Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2020

Send your greeting to Tony Vaccaro







UPDATE April 26, 2020 - Tony has recovered fromCovid-19 and is doing well, Thank you for your kind messages that helped Tony through his illness!

Tony Vaccaro survived World War II, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk. After the war, Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day.  In recent years there has been a career renaissance for Tony with exhibits world-wide.  In addition to his beautiful family Tony’s great love has been meeting and sharing his work with you.

Having been isolated from both family and friends for his safety during the Covid-19 crisis, Tony’s spirit is suffering. Please take a moment to record a message or short video for Tony to let him know that he is important to you.

Send it to us and we will forward to our dear friend Tony:
by email
Card or letter: c/o Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87501

Thank you.


Saturday, March 7, 2020

International Acclaim For the Exhibition "Ida Wyman: Life with a camera"


Ida Wyman: Man looking in wastebasket, Coney Island, New York, 1945


Today, March 7, would have been Ida Wyman's 94th birthday. The daughter of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Ida Wyman was born March 7, 1926 in Malden, Massachusetts. The family soon moved to New York, where her parents ran a small grocery store in the Bronx. Her parents bought her a box camera when she was 14, and she joined the camera club at Walton High School, honing her skills at taking and printing pictures. By the time Wyman was 16, she know that she wanted to work as a photographer.

Opportunities then were few for women photographers, but in 1943 Wyman joined Acme Newspictures as a mail room ‘boy’; pulling prints and captioning them for clients.

When the war ended, Acme's only female printer was fired so a man could have her job. Wyman set out on her own to begin free-lance work for magazines, and her first photo story was published in LOOK magazine the same year. By 1948 she was in Los Angeles, working on assignments for LIFE magazine. She would eventually cover over 100 assignments for LIFE.

For the next several years, Wyman covered assignments for LIFE, Fortune, Saturday Evening Post, Parade, and many other leading publications of the time. Ida Wyman passed away in July, 2019. Although not as famous as some of her contemporaries, Ida was one of the defining artists of early street photography that helped shape how we look at our world.

HUCK Magazine

The unsung photographer of the 20th century: Celebrating Ida Wyman

The Daily Mail


Ida Wyman: Life with a camera continues through April 19, and selection from the exhibit will be on view in our booth #A1 during Paris Photo New York Presented by AIPAD at Pier 94 in New York, April 2-5.

Friday, December 6, 2019

Talking Pictures with Tony Vaccaro




Kenneth Jarecke interviews Tony Vaccaro for "Talking Pictures". Tony's exhibition "La Dolce Vita" is on view through January 26, 2020 - you will also see his work with Monroe Gallery at Photo LA and Paris Photo NY/AIPAD in 2020.


Kenneth Jarecke (born 1963) is an American photojournalist, author, editor, and war correspondent. He has worked in more than 80 countries and has been featured in LIFE magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and others. He is a founding member of Contact Press Images. He is notable for taking the famous photograph of a burnt Iraqi soldier that was published in The Observer, March 10, 1991.



Thursday, November 28, 2019

LEGENDARY PHOTOGRAPHER TONY VACCARO TO APPEAR IN SANTA FE TO CELEBRATE HIS 97th BIRTHDAY


Tony Vaccaro
Fellini on the set of “La Dolce Vita”, Italy 1969


Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce “La Dolce Vita”, a major exhibition of more than 40 photographs by Tony Vaccaro. The exhibit opens with a public reception for Tony Vaccaro, about to turn 97, on Friday, November 29 from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibit continues through January 19, 2020 and includes several new discoveries from his archive being exhibited for the very first time, and six vintage darkroom prints from World War II. The war prints are one-of-a-kind: the nitrate negatives completely turned to dust.

Tony Vaccaro photographed on the set of “La Dolce Vita”, and nearing age 97, he indeed is living “the good life”. On November 1 Tony was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum for his “artistry, innovation, and significant contribution to the art and science of photography”, and following the 2016 HBO Films documentary “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” he has enjoyed a career renaissance world-wide.

At the age of 21, Tony was drafted into World War II, and by June of 1944, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days, Tony fought and photographed on the front lines of the war.

