' LENS blog.

The gelatin silver prints for the exhibition were printed by Catherine Vanaria of Connecticut Photographics.

 

                                     

The Beatles: Six Days that Changed the World. February 1964

 

Release date: February 4, 2014
Published by Rizzoli



To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to the United States.



"One morning my boss said, 'Look, we've got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They're called the Beatles.'" Bill Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 for the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and "stick with them." "These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around," Eppridge recalled. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. "I'm not going to ask you to do a thing," was Eppridge's reply. "I just want to be here." --Bill Eppridge (Read more from the New York Times Lens Blog here.)

©Bill Eppridge The Beatles arrive, February 7, 1964, New York

 





Astonishing, richly spontaneous, and almost entirely unpublished images of the Beatles’ historic first trip to the United States, as chronicled by an award-winning photographer given unique access to their tour. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to the United States, this rare and mostly unseen collection of photographs marks the beginning of the British Invasion. In February 1964, photographer Bill Eppridge was on assignment for Life magazine to cover the band’s arrival at JFK airport. He was then invited to continue shooting in their room at the Plaza Hotel and during the days that followed, notably at the Ed Sullivan Show rehearsal and historic performance; in Central Park; on a train ride to Washington, D.C., for the concert at the Washington Coliseum; at the British embassy; and at their renowned performance at Carnegie Hall. The book is an intimate fly-on-the-wall account of a visit that introduced the Beatles to America and changed the course of music, internationalizing the industry and opening the door for other artists to achieve global success.

 

Bill Eppridge completed the book with his wife and editor Adrienne Aurichio just before his untimely death in October, 2013. Bill Eppridge's photographs of the Beatles 1964 trip will be featured in the exhibition "Bill Eppridge: 1964", April 25 - June 22 at Monroe Gallery of Photography. The exhibit includes other landmark stories Eppridge covered that year: The 1964 Newport Folk Festival, "Mississippi Burning": the funeral of James Chaney, and Needle Park.



Monroe Gallery of Photography will exhibit Bill Eppridge's photographs in booth #421 during the AIPAD Photography Show in New York April 10 - 13.


Copies of  "The Beatles: Six Day That Changed the World" signed by Adrienne Aurichio are available from the gallery.




Related: NY TIMES Lens: The Beatles Visit, Revisited

              LA Times: The intimate unseen Beatles photographs of Bill Eppridge

              CBS Lost Beatles photographs found

              Exhibit captures U.S. debut of The Beatles


   CNN Landmark show, golden glow: 50 years since The Beatles on 'Ed Sullivan

Show less

Prepare For Beatlemania

Via The New York Times


The 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to the United States is shaping up to be nearly as noisy as the original event, but without crowds of screaming fans congregating at Kennedy Airport and the Plaza Hotel and, of course, without the Beatles themselves. CBS announced on Thursday that it would show a two-hour special, “The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles,” on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. – the same date and time slot (and on the same network) as “The Ed Sullivan Show,” on which the Beatles made their live American television debut. The show will include covers of Beatles songs by current stars (none of which have been announced) in performances to be taped Jan. 27.


Two days later, on Feb. 11 – the anniversary of the Beatles’ first American concert, at the Washington Coliseum – a tribute band, Beatlemania Now, will re-enact that concert at the Coliseum (also called the Uline Arena) as a benefit for the DC Preservation League.



Related: Bill Eppridge's photographs of the Beatles.

BILL EPPRIDGE - 1938 - 2013 - AN AMERICAN TREASURE

 

Bill Eppridge, Santa Fe, 2009

Photo by David Marks


"What a sad day for photography when we loose Bill Eppridge" --Bob Gomel


The New YorkTimes: Bill Eppridge, Who Captured Powerful ’60s Images, Dies at 75

The Baltimore Sun: Remembering photographer Bill Eppridge

The Globe and Mail: Photographer Bill Eppridge: an eyewitness to moments in history

RFK Center:  Deepest Condolences on the Passing of Bill Eppridge

Missouri School of Journalism: Remembering Bill Eppridge

Sports Illustrated: Tribute to Photographer Bill Eppridge

New York Times Lens: The Moment a Photographer Became a Historian

BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies

The Los Angeles Times: Bill Eppridge dies at 75; took famed photo of RFK after shooting

Time LightBox: In Memoriam: Iconic LIFE Photographer Bill Eppridge (1938-2013)

CBS News: Bill Eppridge, photographer at RFK assassination, dies;
In this 2008 interview, he talks about the moment Kennedy was shot.

BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies

National Press Photographers Association: Life Magazine Legend Bill Eppridge, 75

Herald Scotland: "Bill Eppridge was a photojournalist who took what is considered to be one of the greatest news pictures of all time"

Associated Press: Photographer at RFK assassination dies in Conn

PDN: Obituary: Photographer Bill Eppridge, LIFE Photographer, Sixties Chronicler, Age 75

NPR: Bill Eppridge, Photographer Who Captured RFK's Death, Dies at 75

 

ABC News: Bill Eppridge, Legendary RFK Photographer, Dies

"The world mourns one of the finest and most iconic photographers of our time."

