"Fallout', directed by Nina Berman, is the Telly Awards Silver Winner for Documentary: Short Form

 Via The Telly Awards

June 28, 2024

SILVER WINNER: DOCUMENTARY: SHORT FORM (UNDER 40 MINUTES) — NON-BROADCAST

Executive Producer

Jeffery DelViscio, Scientific American

Director

Duy Linh Tu, Scientific American

Director

Nina Berman, Scientific American

Producer/Editor

Sebastian Tuinder, Scientific American

Animator

Dominic Smith, Scientific American

Narrator

Joseph Polidoro, Scientific American

Save The Date: July 6, Free screening of Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro

 

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a major exhibition of more than 45 photographs celebrating the life and career of Tony Vaccaro. “Tony Vaccaro: The Pursuit of Beauty” The exhibit opens on Friday, July 5, with a public reception and Gallery conversation with Frank Vaccaro, son of the photographer, 5 – 7 pm.  

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a free screening of the HBO Documentary Film “Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc Tony Vaccaro” on Saturday, July 6, 4 pm at the Jean Cocteau Theater. 

Free tickets here.

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.

 In 1943, with the Allied invasion of Europe imminent, a newly drafted 21-year-old Tony Vaccaro applied to the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He had developed a passion for photography and knew he wanted to photograph the war. “They said I was too young to do this,” Tony says, holding his finger as if taking a photo, “but not too young to do this,” turning his finger forward, pulling a gun trigger. Not one to be denied, Tony went out and purchased a $47.00 Argus C3, and carried the camera into the war with him. He would fight with the 83rd Infantry Division for the next 272 days, playing two roles – a combat infantryman on the front lines and a photographer who would take roughly 8,000 photographs of the war.

 In the decades that followed the war, Tony would go on to become a renowned commercial photographer for magazines such as Look, Life, and Flair, but it is his collection of war photos, images that capture the rarely seen day-to-day reality of life as a soldier, that is his true legacy. Tony kept these photos locked away for decades in an effort to put the war behind him, and it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that this extraordinary body of work was first discovered and celebrated in Europe. In the United States, however, Tony has yet to receive his due and few people have heard of him.

 Though the narrative spine of the film is a physical journey in which Tony brings us to the places in Europe where many of his most powerful photos were taken, over the course of the film we also trace Tony’s emotional journey from a young GI eager to record the war to an elderly man who, at 93, has become a pacifist, increasingly horrified at man’s ability to wage war. Tony believed fiercely that the Allied forces in WWII were engaged in a just war, but he vowed never to take another war photo the day the war ended, and he didn’t.

 In addition to numerous interviews with Tony, the film includes interviews with a number of other people, including Tyler Hicks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the New York Times; Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who has covered conflict for 30 years for the New York Times, Time, National Geographic, and other major publications; Anne Wilkes Tucker, a photography curator and curator of the comprehensive exhibition WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY; James Estrin, a Senior Photographer for the New York Times and editor of the Times’ Lens blog; and John G. Morris, who was the photo editor of Life Magazine during World War II and was Robert Capa’s editor.

 Concurrently, Monroe Gallery is featuring a major exhibition of photographs by Tony Vaccaro. The exhibit continues through September 15, 2024.

 

Tony Vaccaro died on December 28, 2022, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday. Orphaned at age 6, he immersed himself in studying classic European art and by age 10 had a box camera. He photographed WWII from a soldier’s perspective, documenting his personal witness to the brutality of war.  After carrying a camera across battlefields, he become one the most sought-after photographers of his day, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Flair, Look, Life, Venture, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Quick, Newsweek, and many more. Vaccaro turned the trauma of his youth into a career seeking beauty. This exhibit explores the extraordinary depth of his archive and features several new discoveries being exhibited for the very first time.

 

Limited Offer: Free streaming of documentary film "Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro"

Underfire The Untold Story of Tony Vaccaro from Passion River Films on Vimeo.

 

On November 14. 2016 HBO Films premiered “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone.

We are pleased to offer for a limited number free streaming of this important documentary. Contact the Gallery for details. The film is also available from Amazon and Apple TV+.

Tony Vaccaro passed away peacefully on December 28, 2022, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Throughout the month of December, we will be posting tributes and memories of Tony Vaccaro on our Instagram feed. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona is currently featuring the exhibition American Icons: Wright and O'Keeffe, photographs by Tony Vaccaro; and his work is on display at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

View a selection of available fine art prints from Tony Vaccaro here.

Documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski won Emmy and Peabody Awards for “The Loving Story,” about a Virginia couple’s successful challenge to a ban on interracial marriage, has died at 78.