After the war, Tony remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from President John F. Kennedy and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Tony still carries a camera and puts in six or seven hours daily without a break; creating prints in his studio and identifying jobs for his staff. Monroe Gallery will sponsor a free screening of “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” in the gallery on Saturday, November 30, starting at 5 pm. Seating is limited, RSVP required. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro. Tony Vaccaro celebrates his 97th birthday on December 20.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

New York Mets Honor Tony Vaccaro on 75th Anniversary of D-Day




Via US Department of Veteran's Affairs



On June 6th, the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, two WWII D-Day Veterans, Judge Bentley Kassal (103) and Photographer Tony Vaccaro (96) will be honored by the Mets during the mid-day game at Citi Field.


Tony Vaccaro served in the Army, attached to the served with the Intel Platoon of the 83rd Infantry Division, 331 Regiment, Headquarters company, to land as part of the D-Day invasion in Normandy. Vaccaro self-assigned himself the role of photographer while serving in the Army. He was a soldier through the occupation of Germany in 1949 and then transitioned from WWII combat photographer to fashion and personality photographer.

Vaccaro has always lived in the moment, prepared to capture the next human story with his camera. He’s also very good with words, vividly evoking scenes from various periods of his own life. He has known and photographed scores of celebrities and legendary people in the arts like the composer Shostakovich and the French Mime Marcel Marceau and stayed friendly with many of them for decades.

Vaccaro has taken thousands and thousands of photographs, his most famous are Kiss of Liberation (1944) and GI Dead in Snow (1945). In his Long Island studio, the walls are lined with folders of negatives that are in the process of being digitalized. Hanging on the wall are some of his personal favorites, that include a portrait --- of JFK taken at the White House.

Vaccaro went on to make images for the immensely popular LIFE and LOOK Magazines. He married a Finnish model and had two sons. Later, successful and well known, he worked independently.

Today, Vaccaro is kept busy with shows of his work. He is currently still working at his Archives in Long Island City and has many exhibitions all over the world. He let go of his Archives five years ago and let his family take care of his work. HBO did a documentary on Tony Vaccaro called ‘Underfire’ and it was nominated for outstanding documentary at the 2018 Emmy’s. The human stories of his images are timeless and appreciated now as much as they were a generation or two generations ago.


View Tony Vaccaro's photography here.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Finding Beauty, an Interview with Photographer Tony Vaccaro



Via Dressed Podcast






Finding Beauty, an Interview with Photographer Tony Vaccaro
March 12, 2019


Hubert de Givenchy photographed by Tony Vaccaro, France 1961
Tony Vaccaro / @Tony Vaccaro Archive


This week, we talk to the photographer Tony Vaccaro about his prolific seventy-plus year career photographing fashion, celebrity and World War. His subjects include Dovima, Verushka, Hubert de Givenchy, Pablo Picasso and Georgia O'Keefe. Click to listen (Interview starts after brief commercial)







Thursday, February 14, 2019

HISTORY IN PICTURES

Carl Mydans
Female French Collaborator Having Her Head Shaved During Liberation of Marseilles, 1944



February 15 - April 7, 2019

“History In Pictures” is a gripping selection of images that brings home the power of visual storytelling. These unforgettable images are imbedded in our collective consciousness; they form a sort of shared visual heritage for the human race, a treasury of significant memories. Many of the photographs featured in this exhibition not only moved the public at the time of their publication, and continue to have an impact today, but set social and political changes in motion. Several of the photographs in the exhibition are consistently referred to as among the most influential photographs in history; they shaped the way we think, changed the way we live, and some were turning points in our human experience.


Looking at the pictorial documentation of such extraordinary events we often get the impression that we are feeling the pulse of history more intensively than at other times. Although often not beautiful, or easy, they are images that shake and disquiet us; and are etched in our memories forever.

View the exhibition on-line here.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

PHOTO LA FAIR 2019



Monroe Gallery of Photography is very pleased to exhibit at the Photo LA Fair January 31st - February 3rd, 2019, in The Historic Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, CA.

Monroe Gallery will be located near the front entrance of the fair in Booth #A01.

We are especially excited that Tony Vaccaro will be in attendance during the Fair January  in the gallery’s booth. On Friday, February 1, Photo LA will screen the HBO documentary “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 screening will be followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro. (Seating is limited, tickets required from the Photo LA Fair). Also in attendance will be Ryan Vizzions, and we will be exhibiting his photographs from the forthcoming book “No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to Standing Rock”, in addition to selections of his other work.

Rounding out our exhibit will be important civil rights photographs and historic examples of photojournalism.