Washington Post: Photographer Bill Eppridge, who captured images of mortally wounded RFK, dies in Conn. at 75

Washington Post National: Bill Eppridge, Life magazine photographer, dies at 75

CNN: Photographer Bill Eppridge

CNN: Photos: People we lost in 2013

AFP: Photographer who captured Robert Kennedy assassination dies

NPPA: Life Magazine Legend Bill Eppridge, 75

Danbury News-Times:  Bill Eppridge, iconic New Milford photographer, dead at 75

Stanford Advocate Slideshow:  The iconic images of Bill Eppridge

Mass Live/The Republican: LIFE magazine photographer Bill Eppridge dead at 75
 

Elizabeth Avedon: BILL EPPRIDGE: 1938-2013

From his first college newspaper, University of Toronto's The Varsity:
Pages from the Past: Bill Eppridge

"The man could shoot anything. And he did. Goodbye, Bill. And thanks."

THE HISTORIC MASTER VINTAGE PRINT OF ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT

 

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. His most recent project was to record the disappearance of the American Family Farm and he was as passionate about this subject as he was any other.
 

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Bill Eppridge's visual contribution to American History. A recent retrospective of his work at Monroe gallery was titled: “Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure”. He was indeed a treasure, and he is already missed.  --Sidney and Michelle Monroe

Bill Eppridge is a sobering reminder of the necessity of a common history to a civilized society.

 

 

Reposted from Bill Eppridge's good friend Dave Burnett.

It's hard to write or even to read the words about the passing of Bill Eppridge. A little older than I was, to me and my generation (the late sixty somethings) Bill was always one of those guys to whom we could point and realize that THIS GUY was the photo journalist you wanted to be. Tough, dedicated, a rare sense of humor, willing to share and guide (he once gave me one of the kindest beratings over some pictures I had in a round-up piece to which LIFE had assigned both of us..) it was never snarky, since he didn't need to be snarky about anything. Even when he was dealt a lousy hand with health issues, he kept motoring ahead, and was never, ever, without a Nikon of some sort to catch that inevitable fleeting moment. I only once got to share a fishing line with him, in Thomas Mangelsen's back yard. He kept trying to show me how to throw the line in so that some clueless fish might forget ...to reject me. I have a feeling that the 'fishing Bill' was a whole different side of him, and sorry I missed it. He and Adrienne were a great couple. The last time we hung with them was in NY when Bill, Melanie Burford and I judged the N Y Press photographers contest a year and a half ago. It was a blast to see what was, and wasn't acceptable to Bill. He had high standards for his craft, and was probably tougher on himself than anyone else. Bill had one of those great grins: it was somewhere between shit-eating and cat swallowing canary. In fact it might have even been canary swallows cat. It was as if there was always one more story to tell, and he'd just heard the punch line, and wanted to be the one to share it. I'm sorry we won't have him around to tell some of those stories. He was a master at it in all ways.



Renowned Photojournalist Bill Eppridge Feature on CBS Morning Show

CBS news correspondent Michelle Miller interviews Bill Eppridge
photo by Adrienne Aurichio

June 5 will mark the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The CBS Morning Show will feature a segment during the week of June 3 with the renowned photojournalist Bill Eppridge (air date to be announced, check your local listings).

Updated: Here is the segment:RFK assassination: Newly discovered footage backs up doctor's story about aiding Kennedy

Related:

The Historic Master Print of "Robert F. Kennedy Shot"

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

The excitement and frenzy of Beatlemania is captured in Bill Eppridge exhibit opening Tuesday at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusets

 

The Beatles exiting Pan Am Flight 101 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Feb. 7, 1964. The photograph, taken by Bill Eppridge, is included in the exhibit (Photo by Bill Eppridge. All rights reserved.)


Via The Republican
By Ray Kelly, The Republicanmasslive.com
on March 09, 2013

The excitement and frenzy of Beatlemania is captured in a photographic exhibit opening Tuesday at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield.

The black and white photographs, taken for CBS television and LIFE magazine, recall the arrival of the Fab Four in New York, their historic appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and much more.

Bill Eppridge, 75, of New Milford, Conn., a contract photographer for LIFE magazine at the time, is responsible for 33 of the 84 photographs in the exhibit. He was initially assigned to cover The Beatles’ airport arrival on Feb. 7, 1964. Instead, he photographed and chronicled their first six days in America.

When Eppridge arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport, he knew that long-haired musicians from England “who have caused a bit of a stir” were about to land.

“I thought this would be ‘four guys getting off a plane,’ but it turned out to be so much more,” Eppridge recalled. “Half of the New York photographer news corps was out there.”

Many members of the press expected a surly, possibly drugged out, rock’n’roll quartet to stumble off Pan Am Flight 101, but were instead charmed by The Beatles, he said.

“They were perfect gentlemen. These guys were laughing, smiling and treating the press with respect – perhaps deserved, perhaps not,” Eppridge said. “They were perfectly synchronized. One could start a sentence and the other could finish it. These guys were intelligent and they had control of the situation.”

He added, “There was something going on. I could feel it.”

Eppridge immediately called Richard Pollard, director of photography at LIFE, and offered to photograph The Beatles at the Plaza Hotel, Ed Sullivan show, Carnegie Hall performance and train trip to a Washington, D.C. concert

Unlike today when photographers typically deal with agents and handlers, Eppridge spoke directly with The Beatles.

Ringo Starr asked of him, “All right Mr. LIFE photographer, what can we do for you?”

“I told him, ‘Mr. Starr, just be yourselves and this will be painless,’” Eppridge responded.

A classical music aficionado, Eppridge experienced a Beatlemaniac’s fondest dream by witnessing the band’s first U.S. performances at CBS-TV Studio 50 (now the Ed Sullivan Theater), Carnegie Hall and the Washington D.C. Coliseum.