 Via The New York Times

September 1, 2023

Grey Villet: Mildred and Richard Loving, 1965

Nancy Buirski, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose eye was honed as a still photographer and picture editor, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 78.

After founding the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 1998 at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and directing it for a decade, Ms. Buirski (pronounced BURR-skee) made her own first documentary, “The Loving Story,” in 2011.

The film explored the case of Mildred and Richard Loving, who faced imprisonment because their interracial marriage in 1958 was illegal in Virginia. (She was part-Black and part-Native American, and he was white.)

Their challenge to the law resulted in a landmark civil rights ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 1967 that voided state anti-miscegenation laws.

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"Years earlier, as a picture editor on the international desk at The New York Times, Ms. Buirski was credited with choosing the image that won the newspaper its first Pulitzer Prize for photography, in 1994. After seeking a photograph to accompany an article on war and famine in southern Sudan, she choose one by Kevin Carter, a South African photojournalist, of an emaciated toddler collapsing on the way to a United Nations feeding center as a covetous vulture lurked in the background.

Ms. Buirski commended the photo to Nancy Lee, The Times’ picture editor at the time. She then proposed it, strongly, for the front page, because, she recalled telling another editor, “This is going to win the paper’s first-ever Pulitzer Prize for photography.”

The photograph ended up appearing on an inside page in the issue of March 26, 1993, but the reaction from readers, concerned about the child’s fate, was so strong that The Times published an unusual editors’ note afterward explaining that the child had continued to the feeding center after Mr. Carter chased away the vulture.

The picture won the Pulitzer in the feature photography category. (Mr. Carter died by suicide a few months later at 33.)"

Full obituary here.

View Grey Villet's photographs of Richard and Mildred Loving here.

CENTER: Grab a Hunk of Lightning Showing Saturday, Nov. 19

Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk of Lightning Teaser Trailer from Katahdin Productions on Vimeo.

 

Via CCA

November 16, 2022

Grab A Hunk of Lightning is narrated and directed by the legendary photographer Dorothea Lange’s granddaughter, award-winning filmmaker Dyanna Taylor, telling the compelling story of the passion, vision, and drive that made Lange one of the most important documentary photographers of the 20th century. On November 19 at 7:30pm, Dyanna Taylor joins us for an in-person Q&A in this special presentation of the film in conjunction with the 2022 CENTER Review Santa Fe Photo Symposium.


While Lange’s haunting image The Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized photographs in the world, few know the full range and depth of Lange’s work or the suffering and sensitivity that drew her to empathize with the people she photographed. Grab A Hunk of Lightning brings the wide scope of Lange’s work and sensibility to the screen.

Tickets here.

New documentary from CNN Films celebrating female photojournalists: No Ordinary Life

 Via RealScreen

August 9, 2022

CNN has scheduled a new documentary from CNN Films celebrating female photojournalists, No Ordinary Life, to premiere on the network on September 5.

Directed by journalist, documentary filmmaker and CNN alum Heather O’Neill, the feature doc tells the story of five courageous and trailblazing female photojournalists — Jane Evans, Maria Fleet, Margaret Moth, Mary Rogers and Cynde Strand — who documented major world events from Tiananmen Square to the Arab Spring, Sarajevo to South Africa and more. The film features all five women describing the risks they faced when reporting under fire — complemented by behind-the-scenes footage of situations in which they had to brave highly dangerous circumstances in order to get their story — as well as reflecting the challenges they faced working in a field that remains dominated by men.

The documentary had its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, and later screened at Hamptons Doc Fest.

No Ordinary Life was produced by Array Films, with Rich Brooks serving as producer. The acquisition deal was negotiated for CNN Worldwide by Stacey Wolf, senior vice president of business affairs, and Kelly MacLanahan, assistant general counsel, on behalf of CNN Films.

Nina Berman on WORT Radio "A Public Affair"

 Via WORT Radio, Madison, Wisconsin

This Thursday, 12/30 on WORT’s noontime ”A Public Affair”….

APA’s guest will be NINA BERMAN, the award-winning documentary photographer, filmmaker, author and educator. We’ll be discussing, among other topics, her recent film documentary, “When Jets Fly,” — a look at the impact on civilians living near airfields currently being used for Air Force training exercises from Whidbey Island, Washington to Burlington, Vermont, current site of a 20-plane squadron of F-35 attack jets.

Noon to 1:00 (Central), 12/30,  “A Public Affair” WORT 89.9fm, Madison. Listen online, live and archived at: https://www.wortfm.org/news-talk/talk/public-affair/

A Public Affair is WORT's daily hour long call-in talk program. It aims to engage listeners in a conversation on social, cultural, and political issues of importance. The guests range from local activists and scholars to notable national and international figures.