Photo LA 2019


Opening Night to Benefit Venice Arts
Thursday, January 31 (6pm - 9pm)

Public Hours
Friday, February 1 (11am - 8pm)
Saturday, February 2 (11am - 8pm)
Sunday, February 3 (11am - 4pm)

 Tickets available here
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Sunday, November 18, 2018

Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is exhibiting more than 50 photographs by the acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro


Photographer follows resurgent career back to Santa Fe with exhibit


Image result for albuquerque journal logo
The Albuquerque Journal
By Kathaleen Roberts / Journal Staff Writer

Sunday, November 18th, 2018

Georgia O'Keeffe with Cheese, New Mexico, 1960
©Tony Vaccaro


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When photographer Tony Vaccaro first met Georgia O’Keeffe in 1960, the great artist refused to speak to him for five days.

On assignment from LOOK magazine, Vaccaro had traveled to New Mexico by train with art editor Charlotte Willard.

O’Keeffe had been expecting a different photographer, one of her favorites, such as Ansel Adams, Todd Webb or Richard Avedon.

Trying his best to charm her, Vaccaro cooked O’Keeffe a steak and fixed her broken washing machine, to no avail.

Suddenly, the topic turned to bullfighting. Vaccaro mentioned he had met the great Spanish matador Manolette.

The artist pivoted in her seat to face him. She never looked at Willard again.
“When O’Keeffe found out, she kind of embraced me and that’s when we became the greatest friends,” the 95-year-old Vaccaro said in a telephone interview from his home in Long Island City, N.Y.

Givenchy by the Pool, South of Paris, France, 1961 
©Tony Vaccaro
Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is exhibiting more than 50 photographs by the acclaimed photographer in “Tony Vaccaro: Renaissance,” opening Friday, Nov. 23. The gallery will offer a free screening of the 2016 HBO documentary “Under Fire: The Private Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, followed by a question-and-answer session with the photographer. The show will hang through Jan. 27, 2019.

After that initially frosty meeting, Vaccaro spent a month in Abiquiú photographing O’Keeffe, producing some of her most iconic portraits.

The photographer captured “Georgia O’Keeffe with cheese” while they were traveling. The artist looks playfully at the camera through a hole in a piece of Swiss cheese.

“We had decided to go to the desert for a picnic,” Vaccaro said. “The desert she liked was White Sands. I arranged the catering, the salad, everything, but it began to rain, so we moved into the car. So we had the picnic sitting in the car. I was driving; I looked back and I saw her looking at me through a hole in the cheese.”

Vaccaro kept in touch with O’Keeffe over the years.
“She had an opening in 1971 at the Whitney Museum,” he said. “We were talking. She pulled me away and said, ‘Tony, let’s go see our picture,’ which is the famous one where she holds a famous painting she had made.”


Georgia O’Keeffe with painting, New Mexico, for LOOK, 1960  ©Tony Vaccaro

Vaccaro’s career across the decades included war photography, fashion photography and celebrity portraiture.

ne fashion assignment featured a collection of hats. Vaccaro spotted a spiral-shaped hat resembling a certain building. He asked the slinky model Isabella Albonico to pose in the chapeau in front of the Guggenheim Museum.

He said Albonico sported the longest neck he had ever seen.

“You look at Isabella’s face and you know she thinks it’s funny,” he added.

“I saw Frank Lloyd Wright design the Guggenheim from scratch,” Vaccaro continued. “I photographed it as it went along.”

Guggenheim Hat, New York, 1960

©Tony Vaccaro


The HBO documentary about Vaccaro’s war photography has kindled a career resurgence. He will turn 96 on Dec. 20.

Vaccaro was drafted into World War II at the age of 21. By the summer of 1944 he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach six days after the first landings at Normandy. Vaccaro was determined to photograph the war and brought his portable 35mm Argus C-3. He fought on the front lines, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches.

The result was “White Death, Pvt. Henry Irving Tannebaum, Ottre, Belgium,” 1945, one of the most famous photographs of the war.

“I took that picture and at that time this man had a son who was 1 year old,” Vaccaro said. “Fifty years later I got a phone call saying, ‘I am the son of Mr. Tannebaum.’ He said, ‘Would you take me where you took the picture of my father dead in the snow?'”

He did, only to find the spot had disappeared.

“It was a field of Christmas trees the owner was selling to Portugal,” Vaccaro said. “Fifty years later, it was growing Christmas trees. And it so happens Tannebaum means Christmas tree.”

If you go


WHAT: “Tony Vaccaro: Renaissance”

WHEN: Public reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Jan. 27, 2019.

WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe

HOW MUCH: Free at monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

TONY VACCARO AT 95 - WORLD-WIDE EXHIBITIONS



Isabella Albonico flashes a knowing smile in "Guggenheim Hat", one of the new fashion images in the Plaxall Gallery show. ©Tony Vaccaro

Photographer Tony Vaccaro opens a seven week show at the massive Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City on Thursday, July 5 with a 7:00 pm opening reception. After more than 275 international shows in 50 years, it is the first time he will exhibit near his home. "The Maestro" retired to Long Island City in 1982. All sales inquires are handled through the Monroe Gallery of Photography.

The Plaxall Gallery, a jewel of converted industrial space, is organized and administered by the not-for-profit art advocacy group, Long Island City Artists (LIC-A). LIC-A promotes fine art, theater, dance, PTA, Girl Scouts, children's workshops, ESL classes at LaGuardia College, and more. Special thanks for making this show possible go to president Carol Crawford, Edgo Wheeler, Norma Hombergeir dedicated staff.

The Plaxall Gallery
525 46th Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

The Plaxall Gallery is open Thursdays, 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and weekends, 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Currently Mr. Vaccaro is exhibited in Pescara, Italy, and has images at Los Angeles' Annenberg Space for Photography in their Library of Congress show, "Not an Ostrich". Mr. Vaccaro's other solo shows this year include an exhibit of 140 prints at Berlin's Villa Schoningen August 9 - September 9, a 56 print exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery in the heart of London August 6 - September 21, and an exhibition at the Monroe Gallery of Photography November 23 - January 20, 2019 in Santa Fe, NM. During the Monroe Gallery exhibition Tony will turn 96 in December.

The Berlin show is Mr. Vaccaro's largest since his 70th anniversary of D-Day show at Normandy's Memorial de Caen

The Plaxall Show will be the first curated by Tony Vaccaro's daughter-in-law, Maria Vaccaro, and will highlight many of the fashion images discovered by the Tony Vaccaro Studio. Maria has run the Tony Vaccaro Studio since 2016, and has been Tony's darkroom assistant since 1994. The Tony Vaccaro Studio opened in 2015 when Tony, aged 92, allowed his family to access his approximately 500,000 negatives, transparencies, and chromes. View the full Tony Vaccaro collection here.



Plaxall Gallery Hours
Saturday: 11AM – 6PM
Sunday: 11AM – 6PM
Thursday: 6 – 10PM
Closed: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri
Phone: (917) 287-3093

Tony Vacaro's photographs are on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Avenue, Santa Fe, NM. The Gallery is open daily 10 - 5.



Friday, April 13, 2018

Legendary Photographer Art Shay Tells His Remarkable Story



We were pleased to feature many of Art Shay's photographs during the recent AIPAD Photography Show in New York, and the current gallery exhibit "1968: It Was 50 Years Ago Today" includes several of Shay's 1968 photographs. In 2017, Art Shay received the Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography.


Via Chicago Magazine
April 13, 2018

Legendary Photographer Art Shay Tells His Remarkable Story
The photographer, 96, on Liz Taylor, JFK, and almost killing Jimmy Stewart


My father taught me as a kid that anything you can see, you can photograph. He gave me his Kodak camera, a very doughty instrument that was capable of making great snapshots, and I began developing pictures in the basement. I built an enlarger out of a coffee can and emptied out a coal bin for my darkroom.

A photo is a biography of a moment that would otherwise have gotten away.

I became a lead navigator during World War II. I survived the famous Kassel mission, where 31 B-24 Liberators didn’t make it back. And I had a Leica shot off my chest in a fighter attack and got through that OK. I knew I could become powder all the time, but it never bothered me. I never really, in my heart of hearts, believed it could happen to immortal old me.

Jimmy Stewart was my commanding officer. We looked alike and sounded alike and were fucking the same girl. Our crew almost killed him by mistake. We had started making artificial buzz bombs—the V-1 German bombs. It was a four-inch metal pipe on a metal stand, about four feet high, and we’d just aim and shoot it out. One day Jimmy was coming out of the officers’ mess, and debris from one hit him. He looked up at our group of four conspirators and said, “That’d be a fine fuckin’ way for Jimmy Stewart to die, wouldn’t it?”