“The teenyboppers, the little girls, were just out of their minds. You couldn’t hear yourself from the screaming. You couldn’t hear the music at the concerts,” Eppridge said. “It was wonderfully crazy.”

During those six days, Eppridge shot nearly 100 rolls of 36-exposure film. Four photos were selected for use with LIFE’s Feb. 21, 1964 article "Yeah-Yeah-Yeah!"

Eppridge’s negatives went missing for several years before making their way back to him 1994. He is planning a book of his Beatles photography next year.

“As time goes by, you come away with a greater realization of what you have done,” Eppridge said.

While Eppridge never photographed the Fab Four again, he captured other historic moments for LIFE, National Geographic and Sports Illustrated.

He followed Robert F. Kennedy in the months leading up to his assassination on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles.

Eppridge said he and other journalists viewed Kennedy as “totally reckless” for failing to take stringent security precautions in the wake of his brother’s assassination nearly five years earlier.

Eppridge said he was standing 12 feet behind Kennedy when the fatal shots rang out.

“Having been in Vietnam, I knew what incoming sounded like. The only thing I was wrong about was that I thought it was .25 caliber and it was .22,” Eppridge recalled.

Eppridge photographed the slain presidential candidate on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel.

“You operate on instinct. You do what you have to do,” he said. “You don’t even think about crying. I cried later.”

________

Bill Eppridge will share reflections on his memorable career at the D’Amour Museum on April 21 at 2 p.m.

IF YOU GO

Exhibit: “The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes”
When: Tuesday through June 2
Where: Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield
Cost: Adults, $15; seniors and college students, $10; ages 3 to 17 year, $8; ages 2 and under and museum members, free. Admission includes all four Springfield Museums. Springfield residents receive free general admission with proof of address
For more info: Call (413) 263-6800 or online at springfieldmuseums.org

 

 

Bill Eppridge will be in atendance during the AIPAD Photography Show in New York at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Booth #419, April 2 - 7, 2013.

49 Years Ago: February 7, The Beatles Arrive in America

Bill Eppridge: The Beatles Arrive, February 7, 1964, New York

 

 

"One morning my boss said, 'Look, we've got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They're called the Beatles.'"

Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 for the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and "stick with them."

"These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around," Eppridge recalls. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. "I'm not going to ask you to do a thing," was Eppridge's reply. "I just want to be here."

Traveling with the Beatles, forced by a snowstorm to take the train to Washington, Eppridge captured some wonderfully fun and memorable pictures. He was with them in Central Park and at the Ed Sullivan Show for both the rehearsal and the historic performance, and photographed their Carnegie Hall performance on February 12, 1964.



Photo LA 2013: Diary of Jeff Dunas

Bill Eppridge, Senator Robert F Kennedy Shot,

Ambassador Hotel Kitchen, Los Angeles, California, June 5, 1968

Via Le Journal de la Photographie

 Slide Show #1


Same venue. A generous group of galleries reconvened this past weekend, January 17 - 21 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for the 21st annual PhotoLA print fair.

Stephen Cohen, PhotoLA's founder, was in good form and seemed happy with the turnout and the exhibitions. The opening night was a wonderful social occasion for the photography community who turned up to benefit the Inner City Arts organization.

The hands-down shining moment of the event was a one and half hour lecture by the great Bill Eppridge. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for the moderately attended talk. Monroe gallery artist Eppridge discussed and showed work from his spectacular career as a photojournalist centering on his assignments from the 1960s including the Beatle's first US tour and the Robert Kennedy assassination If there is a photo-book publisher reading this - here is an incredible opportunity to publish a phenomenal monograph.

It's hard to say if there were detectible new currents on show this year - there was a surprising number of contemporary female nudes evident in many of the exhibitor's spaces but in terms of one emerging star of the program, none surfaced. Ben Nixon, a young photographer working with 19th century wet-plate technology, had a strong show of his forest work as well as his exquisite new title from 21st Editions. A lot of pigment printing on view, with an exceptional piece by Michael Lang at the Cohen Gallery booth. While many tend to pump the colors of modern ink-jet prints, Lang's images displayed a remarkable restraint and mastery of his craft. Less early 20th century masters on display than in prior years, a greater emphasis on the work of contemporary photographers - a good direction for mid-career image-makers. Most were American although a collective booth showing the work of Czech photography was wonderful. Daniel Miller of the Verge and Duncan Miller galleries hosted a booth for a group of women, all emerging photographers which was a good development.

This year an expanded series of seminars, some even tech seminars were added to bring in more photographers who were everywhere this year - a great chance to catch up with friends.

All in all, worthwhile, to be sure. Will I attend the 22nd PhotoLA?
Absolutely.


Jeff Dunas, Los Angeles

Slide Show #2

 Stephen Wilkes Day to Night Series

Stephen Wilkes, Sandy : Seaside Heights, New Jersey, November 4, 2012

Digital C-print, signed, limited edition #1/20 $10,000

Links

http://www.photola.com

Bill Eppridge: 50 Years of Photojournalism

June 5, 1968. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel (Standing at the podium in the Ambassador Hotel Ballroom. Kennedy was just finishing his California primary victory speech and was moments away from walking into the kitchen where he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan.)

Photograph by Bill Eppridge/LIFE/©TimeInc.

 

photo la 2013

Keynote Speaker Bill Eppridge

Friday, January 18, 2013  3:30 - 5 PM

Bill Eppridge, noted photojournalist, lectures on his experiences documenting the 1960s, specifically, Robert F. Kennedy's final campaign and the Beatles first US tour.

 

Museum Exhibit

FOTOmentor Exhibition
Bill Eppridge: 50 Years of Photojournalism

Opening Reception

January 25, 2013 from 6:00-8:00 pm

On View thru January 12 to February 28, 2013

 

One highlight of the upcoming FOTOfusion will be the presentation of the prestigious FOTOmentor Award to Bill Eppridge, a Life Magazine staff photographer during the golden era of photojournalism when the big picture publications supported numerous pages of great photography. In addition to the award, Mr. Eppridge’s work will be featured in this year’s FOTOmentor Exhibition.

Present at some of history’s most famous events, Eppridge’s photographs weave a visual narrative of our times. This exhibition will feature many of his most famous images from the Sixties including the Presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, the Beatles first U.S. visit, the Woodstock Music festival, and his groundbreaking photo essay on heroin addiction in Needle Park.

A self-taught photographer, Bill Eppridge later graduated from the University of Missouri Journalism School. Winning first prize in the National Press Photographers competition earned him internships at Life magazine, where he was named a staff photographer in 1964 and stayed until the magazine folded in 1972. Following assignments with National Geographic, Mr. Eppridge spent 30 years traveling the world as a photographer for Sports Illustrated.

He has been awarded the Joseph A. Sprague Award, The Missouri Journalism Honor Medal and The Lucie Foundation Achievement in Photojournalism. In 2009, Mr. Eppridge was inducted into the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame. He has published four books and his work is included in major collections and museums worldwide.

Bill Eppridge was a Life staff photographer during the golden era of photojournalism when the big picture magazines supported pages of great photography. Present at some of history’s most famous events, Eppridge’s photographs weave a visual narrative of our times. The exhibition features his most famous images from the Sixties including the Presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, the Beatles first U.S. visit, the Woodstock Music festival, and his groundbreaking photo essay on heroin addiction in Needle Park.

Mr. Eppridge will present the Rising Star award at the FOTOfusion Awards Dinner on January 23 and will be present at the exhibition’s Opening Reception on January 25.

About the FOTOmentor Award:

Each year, the PBPC Awards Committee selects a photographer to receive the FOTOmentor Award in honor of his/her lifetime achievements in the world of photography. Previous recipients include distinguished photographers Ralph Gibson, Gordon Parks, Sebastiao Salgado, Arnold Newman, Ruth Bernhard, Duane MichaeIs, James Nachtwey, Michael Kenna, David Hume Kennerly and Robert Glenn Ketchum.
 

Acclaimed LIFE photographer Bob Gomel looks back

 

One of his fabled JFK shots. - Courtesy Bob Gomel

 

 

Via The Santa Fe Reporter

October 3, 2012

That's LIFE
Acclaimed photographer Bob Gomel looks back

Enrique Limón

 

Asked what it was like to be a photojournalist for LIFE magazine during its 1960s heyday, Bob Gomel does not hesitate to answer. “It was the mecca,” he says with a combination of excitement and nostalgia.


“In my wildest dreams, I thought about things like that, and it never really occurred to me that I would ever become part of that wonderful, elitist group of photographers,” the renowned photog tells SFR. “There was no place higher that you could aspire to.”


Gomel’s iconic images have stood both the tests of time and digital media: a meta Malcolm X photographing then Cassius Clay inside a Miami diner; JFK examining the first space capsule; candid shots of the Beatles relaxing the day prior to their career-defining Ed Sullivan Show appearance.


“It’s a trip down memory lane,” he says of the images he selected for LIFE in the 1960s, his forthcoming exhibit at Monroe Gallery. “Everybody realizes now, retrospectively, that the people that we photographed all became iconic, [but] we had no idea of their value historically when we were doing it.”


“It’s amazing to me how 50-years-ago images can be still relevant today,” Gomel, who describes his current schedule as still “busy as can be,” continues.


Not bad for a kid from the Bronx who was first captivated by photography at age 10, after admiring a picture his science teacher had shot and hung inside the classroom
.
“[It] was a beautiful sepia-toned print of a cobblestone street with a manhole cover in the middle, and a pigeon on it,” he recalls. “I looked at that thing and thought, ‘My God, that’s just beautiful,’ and I was mesmerized.”


Curious, he joined the “little photo club” at his public school, and his lifetime affair with still images began.


“I got hooked!” he says.


The one thing missing in the equation was convincing his parents to fork over the then-whopping $83.75 to purchase his dream instrument, a Ciro-flex camera.


“It was the first post-World War II camera made in America,” he points out.


His parents didn’t budge, so the young Gomel started a bike route delivering groceries to earn the dough.

“I remember once, in the middle of the winter, driving up the snowy hills with that bike, the front wheel basket loaded, and I slipped and fell over,” Gomel reminisces. “A dozen eggs cracked and so, not knowing what to do, I went home and replaced the broken eggs with ones from my mother’s refrigerator and continued to deliver that order,” he laughs. “It’s really what sticks in your mind [after] all these many years.”

He took over a closet in his family home and turned it into a makeshift darkroom.


“It was a cheap imitation of the German Rolleiflex, but I cut my teeth on that Ciro-flex,” he says of his first camera, adding that because there was no real formal training available, he mastered his craft based on “trial and error.”

Focused, he would later land his dream job at LIFE, where he became a trailblazer implementing now-standard maneuvers like double exposure and camera rigging—like when he took a groundbreaking aerial shot of the casket containing the body of President Dwight D Eisenhower in the US Capitol’s rotunda from 280 feet above ground.

“If you can envision a picture and you haven’t got any immediate idea of how to do it, you seek out ways,” he explains.

His visit to Santa Fe, it turns out, will be something of a class reunion, as both former LIFE managing editor Dick Stolley and former reporter Hal Wingo—the twosome that would later found People magazine—live in town.

“I don’t get a chance to see many of my colleagues because the TIME-LIFE alumni association basically orients interests and activities around New York City—luncheons and what have you,” Gomel, who is now Houston-based, says. “It’s not practical for me to be able to join them on those occasions.”

With one foot in the retirement door and the other still active in sporadic travel photography, Gomel says, he often gets the itch to immerse himself in photojournalism once more. One event that cemented this, he says, was a trip to New York in 2001. After several delays, he flew back home the evening of Sept. 10.

“I was sound asleep the following morning when my friend called me something around 7:30 am and said, ‘Turn on your television set,’” he says. “When I saw what was going on, I realized I was right there a few hours before, and God—it was killing me not to have been able to be a part of that event and that I had just missed it. So the answer to your question, do I miss it? You bet.”


Opening reception with Bob Gomel
Friday, October 5   5 - 7 PM
Exhibition continues through November 8, 2012

Listen to Art Beat radio interview: Life Magazine and photographer Bob Gomel

BOB GOMEL: LIFE IN THE 1960'S

Black Muslim leader Malcolm X photographing Cassius Clay after he defeated Sonny Liston for the Heavy Weight Championship, Miami, February, 1964

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce an extensive exhibition of photographs from the 1960's by LIFE magazine photographer Bob Gomel. The exhibition opens with a reception for the photographer on Friday, October 5, from 5 to 7 PM. The exhibition will continue through November 18. (Listen here to Art Beat, radio interview about Monroe Gallery and Bob Gomel.)

 

The triumphs and tragedies of the 1960s provided photographer Bob Gomel and his LIFE magazine colleagues extraordinary opportunities to advance American photojournalism. "LIFE was the world's best forum for photojournalists. We were encouraged to push creative and technical boundaries. There was no better place to work in that extraordinary decade." The exhibition includes images of presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, the 1963 Freedom March in Washington, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and other entertainers; Malcolm X, and sports figures such as boxer Muhammad Ali, baseball legend Nolan Ryan, and golfer Arnold Palmer. Several unpublished images - including one of 90 heads of state gathered around the catafalque at the Kennedy funeral and another of John F. Kennedyemerging from America's first space capsule at the Johnson Space Center in Houston - are in the exhibition. (September 12, 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon ..." speech at Rice University, which Bob Gomel photographed for LIFE magazine.)

 Also featured is Gomel's perhaps most known photograph: of then 8 - year old John F. Kennedy Jr. standing solemnly at the funeral of hisuncle, Robert Kennedy, in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. This photograph appeared in a two-page spread in the June 1968 “Special Kennedy Issue” of LIFE magazine.

Bob Gomel was born (1933) and raised in New York City. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he was promptly offered a job at the Associated Press. But by then, he had changed his mind about what he wanted to do. “I just felt one picture wasn’t sufficient to

tell a story,” he explains. “I was interested in exploring something in depth. And, of course, the mecca was Life magazine.”He turned down the offer from AP, and began working for LIFE in 1959, producing many memorable images. When LIFE ceased being a weekly in the early 1970s, he began making photographs for other major magazines. Also in the 1970s, he branched out into advertising photography. Among other accounts, he helped introduce Merrill Lynch’s Bullish on America campaign.

Bob says, “Each time I raised a camera to my eye I wondered how to make a viewer say, “wow.” What followed were the use of double exposures to tell a more complete story; placing remote cameras where no human being could be; adapting equipment to reveal what could not ordinarily be captured on film. My goal with people was to penetrate the veneer, to reveal the true personality or character. The ideal was sometimes mitigated by circumstances, a lack of time or access. But more often than not what the mind conceived could be translated into successful photographic images. Life Magazine in the 60s sold 8,000,000 copies a week. It was a great honor to be a part of that information highway.”

 

 

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"

History, Lived and Documented

The Beatles at the Plaza Hotel, February 7, 1964 Bill Eppridge

©The Albuquerue Journal North
By Malin Wilson Powell
on Fri, Nov 4, 2011

Ignorance of history, like many omissions, happens effortlessly and silently in the contemporary barrage of day-to-day life. The photojournalism of Bill Eppridge is a sobering reminder of the necessity of a common history to a civilized society. The Monroe Gallery is presenting three major Eppridge photo essays from the tumultuous ’60s when he was on assignment for Life magazine (1961-1972), plus a smattering of individual iconic images up to 2007.

One of the most striking aspects of Eppridge’s work is his impeccable instinct for orientation. Eppridge’s photographs bear witness to his ability for in capturing powerful images by constantly honing and adjusting his physical and ethical compass. He not only finds the right place to frame the uncertainties of life unfolding in front of him, but he does this by continually refining the right frame of mind. This holds true whether he might be hanging out of a helicopter with his editor holding onto his ankles, or “sticking with” the Beatles on their first 1964 American tour, or whether he could keep his bearings in the most extreme and devastating situation – Robert Kennedy’s assassination on June 5, 1968.

Bobby Kennedy’s extraordinary vitality and traumatic death were clearly defining experiences for Eppridge, who never accepted another political assignment after the senator’s death. His first assignment with Bobby Kennedy was in 1966 when the young politician was testing the waters for a presidential bid in 1968. During this grueling eight-month campaign Eppridge took thousands of photographs in both black-and-white and color, always “staying close” to the candidate every single day and night.

Robert F. Kennedy in front of a poster of his brother, Columbus, Ohio, 1968
Bill Eppridge ©Time Inc.

The access, rawness and intimacy of Eppridge’s photos are hard to comprehend while immersed in today’s packaged news. As the photographer has noted, “The press is controlled in such a way today that you almost never see the real person you are photographing. You’re taking pictures of what their handlers want you to see.”

Everywhere Bobby Kennedy campaigned he insisted on a convertible to greet the eager crowds. Looking at his exposure and absence of security, the question arises: How could he do this after his brother John’s death in Dallas from a sniper while riding in a convertible? Yet, here are images of Bobby’s courage and enthusiasm for meeting his supporters. His hands and arms reach for them with an appetite as strong as theirs reaching for him. In a time when politicians demonstrate so much disdain for the average voter, these photographs are riveting proof of mutual openness, respect, even admiration.

The Kennedy campaign travels through the Watts section of Los Angeles on the last day before the primary, 1968


For anyone who lived through the ’60s and the repeated blows of the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, their bankrupt slaughter still reverberates. Bobby was shot on the last night of his campaign, the evening he won the all-important California primary and when exhausted he left the press of the crowd by way of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen, where Sirhan Sirhan shot him and five others. Only 12 feet away, and almost certainly unhinged by the mayhem, Eppridge’s eye was steady and he remembers thinking: “You are not just a photojournalist; you’re a historian.” His photograph of the wounded senator is often described as a modern Pieta. It cannot be seen too often.

This is also true of Eppridge’s photo essay “Mississippi Burning: The James Chaney Funeral.” James Chaney was the one black civil-rights worker along with two young white civil rights workers who were kidnapped and murdered during “Freedom Summer” by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. They were investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a civil-rights training site. After an intense 44-day search, the bodies of Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer were found under 25 feet of dirt at a nearby earthen dam.

The dignity and sorrow that seep from Eppridge’s photos of the Chaney family bespeak wounds that can’t be healed. Suffused with an unflinching, upright gravitas, gallery viewers are noticeably stilled as they process through this deeply affecting black-and-white series: they whisper and stand taller. Not only is there the great graveside photo of Ben Chaney, the younger brother, shedding a tear in the embrace of his mother, there is an especially eerie photo of a troubled Ben looking straight at the camera, all alone with his grief in the middle of the image, bracketed by his parents and three sisters steeped in their own thoughts. Because of death threats, the Chaneys left Meridian, Miss., for New York City, and by 1969 Ben Chaney had joined the Black Panther Party. After 13 years in jail, he was paroled and has since established a foundation in his brother’s honor and worked as a legal clerk for former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who secured his parole. As the gallery text notes, only one of the 10 men responsible for the murders was prosecuted and incarcerated by the state of Mississippi, and that was in 2005.

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

Eppridge has written eloquently about his craft and his art, including the unimaginable freedom his generation of photographers had to pursue truth during the 1960s golden era of photojournalism, inserting such anecdotes of a robust participant/observer as the perfect, unchoreographed ballet of a three-man CBS crew filming the Bobby Kennedy motorcade while in motion.

Looking back, the ’60s were terrible and wonderful, and certainly fulfilled the Chinese adage “May you all live in interesting times.” History is always in the making, but there aren’t always visual historians of Eppridge’s highly developed sensibilities to frame resonant and crucial junctures for posterity.

On Oct. 24, Bill Eppridge, born Guillermo Alfredo Eduardo Eppridge in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to American parents, was awarded the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism at Lincoln Center in New York. He is currently visiting Santa Fe and will be at the Monroe Gallery for a discussion of his work from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight.

If you go WHAT: Bill Eppridge
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar
WHEN: Through Nov. 20.
HOURS: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
Gallery discussion with Bill Eppridge 5-7 p.m. tonight. Limited seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
CONTACT: 505-992-0800 or info@monroegallery.com

AN EVENING WITH BILL EPPRIDGE

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to welcome Bill Eppridge, recipient of the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism, to Santa Fe for a gallery discussion of his work. The discussion takes place on Friday, November 4, from 5 to 7 PM. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come basis.

Bill Eppridge is one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and has captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he has 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 50 years, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated; and has been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

Currently on exhibition: many of Eppridge's most important photo essays, including The Beatles arrival in America, Mississippi Burning: The James Cheney Funeral, and The Robert F. Kennedy 1968 presidential campaign and assassination; continues through November 20, 2011.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 every day, Monday through Sunday. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com

2011 LUCIE AWARDS RECAP

©Robert Leslie

Lucie Awards Honor Lifetime Achievements

Photo Distrct News has a good recap of the 2011 Lucie Awards:

Eli Reed, Bill Eppridge, Dawoud Bey and Rich Clarkson were among the veteran photographers honored for their contributions to photography at the 2011 Lucie Awards, held October 24 in New York City.

Bill Eppridge and Rich Clarkson Backstage © Robert Leslie

In accepting the award for Achievement in Photojournalism, Eppridge, who covered the Beatles’ arrival in America, Woodstock and Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign and assassination, thanked “all the photographers I ever worked against,” noting, “It’s that kind of quality competition that drives you.” Dawoud Bey, who received the award for Achievement in Portraiture, said his goal has been to create “a conversation with the human community” and to raise “questions about ourselves.” Rich Clarkson, who has photographed more than 30 covers of Sports Illustrated, was honored for Achievement in Sports. In his acceptance speech, Clarkson, who is a book producer and founder of the Summit Series Workshops, and worked as photo editor and director of photography at Topeka Capital-Journal, Denver Post and National Geographic, said he felt his true mission was to foster a young generation of photographers and photo editors. In presenting the award to Eli Reed for Achievement in Documentary Photography, photographer Misha Erwitt, a friend of Reed’s, noted that Reed’s “generosity shows in his photography and in his teaching.”

Nancy McGirr, who for 20 years has been teaching photography to children living in poverty in Guatemala and Honduras through her program Fotokids, was awarded the Humanitarian prize. The Spotlight Award was given to the International Center of Photography museum and school, presented by photographer Annie Leibovitz, a winner of an ICP Infinity Award. Nobuyoshi Araki, honored for Achievement in Fine Art Photography, was unable to attend; photographer Michael Grecco, who described himself as a collector and fan of Araki’s work, presented and accepted the award on his behalf.

While most of the awards honored lifetime achievement, the awards for achievements in the past year were kept a surprise until the ceremony. Kira Pollack of Time won Photo Editor of the Year. W Magazine won Fashion Layout of the Year for its photos of actress Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker. Zoom was named Photo Magazine of the Year. Kohle Yohanman, curator of the “Beauty Culture” exhibition at the Annenberg Center in Los Angeles won Curator/Exhibition of the Year. The award for Photo Book of the Year went to Chris Boot for the book Infidel by Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in April. Boot, who is now executive director of Aperture, noted that sentiment probably went into the selection of Hetherington’s book. “All of us who had the pleasure of working with Tim loved him, and still do,” Boot said.

At the start of the event, the International Photography Awards, described as “a sister effort of the Lucie Foundation” were announced. The winners were selected by a jury of 70 photo editors, reps, photographers and gallery owners. Majid Saeedi was named International Photographer of the Year, which carries a $10,000 cash prize. The Discovery of the Year award, which honors a non-professional, went to portrait photographer Anna di Prospero. The award for Deeper Perspective, which honors a combination of essay and reportage photography, went to Daniel Beltra for his work on the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

©Bill Eppridge with Richard Stolly on stage

©Bill Eppridge Eli Reed and Dawoud Bey with programme

 

 

 

Related: Bill Eppridge Gallery Talk in Santa Fe November 4, 5 - 7 PM

SAVE THE DATE: BILL EPPRIDGE GALLERY TALK

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to welcome Bill Eppridge, recipient of the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism, to Santa Fe for a gallery discussion of his work. The discussion takes place on Friday, November 4, from 5 to 7 PM. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come basis.

The Lucie Awards is the annual gala ceremony honoring the greatest achievements in photography. The photography community from countries around the globe will pay tribute to Bill Eppridge, who will receive the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism at a special ceremony October 24 at Lincoln Center in New York.

Bill Eppridge is one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and has captured some of the most significant moments in American history:  he has 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 50 years, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated; and has been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

For the first time, this exhibition presents many of Eppridge's most important photo essays together, including: The Beatles, Mississippi Burning: The James Cheney Funeral, and The Robert F. Kennedy 1968 presidential campaign and assassination. The exhibition continues through November 20, 2011.

Santa Fe, Rétrospective Bill Eppridge

White Barn, New Preston, CT, March 9, 2007 © Bill Eppridge

Via la Lettre de la Photographie

Bill Eppridge is one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and has captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he has 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.

Born in Buenos Aires, the second of three children, young Bill Eppridge came to the U.S. and grew up in upstate New York near Rochester. In 1960, Eppridge refined his art and his eye at the University of Missouri, where he received his bachelor’s degree in journalism. While at the School of Journalism, Eppridge won a picture competition and first prize brought him to a week-long internship with LIFE magazine.
After his graduation, Eppridge worked for National Geographic, and then, LIFE magazine. With well over 100 assignments, he had already proved his talent by the time he was formally made a member of the exalted Life staff in 1964. His assignments with LIFE magazine marked some very important points in history, beginning with coverage of several wars in the early sixties.

Still later, Eppridge worked on environmental and outdoor stories for LIFE magazine until it ceased publication as a weekly in 1972. He then signed a corporate contract with Time Inc. “I tried all the magazines to see if I liked working for TIME or Fortune. I was there for the start of People.” Eventually in 1977, he joined Sports Illustrated. He describes his work with SI as “Sports with no balls” as he was not fond of shooting baseball, basketball, or football. “I prefer to do something that I’ve never done before”, he remarks. “Rather than specialize, I’m a generalist.”

For the first time, this exhibition presents many of Eppridge’s most important photo essays together, including:

The Beatles:
Bill Eppridge really didn’t know who the Beatles were, but “One morning my boss said, ‘Look, we’ve got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They’re called the Beatles.’” Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 awaiting the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and “stick with them.” He was with them in Central Park and at the Ed Sullivan Show for both the rehearsal and the historic performance. He rode the train to Washington, D.C. with them for the concert at the Washington Coliseum, and photographed their Carnegie Hall performance on February 12, 1964
.
“These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around,” Eppridge recalls. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. “I’m not going to ask you to do a thing,” was Eppridge’s reply. “I just want to be there.” An exhibit of Eppridge’s Beatles photographs has been touring since 2001, and was seen by over 2 million people at the Smithsonian Museum.

Mississippi Burning: The James Cheney Funeral:
In late June of 1964, three civil rights workers in Mississippi went missing, kidnapped by Klu Klux Klansmen. One man was black, the other two were white. Their names were James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Bill Eppridge arrived in Neshoba County shortly after the bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were pulled from the muck of an earthen dam on August 4, 1964. There are no pictures of the crime, just the brutal aftermath and the devastating grief and sorrow brought upon a family.

In 1967, eighteen men faced federal charges of civil rights violations in the slayings of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. Seven were convicted by an all-white jury, eight were acquitted and three were released after jurors deadlocked. The state of Mississippi prosecuted no one for 38 years. But in 2005—after six years of new reporting on the case by Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger—a sawmill operator named Edgar Ray Killen was indicted on charges of murder.

On June 21, 2005, exactly 41 years after the three men were killed, a racially integrated jury, without clear evidence of Killen’s intent, found him guilty of manslaughter instead. Serving three consecutive 20-year terms, he is the only one of six living suspects to face state charges in the case.

A sign in rear window of car in Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1964

©Bill Eppridge:

Robert F. Kennedy:
One of Eppridge’s most memorable and poignant essays was his coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, first in 1966, and then again on the road with RFK during the 1968 presidential campaign. On June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was instructed by his boss to “stay as close as you can to Bobby”. Kennedy assured Eppridge that he would be part of his immediate group, which meant that wherever the Democratic candidate went, Eppridge wouldn’t be far behind. His photograph of the wounded Senator on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen seconds after he was shot has been described as a modern Pieta. Among the thoughts Eppridge had at that moment was a very loud and clear one: “You are not just a photojournalist, you’re a historian.”


Bill Eppridge
Until November 20, 2011
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.992.0800
Gallery hours are 10 to 5 every day, Monday through Sunday

Bill Eppridge will conduct an exhibition walk-through and gallery talk on Friday, November 4, from 5  to 7 PM.

Links

http://www.monroegallery.com/

Exhibition Celebrates 2011 Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photojournalism Recipient Bill Eppridge

©Bill Eppridge:  sign in rear window of car in Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1964

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce an extensive exhibition of more than 50 important photographs by Bill Eppridge, recipient of the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. The exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, September 30, from 5 - 7 PM; and continues through November 20. 

The Lucie Awards is the annual gala ceremony honoring the greatest achievements in photography. The photography community from countries around the globe will pay tribute to Bill Eppridge, who will receive the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism at a special ceremony October 24 at Lincoln Center in New York.

Bill Eppridge is one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and has captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he has 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 50 years, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated; and has been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

 For the first time, this exhibition presents many of Eppridge's most important photo essays together, including:

 The Beatles: Bill Eppridge really didn't know who the Beatles were, but "One morning my boss said, 'Look, we've got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They're called the Beatles.'" Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 awaiting the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and "stick with them." He was with them in Central Park and at the Ed Sullivan Show for both the rehearsal and the historic performance. He rode the train to Washington, D.C. with them for the concert at the Washington Coliseum, and photographed their Carnegie Hall performance on February 12, 1964.

©Bill Eppridge: Beatle Fans scramble for Jelly Beans, Washington Coliseum, 1964

"These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around," Eppridge recalls. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. "I'm not going to ask you to do a thing," was Eppridge's reply. "I just want to be there." An exhibit of Eppridge's Beatles photographs has been touring since 2001, and was seen by over 2 million people at the Smithsonian Museum.

Mississippi Burning: The James Cheney Murder: In late June of 1964, three civil rights workers in Mississippi went missing, kidnapped by Klu Klux Klansmen. One man was black, the other two were white. Their names were James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Bill Eppridge arrived in Neshoba County shortly after the bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were pulled from the muck of an earthen dam on August 4, 1964. There are no pictures of the crime, just the brutal aftermath and the devastating grief and sorrow brought upon a family.

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

 In 1967, eighteen men faced federal charges of civil rights violations in the slayings of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. Seven were convicted by an all-white jury, eight were acquitted and three were released after jurors deadlocked. The state of Mississippi prosecuted no one for 38 years. But in 2005—after six years of new reporting on the case by Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger—a sawmill operator named Edgar Ray Killen was indicted on charges of murder.

On June 21, 2005, exactly 41 years after the three men were killed, a racially integrated jury, without clear evidence of Killen's intent, found him guilty of manslaughter instead. Serving three consecutive 20-year terms, he is the only one of six living suspects to face state charges in the case.

Robert F. Kennedy: One of Eppridge’s most memorable and poignant essays was his coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, first in 1966, and then again on the road with RFK during the 1968 presidential campaign. On June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was instructed by his boss to "stay as close as you can to Bobby". Kennedy assured Eppridge that he would be part of his immediate group, which meant that wherever the Democratic candidate went, Eppridge wouldn't be far behind. His photograph of the wounded Senator on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen seconds after he was shot has been described as a modern Pieta. Among the thoughts Eppridge had at that moment was a very loud and clear one: "You are not just a photojournalist, you're a historian."

"I believe our world is at a time right now in which it should be documented completely. If we can influence people with photographs, maybe we'll be able to maintain our planet." -- Bill Eppridge

 View the exhibition here.