How to listen

PBS program "Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America" features Bill Eppridge's photograph of the Chaney Family

 

Via PBS

The key art for the new PBS film "Driving While Black" features Bill Eppridge's photograph of the Cheney family driving to James Chaney's funeral in Meridan, Mississippi, August, 1964

Discover how the advent of the automobile brought new mobility and freedom for African Americans but also exposed them to discrimination and deadly violence, and how that history resonates today.

A ground-breaking, two-hour documentary film by acclaimed historian Dr. Gretchen Sorin and Emmy–winning director Ric Burns– will air on PBS on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at 9:00 p.m. ET

   

View the full film here

 View the full press release here. 

View Bill Eppridge's photography here.

"Watching the Earth Melt Away", directed by Joe McNally, at the Ridgefield Independent Film Festival

Via Ridgefield's Hamlet Hub

October 9, 2020

"Watching the Earth Melt Away" directed by Joe McNally, an internationally-acclaimed, award-winning photographer and filmmaker will screen live on Friday, October 16 @ 4:00 pm at the Ridgefield Theater Barn and is also available to screen virtually.

Watching The Earth Melt Away is a wake-up call to climate change. In 2001, McNally covered a story about George Divoky, an ornithologist who, at that time had spent three months every summer for the past 28 years, living on a Cooper Island, a forbidding stretch of ice north of Alaska, where he studied artic seabirds. Over the course of his study though, which has now spanned 46 years, Divoky had inadvertently amassed one of the world’s largest experiential accounts of global warning. In 2001, McNally took a breathtaking photo of Divoky standing on a stretch of ice with the artic sky behind him. When McNally returned to Cooper Island in 2019, he recreated the photograph. The glaring difference between the two said it all—Divoky was standing knee deep in water. The magnitude and speed with which the landscape had melted and changed is heartbreakingly evident in the haunting film, Watching The Earth Melt Away.

"Harry Benson: Shoot First" at CCA in Santa Fe

Via Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe

Renowned photographer Harry Benson initially rose to fame alongside The Beatles, having been assigned to cover their inaugural trip to the United States in 1964. With unprecedented “behind the scenes” access, Benson captured some of the most vibrant and intimate portraits ever taken of the most popular band in history. His extensive portfolio includes iconic images of Winston Churchill, Bobby Fischer, Muhammad Ali, Greta Garbo, Michael Jackson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, and his work has appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Justin Bare and Matthew Miele’s film shows how Benson, now 86, shows no intention of stopping. (U.S., 2016, 87m, Magnolia Pictures) Starts December 16

Center for Contemporary Arts • 505.982.1338
1050 Old Pecos Trail Santa Fe, NM 87505

Streaming information here.

Related: Washington Post: ‘Harry Benson: Shoot First’ breezes through the photographer’s story

  Rolling Stone: 'Harry Benson: Shoot First' Review: Photographer Doc Is Stellar Portrait of an Artist

On Exhibit: Grey Villet's Photographs of The Lovings

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 Grey Villet

 Mildred and Richard Loving, King and Queen County, Virginia in April 1965

Concurrent with the opening of Vivian Maier: Discovered, we are pleased to exhibit selected photographs Grey Villet shot of the Richard and Mildred Loving for Life magazine in 1965. "Grey Villet: The Lovings" will continue through March 18, 2012.

Grey Villet took over 2,400 frames of the Lovings for Life in 1965 but the magazine did not run the story until March 18, 1966, when the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the lower court ruling and the Lovings’ case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The tone of the piece, as well as the selected images, was cool and neutral; the three published images that include both Mildred and Richard are extremely chaste and do not capture the emotional bond between them as so many of Villet’s other images do. Life, like many other media outlets, did not want to address the topic of interracial sex directly for fear of offending popular opinion.

The Loving Story, a documentary film, tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving to examine the drama, the history, and the current state of interracial marriage and tolerance in the United States. It's World Premiere was at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in April 2011, and the On-air premiere of The Loving Story will be on HBO, February 14, Valentine’s Day, 2012.

A selection of Grey Villet's photographs, including several of The Lovings, will also be on exhibit during the AIPAD Photography Show in New York March 28 - April 1, at Monroe Gallery Booth #419.

Related:

NPR: The Loving War: How Black History Is Both Black And White

Richmond Times Dispatch: HBO documentary examines Lovings' struggle

Life of Marital Bliss (Segregation Laws Aside)

Grey Villet: The Lovings