My first published pictures were of a midair collision. I had eight shots left on my beat-up old Leica, an orange filter on it ready for the sky, and the shutter at 500. I heard this roar overhead, and there were 50 Liberators. Two of them hit, and they started to go down. I got a hundred bucks for it.

My wife, Florence, taught me that I am better and smarter than I really am. She was known as the best of the photographers’ wives at Life magazine. She could get me off of a ladder in Seattle on a Friday afternoon and have me on deck for a Sports Illustrated football game the next day in Kansas City.

My son Harmon was a character. He went off the IQ charts at 200. The whole house is cluttered with his inventions. He was murdered in the hippie jungles of Florida in 1972, just two weeks before his 21st birthday. You don’t get over that. I often cry when I’m driving alone. What a waste it was.

Nelson Algren was Harmon’s godfather. I have a postcard someplace with his advice to Florence. He said, “Tell the kid never to eat at a place called Mom’s, never to play poker with a guy named Doc, and never to sleep with a woman who has more troubles than his own.”

I’m very good at hiding cameras on me. I learned that from an old Life photographer, my mentor Francis Reeves Miller. He was a little guy from Texas who looked like Santa Claus and drank 20 film containers of straight rye whiskey on every job.

Elizabeth Taylor was the loveliest woman I’d ever met, and she had the humor of a Bronx housewife.

I did 83 Mafia stories, if you can digest that. The last one was in a grass alley in New York. I went into it with my little Leica and telephoto, and there were all these guys playing poker on either side. They looked up, and there’s Life magazine. A couple of guys drew their guns. I knew they weren’t gonna shoot me, and they knew they weren’t gonna shoot. But it’s still unsettling when someone points a gun at you.

The one time John F. Kennedy spoke to me, I was loading film down at the 1960 debates at CBS in Chicago. He said, “Where can a fella take a whiz around here?” He was conscious, but not too conscious, of who he was. His whole attitude toward the world was, “Fuck you.”

Don’t invest too much in your own immortality, if at all.



Art Shay
Photograph by Richard Shay



View Art Shay's photography here.



Monday, December 18, 2017

TONY VACCARO AT 95


Tony Vaccaro: Newly liberated women in Nante, along the North bank of the Loire River, celebrate their freedom, Nante, France, July, 1944


Happy 95th Birthday to Gallery photographer Tony Vaccaro!!



Tony Vaccaro turns 95 on December 20, 2017. In 2017, the Emmy-nominated documentary film "Underfire: the Untold Story of Tony Vaccaro" aired on HBO, following its November, 2016 premiere. In July, Tony returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico 57 years after his famous photo-session with Georgia O'Keeffe to attend the opening of the exhibition "Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace" at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

In World War II, Tony Vaccaro played two risky roles, serving as a combat infantryman on the front lines, as well as a photographer who shot 8,000 photographs. Returning to the States in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Flair, Look, Life, Venture, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Quick, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day.

Tony Vaccaro 

 Monroe Gallery of Photography is proud to present a special pop-up exhibition of photographs by Tony Vaccaro on the occasion of his 95th birthday. Visit the exhibition on-line at www.monroegallery.com, or in the gallery through January 21, 2018. And stay in contact with Monroe Gallery for several Tony Vaccaro exhibits to be announced for 2018!


Saturday, November 11, 2017

“UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" Now on DVD


UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro DVD with Extras – PRE-ORDER NOW

Pfc. Tony Vaccaro played two roles during WWII: combat infantryman and unofficial photographer. At great personal risk, he shot and developed 8,000 photographs from the front lines that showed the camaraderie, the bravery and the tragedy of war – in a way no one had done before. Directed by Max Lewkowicz. An HBO Film.

71 Minutes. DVD Extras included. Closed Captions.

Pre-Order Now. Expected Delivery December 2017.
ORDER Here  $23.99




Directed by Max Lewkowicz (the New York Emmy-winning Morgenthau), UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of PFC. Tony Vaccaro is the remarkable story of WWII infantryman and photographer Tony Vaccaro, who created one of the most comprehensive, haunting and intimate photographic records of combat.

Through interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers and Vaccaro himself, this moving film examines issues raised by witnessing and recording conflict, following him as he retraces his journey across Europe as a soldier, sharing the stories behind some of his most powerful pictures along the way.

Featuring contributions from Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times photographer Tyler Hicks, Anne Tucker, curator of the Fine Art Museum of Houston, James Estrin, of the Times, and John Morris, former photo editor of Life Magazine and Robert Capa. Executive Produced by Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones, Sopranos). An HBO Film.

*Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary.
DVD Special Feature Extras Include:

– Tony Vaccaro Photographer (Alternate Segment)
– Tony with Mike in Normandy (Extended Scene)
– Omaha Beach Landing (Deleted Scene)
– Moment of Death (Extended Scene)
– Gott Mit Uns (In God We Trust) (Extended Scene)
– 83rd Infantry Division Europe Signal Corp Film

Engrossing, unexpectedly moving..." -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Tony Vaccaro's life was forged by pain and courage. Passion saved his life and enriched ours." - Tim Van Patten, director Game of Thrones, The Sopranos
"No one got closer than an infantryman in war, and no one got closer than Tony." -Alex Kershaw, Historian and New York Times best-selling author, "The Liberator"

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to represent the fine art photography of Tony Vaccaro. "Tony Vaccaro at 95" will be on view in the gallery November 24 - January 21, 2018.




Monday, August 14, 2017

August 14, 1944 - 1945

Tony Vaccaro: Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous  celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944


Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace is on exhibit in the gallery through September 17, 2017




Alfred Eisenstaedt/©Time Inc: VJ-Day in Times Square, New York, August 14, 1945



Friday, July 28, 2017

Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary Emmy

Underfire: the Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro
is available on demand from HBO here.

Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace is on exhibit at Monroe Gallery of Photography through September 17, 2017. M
Monroe Gallery will sponsor a special free encore screening of "Underfire" in Santa Fe on Saturday, August 26 at 3:45 pm at the Center For Contemporary Arts  Cinematheque. Please call the CCA box office for tickets; seating is limited.


NOMINEES FOR THE 38th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED


Outstanding Historical Documentary

 HBO Documentary Films        


HBO UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro 

Director/Producer Max Lewkowicz
Executive Producers Gianna  Cerbone –Teoli, Sheila Nevins, Ann  Oster, Tim  Van Patten
Senior Producer Jacqueline Glover
Producer Valerie  Thomas

NOMINEES FOR THE 38th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED  
Charles Osgood to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

October 5th Award Presentation at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in NYC
 New York, N.Y. – July 25, 2017 – Nominations for the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced today by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).  The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be presented on Thursday, October 5th, 2017, at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Complex at Columbus Circle in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Awards will be presented in 49 categories.

 “Many say we’re in a ‘golden age’ of television and I would argue that the incredible growth of quality, in-depth reporting in broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking has helped drive that change,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. “We live in a continually-connected world where a tweet can set off a firestorm that travels around the world in seconds. These awards are a tribute to the outstanding work being done by these nominees who provide the viewer with thorough, fact-checked reporting, examining the stories of the day from multiple perspectives while never wavering in their quest to provide us with the truth about world events. It is with great pleasure that The National Academy honors the achievements of these many organizations and individuals.  It is an added delight to honor the one-of-a-kind broadcasting career of Charles Osgood, who through his decades as host of the ‘Osgood File’ and as the anchor of ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ has graced many a news story with his innate ability to engage his audience with humor, warmth and credibility.”  

The 38th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards honors programming distributed during the calendar year 2016. 

The list of nominees is also available on the National Television Academy's website: www.emmyonline.tv

Via Emmyonline.com

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Photographer Tony Vaccaro in Santa Fe



57 years later, Tony Vaccaro returned to the location near Georgia O'Keeffe's home where he made his iconic photograph of Georgia holding " "Pelvic Series, Red with Yellow".
Photo courtesy of Tony Vaccaro Studio

"I took this photo 1960 of Georgia she told me not to take color photo and not to take her art of her studio. Well am sorry Georgia I did the opposite. " - Tony Vaccaro





Exhibit reviews and articles

The Santa Fe New Mexican: Monroe Gallery to showcase trove of varied work by photojournalist Tony Vaccaro

The Albuquerque Journal: "The things we live with"

The Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo: Tony Vaccaro's "War and Peace" at Monroe    

The Santa Fe Reporter: Not even a world war stopped this artist



Richard Stolley (left), former Time magazine bureau chief, senior editor and managing editor, and Assistant Managing Editor and Managing Editor of Life magazine, led a Q & A with photographer Tony Vaccaro (right) following the screening of the film "Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.




Tony Vaccaro at Monroe Gallery
Photo by R. David Marks


Tony Vaccaro receiving the City of Santa Fe's Veteran's Service medal from
Santa Fe City Commissioner Signe Lindell, June 30, 201
(photo courtesy Tom Blog)


Tony Vaccaro: "War and Peace" remains on view through September 17, 2017



Wednesday, June 28, 2017

"Not even a world war stopped this artist"


Georgia O’Keeffe, Santa Fe, LOOK, 1960

Via The Santa Fe Reporter
June 28, 2017,
By Maria Egolf-Romero, Alex De Vore


This Friday, a diverse collection of images in the exhibit Tony Vaccaro: From War To Beauty at the Monroe Gallery of Photography gives Santa Feans a glimpse into the life of the 94-year-old photographer from scenes of World War II to commercial fashion shots, and beyond.

This artist’s lens has captured some of the most famous humans ever—think Sophia Loren, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe. But some of his first forays into photography were spent documenting World War II. Drafted at 21 years old, Vaccaro carried a 35-mm camera through the trenches of Europe and used innovative techniques to develop his film: Patiently waiting for nightfall, the artist-soldier used the tools available to him in the middle of a war. “I would go over the ruins of a village and try to locate where a camera shop might have been,” he says. “So, in the ruins I could find developer and the things which you need.” Chemicals in hand, Vaccaro used helmets as developing trays; developer, water, hypo and more water to rinse; four helmets in succession in the pitch black. “From Normandy to Berlin, that’s how I developed my pictures,” he tells SFR.

Vaccaro had a long and illustrious career in photography after the war as well, including time working for magazines like Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Newsweek. His work took him to amazing places like the Nile River in Egypt and to photograph fabled architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

But which photo stands out to Vaccaro as his crowning achievement? Georgia O’Keeffe, he says. He asked the painter to take her work outdoors. “It’s one of the great photographs of my life, yes—I have it right in front of me—she’s in profile, and all you have is black, her face and then the great color of that painting,” he says. “The greatest [memory] was Georgia O’Keeffe, and coming to Santa Fe, and it was just Georgia and Tony for about a week or more. It was superb, really.” (Maria Egolf-Romero)

Opening Reception 5 pm Friday, June 30
Free 
Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave.
992-0800

Screening 3:45 pm Saturday July 1.
Free.
Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail 
(Seating is limited, RSVP Required)  982-1338




Friday, June 2, 2017

SAVE THE DATES JUNE 30/JULY 1: TONY VACCARO IN SANTA FE


Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944



94-year Old Tony Vaccaro travels to Santa Fe for screening of documentary and exhibit  


Santa Fe, NM -- Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a major exhibition of 50photographs by Tony Vaccaro. The exhibit opens with a public reception for Tony Vaccaro on Friday, June 30 from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibit continues through September 17.  

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a free screening of  HBO Films' “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” at CCA on Saturday, July 1, starting at 3:45 pm. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro moderated by former senior editor and reporter for LIFE magazine, Richard “Dick” Stolley. (Seating is limited, RSVP required to Monroe Gallery by June 28.)

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

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1922, Tony Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the village of Bonefro, Italy after his family left America under threat from the Mafia. Both of his parents had died by the time he was eight years old and he was raised by an uncaring aunt. When World War II broke out, the American Ambassador in Rome ordered Tony to return to the States. He settled in with his sisters in New Rochelle, NY where he joined his high school camera club.

A year later, at the age of 21, Tony was drafted into the war, and by the spring of 1944 he was photographing war games in Wales. By June, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days, Tony fought on the front lines of the war. He entered Germany in December 1944, a private in the Intelligence Platoon, tasked with going behind enemy lines at night.

 After the war, Tony remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright. He visited Georgia O’Keefe in Abiquiu in 1960 on assignment for LOOK magazine.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1960


Now 94, Tony still carries a camera and puts in six or seven hours without a break; creating prints in his darkroom and identifying jobs for his staff. Tony has won numerous honors and awards,  including the Art Director’s Gold Medal (New York City, 1963), The World Press Photo Gold Medal (The Hague, 1969), The Legion of Honor (Paris, 1994), The Medal of Honor (Luxembourg, 2002), Das Verdienstkreuz (Berlin, 2004), and the Minerva d’Oro (Pescara, 2014).


Tony Vaccaro


Since retiring in 1982, Tony has been exhibited over 250 times and has published or been the subject of ten books and two major films. In 2014, the Tony Vaccaro Museum  was inaugurated in Bonefro (Italy). Tony’s photographs are in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington.