John Olsen's "Women's March" Photo Featured In NY Times Magazine Essay

 Via The New York Times

November 2, 2024

 John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection: A 1970 march in New York City on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, August 26, 1970

How Will White Women Vote? It’s a Question With a Fraught History.

White and Black women have joined together to power progressive causes — from abolition to civil rights — but it’s a tenuous alliance. --Click for full article

This photograph is featured in the current Monroe Gallery exhibition "The Best of Us".

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent, in dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

 Via Columbia Journalism Review

October 23, 2024

Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement

Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told me in a phone conversation. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

On October 11, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper for $500 million in 2018, informed the paper’s editorial board that the Times would not be making an endorsement for president. The message was conveyed to Garza by Terry Tang, the paper’s editor.

The board had intended to endorse Harris, Garza told me, and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial. She had hoped to get feedback on the outline and was taken aback upon being told that the newspaper would not take a position.

“I didn’t think we were going to change our readers’ minds—our readers, for the most part, are Harris supporters,” Garza told me. “We’re a very liberal paper. I didn’t think we were going to change the outcome of the election in California.

“But two things concern me: This is a point in time where you speak your conscience no matter what. And an endorsement was the logical next step after a series of editorials we’ve been writing about how dangerous Trump is to democracy, about his unfitness to be president, about his threats to jail his enemies. We have made the case in editorial after editorial that he shouldn’t be reelected.”

--Click for full article

Review: "hope and fighting for improvement are central features of The Best of Us "

 Via Pastiempo

The Santa Fe New Mexican

October 18, 2024

Gabriela E. Campos

A nursing station in the Frost 19 unit, Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Santa Fe, NM, December, 2020

Here's your weekly roundup of some of the must-see, must-do, must-know things that need to be on your radar this week.

PICTURE THIS

‘Best’ Practices

In one image, three masked, exhausted-looking medical professionals slump at a desk, one’s head leaning on another’s shoulder. Two others show American societal matriarchs Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt — the former serious, the latter smiling. Yet another shows a Black man with “Vote” painted on his face during a march in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.

All are part of The Best of Us, running through mid-November at Monroe Gallery of Photography. The gallery describes the featured images as “depicting the ideals and diversity of the human experience which explore the characterization of extraordinary and everyday people who renew our faith that all things are possible and exemplify our ideals.”

In other words, hope and fighting for improvement are central features of The Best of Us — distinguishing it from some previous Monroe Gallery exhibitions. Photojournalism is the gallery’s bread and butter, and the fruits of that craft can be compelling but challenging.

The Best of Us hangs on the gallery’s walls, while the virtual project The Campaign can be viewed at monroegallery.com/VirtualProjects. It coincides with the election season, ending November 24. Images include a rapturously smiling woman wearing an “Obama, You’re Fired” shirt meeting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump; former President Barack Obama talking and gesturing as rain falls; and former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney gazing at their watches simultaneously, a painting of Abraham Lincoln behind them. — B.S.

details

9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, through November 17

Monroe Gallery of Photography

112 Don Gaspar Avenue

505-992-0800; monroegallery.com

Field of View: The Politic Aesthetic

 Via Field of View

September 28, 2024

Excerpted from "The Politic Aesthetic   Access is gone. Moments are dead. Long live the flash"

(see also the virtual exhibition "The Campaign"

"Few photos exemplify access like this gem by LIFE magazine photographer Hank Walker: Kennedy and his brother Robert deep in conversation in a hotel room during that same convention in 1960. It’s one of my all-time favorite political photographs. Access to an authentic moment like this is a photojournalist’s dream.

    photograph by Hank Walker

“The brothers talked very quietly, and Jack told Bobby who he was going to choose as Vice President,” Walker said in a 1994 interview. “I only made one picture in there, and then I waited outside for Bobby to come out. When he did, he was furious.”2

Walker’s contact sheet proves he made way more than just one picture—he wasn’t escorted in and hurried out in 30 seconds. Walker was allowed to work it. Notice how at first he’s shooting horizontally (frame 23), then rotates his camera and makes the one (frame 24).

Photographs by Hank Walker

Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that using a flash was “monstrous” and “impolite, like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand.” Some of the photos from the 2024 conventions were definitely monstrous.

Photograph by Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson has been temporarily blinding politicians with his strobe for years. “The flash is like crack to them,” he once said.

Photograph by Mark Peterson

A regular contributor to The New York Times Opinion section (mostly b&w) and New York magazine (mostly color), Peterson’s flash does more than light the scene—it defines it. It’s his signature look, one he’s refined and mastered. And it’s contagious."  full article here.

Jimmy Carter at 100

 September 25, 2024

Ken Harkins

Carter Wins!, 1977

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to offer a special selection of photographs by Ken Hawkins of Jimmy Carter to commemorate his 100th birthday on October 1, 2024.

Ken Hawkins is a photojournalist who has covered politics, disasters, and conflict zones—including Vietnam, Nicaragua, and El Salvador—since 1970, working globally for publications and agencies such as TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Forbes, Paris Match, Stern, the New York Times, Newsweek, Wired, and the British Broadcasting Corporation. For over two decades, his work was represented by the premier photo agency SYGMA Paris/New York. In 2016, Hawkins authored "Jimmy Carter – Photographs 1970 – 2010", a photographic memoir of his time as a TIME photographer working the Carter campaign and White House.  

Please contact the Gallery for print details.

The Carter Center has invited members of the public to contribute photos of themselves alongside birthday messages for the country's oldest living former president. The images make up a mosaic marking the centennial.

Ken Hawkins

Blue Sky Afternoon in Plains, 1977

WE THE PEOPLE, Photographs by Nina Berman

 Via The Capa Space

September 2, 2024

Nina Berman

The Fight for 15 protest in Long Island, NY 2016. 

We the People brings together more than three decades of work by photographer Nina Berman who has tenaciously documented the public outrages, injustices, protestations and longings of a deeply dissatisfied and increasingly polarized society. What the United States should be, and for whom, are questions at the heart of Nina’s work and the 2024 election. 

September 8th - November 24th, 2024

Opening Reception, Sunday September 8th, 4-6pm

THE CAPA SPACE

2467 Quaker Church Road

 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

The Spencer Museum of Art Adds Iconic January 6 Photograph By Nina Berman To Its Collection

Via Monroe Gallery of Photography 

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Contact: Sidney S. Monroe/Michelle A. Monroe
505.992.0800/E-mail info@monroegallery.com

The Spencer Museum of Art, operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, has recently added a print from January 6, 2021 by Nina Berman to its Collection. New York City-based photojournalist, filmmaker, and professor, Nina Berman covered the January 6 Insurrection at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Her photographs of that day have been published internationally, including National Geographic, Vice News, and L'Illustre.

“Big Brother, Washington DC, 2021 stands as a reminder and a warning.” — Nina Berman

Nina Berman: "Big Brother" President Trump's image appears onscreen at a rally outside the White House. Before long, a mob of his supporters would march into the Capitol building, January 6, 2021

Located on the University of Kansas campus, the Spencer Museum of Art is a vibrant cultural center that sparks curiosity, inspires creativity, and creates connections among people through art.

With a diverse collection of more than 48,000 art objects and works of cultural significance, the Spencer is the only comprehensive art museum in the state of Kansas and serves more than 50,000 visitors annually. 

The Museum’s vision is to present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-centered research and teaching, creative work, and transformative public dialogue. The Spencer facilitates arts engagement and research through exhibitions, artist commissions and residencies, conferences, film screenings, musical and dramatic performances, artist- and scholar-led lectures, children’s art activities, and community arts and culture festivals.

Nina Berman’s fine art prints are represented by Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Mark Peterson | Political Theatre Artist Talk

 Via The Griffin Museum

"Over the past ten years I have been photographing the presidential candidates as they lead rallies, meet with voters and plead for their votes. I started just before the government shutdown in 2013 at a tea party rally at the U.S. Capitol. Politicians railed against the president and the Affordable Care Act — a show to get a sound bite into the next news cycle."--Mark Peterson

March 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

As part of our current focus on power and perception, democracy and how we see and envision our elected leaders, we are pleased to present the work of Mark Peterson. His stark portrayal of the power players in Washington DC is unique in its vision and we can’t wait to see and hear more about how he gets the images that his lens finds and holds in our collective memory.

Join us ONLINE on Thursday March 21st at 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific in the Griffin Zoom Room for a conversation with Mark about his creative path, his pull to politics and what it takes to frame his vision.

This conversation is FREE to Members / $10 for General Admission. Interested in the benefits of Membership? Take a look here for Member Levels and Benefits.

About Mark Peterson –

Mark Peterson is a photographer based in New York City. His work has been published in New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Geo Magazine and other national and international publications. In 2018 he was awarded the W. Eugene Smith grant for his work on White Nationalism. He is the author of two books Acts Of Charity published by Powerhouse in 2004 and Political Theatre which was published by Steidl in the fall of 2016.His work is collected in several museums including The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. In 2024 Steidl will published his book The Fourth Wall.

 
$10.00

Griffin Zoom Room

67 Shore Rd
Winchester, 01890

Mark Peterson’s monograph Political Theatre, published in 2016 by Steidl Verlag Publishing can be found on their website alongside his upcoming book The Past is Never Dead. Find him on Instagram @markpetersonpixs

Nina Berman's photographs of January 6 Insurrection featured internationally and in "History Now" exhibit

 

President Trump's image appears onscreen at a rally outside the White House

January 6, 2021 by Nina Berman

Photographer Nina Berman covered the January 6 Insurrection at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Her photographs of that day have been published internationally, including National Geographic, Vice News, and L'Illustre. Berman's photographs are included in the current gallery exhibition "History Now".

A historic day in photos: from a pro-Trump insurrection to a pre-dawn Biden victory sealed

"The normally solemn atmosphere at the Capitol Building was transformed into a scene of chaotic violence unprecedented in modern times on Wednesday afternoon, as a mob of insurgents waving Trump flags, Confederate symbols, pro-Nazi messages, and other symbols of right-wing extremist groups breached the building’s security, halting proceedings to certify Trump’s defeat and forcing lawmakers to take cover as they were evacuated to safety with gas masks, as violent protesters roamed hallways, smashed windows, and destroyed Congressional property."  Via National Geographic

Full article with photographs

"America First" Flags at Capitol Insurrection, Washington, DC, 

January 6, 2021 by Nina Berman

What We Saw at the Capitol Hill Insurrection By Ishaan Jhaveri and Nina Berman

"We are part of a team of researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Columbia University’s Engineering and Journalism schools that has been developing a tool called VizPol, which helps journalists identify unfamiliar political symbols, since April 2019. Nina had the idea to help improve journalists’ understanding of visual political symbols at a right-wing rally in 2018 after she saw a TV journalist fail to point out a contradiction between what an interviewee was saying and what a symbol she had tattooed on her forearm suggested about her political beliefs. As part of keeping the app’s database up-to-date with the constantly evolving landscape of symbols, we have paid close attention to the various symbols appearing at political rallies across the political spectrum in the United States."   Via Vice News

Full article with photographs

La Chute de la Maison Trump    Via L'Illustre

View the exhibition "History Now"

Tony Vaccaro: "If I can do it, you can do it"

 Via Tony Vaccaro Photographer Instagram

" I am almost 98 years of age and I walked to vote today. Please if I can do it, you can do it. We are all in this together America."- Tony Vaccaro Picture by Frank Vaccaro

"Tony Vaccaro at 98" will be on exhibit in the gallery and on-line at www.monroegallery.com November 20 - January 17, 2021. Drafted into WWII at age 21, 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 he photographed his personal witness to the brutality of 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. 

As an antidote to man’s inhumanity, Tony focused his lens on those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and the beauty of fashion. By focusing on the splendor of life, Tony replaced the images of horror embedded in his eyes. Nearing his 98th birthday, Tony is recovered from COVID-19, and is is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and COVID-19.

This exhibition illustrates his will to live and advance the power of beauty in this life.

On the campaign trail

 

Via The Albuquerque Journal
October 18, 2020

By Kathaleen Roberts

Presidential candidate Jack Kennedy conferring with his brother and campaign organizer Bobby Kennedy in a hotel suite as they are silhouetted by the sunlight coming through the drawn window drapes. Photo by Hank Walker/The Life Picture Collection. (Courtesy of The Monroe Gallery Of Photography)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As the pandemic forces our politics into virtual reality, a Santa Fe gallery is taking a look back at the grueling, crowded and ultimately dangerous presidential campaigns of decades past.

Open at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography, monroegallery.com, “The Campaign” explores the human dimension of the process by which Americans choose their presidents. These photographers sought (and often got) an intimate access far beyond the campaigns’ carefully curated images. The images will remain online through Nov. 15.

“Reporters listen, photographers look,” the late photojournalist Bill Eppridge said about the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy campaign.

“You’re searching for a perspective everybody isn’t getting,” gallery co-owner Sidney Monroe said. “You’re trying to get something beyond their image machine. It’s grueling.

“Campaigns were not as big; they were not as fast,” gallery co-owner Michelle Monroe added. “You could do a cross-country train trip. Everything now is not staged, but they try to control it. The very relationship with the press has changed everything – when you think of the press being complicit in hiding (Franklin) Roosevelt’s disability.”

Richard Nixon giving a speech to the residents of Suffolk County, New York, while on the 1968 campaign trail. By Irving Haberman.

Not a comprehensive exhibit, the show features only the artists in the gallery’s stable and their most significant campaigns.

The exhibition examines a time when photographing presidential campaigns often required patience and endurance: long days were the norm, and getting beyond the carefully constructed stagecraft and tightly scripted events proved difficult. Campaign staff and security frequently monitored (and controlled) the movement of media; capturing iconic visual symbols of democracy in action was the forte of the successful campaign photograph.

Hank Walker’s 1960 silhouette of John and Robert Kennedy conferring in a Los Angeles hotel bedroom shows the two brothers in deep conversation. Walker covered the campaign for Life magazine.

“Bobby was acting as campaign manager for Jack,” Sidney Monroe said. “That’s the moment Jack told Bobby he had chosen (Lyndon) Johnson as the vice presidential candidate. Bobby and Johnson were sworn enemies.

“Later, in the hallway, Walker saw Bobby storm out, swearing, ‘S—, s—, s—.’ ”

“Jack thought it was the only way he could win Texas,” Michelle added. “Bobby referred to Johnson as ‘an animal.’ ”

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and members of  the “Fearsome Foursome” of the Los Angeles Rams football team in Indianapolis, 1968. By Bill Eppridge.

Joe McNally’s 1988 portrait of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden riding a train captures the candidate in a contemplative mood.

“It was also after Biden had suffered an aneurysm and this was his return,” Sidney said. “(McNally) said he came across as a stoic, very relatable candidate.”

Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign. Photo by Brooks Kraft.

Irving Haberman’s campaign silhouette from 1968 shows the unmistakable shadow of Richard Nixon.

“It’s a prime example of a great campaign photograph,” Sidney said. “It’s dramatic, it carries a lot of weight; it’s kind of heroic.”

Most photographers captured Hillary Clinton emoting, with her mouth open, during the 2008 presidential race. Brooks Kraft took the opposite approach, shooting her listening to a constituent as she held a cup of coffee.

“He was the White House photographer for Time magazine for 10 years,” Sidney said.

John F. Kennedy, on-set monitor at the first-ever televised presidential debate, 1960. By Irving Haberman.

Kraft’s portrait of Barack Obama speaking in the rain reveals the determination and grit necessary to run for president.

“That’s actually Brooks’ favorite photograph,” Sidney said. “It really is a transcendent image.”

President Barack Obama speaks in the rain during a campaign rally in Glen Allen, Virginia, 2012. By Brooks Kraft.

In 1960 Haberman captured the Nixon-Kennedy first-ever TV debate from both the stage and its monitors.

“He was working for CBS as a photographer, so he had intimate access,” Sidney said. “It was the first time when candidates had to look good on TV. Everybody says the way Nixon looked is what sank him. There’s a lot packed into that picture.”

Joe Biden commuting on a train in 1988. By Joe McNally.

A trio of Eppridge’s Life magazine photographs capture both the excitement and the danger of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential bid. The images include the famous “Fearsome Foursome” Los Angeles Rams football players who served as his bodyguards. His passionate supporters ranged from people of color to women and immigrants. Eppridge said it was hard not to be inspired and retain his journalistic neutrality.

“It was after (Kennedy’s) brother’s assassination, which was an open wound,” Michelle said, “and the sense of hopelessness that the Vietnam War would go on forever.”

Eppridge said as the crowds swelled into pandemonium on a daily basis, even the press were in fear for the candidate’s life.

Eppridge would go on to take the famous photograph of a dying RFK at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel.

If you go

WHAT: “The Campaign”

WHEN: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Saturday

WHERE: Monroe Gallery  (Face masks required; limited to 10 visitors at a time)

HOW MUCH: Free to attend. Information at 505-982-0200, monroegallery.com

ELECTION DAY 2010 - PART TWO

Byron Rollins: "Dewey Defeats Truman" ©AP

"Dewey Defeats Truman" was a famously incorrect banner headline on the front page of the first edition of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948. Incumbent United States President Harry S. Truman, who had been expected to lose to Republican challenger and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential race, won the election. A delighted Truman was photographed at St. Louis Union Station holding a copy of his premature political obituary. Only a limited number of the papers are believed to still exist. During the day, the Tribune issued a several editions that began to back off from proclaiming a winner. The headline is a cautionary tale for journalists about the dangers of being first to break a story without being certain of its accuracy. It is also a caution about allowing editorial preference to cloud judgment; the Tribune had been strongly against Truman throughout the campaign.


The story by reporter Arthur Sears Henning also reported Republican control of the House of Representatives and Senate that would work with President Dewey. Henning wrote "Dewey and Warren won a sweeping victory in the presidential election yesterday. The early returns showed the Republican ticket leading Truman and Vice President Alben W. Barkley pretty consistently in the western and southern states" and added that "indications were that the complete returns would disclose that Dewey won the presidency by an overwhelming majority of the electoral vote." As it turned out, Truman won the electoral vote by a 303-189 majority over Dewey and Strom Thurmond (though a swing of just a few thousand votes in Ohio, Illinois, and California would have produced a Dewey victory), and the Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate. Truman was handed a copy of the paper and displayed it to a crowd of well-wishers from his train in St. Louis, Missouri.

In later years, the publishers of the Tribune were able to laugh about the blunder. As the 25th anniversary of the 1948 election approached, the Tribune had planned to give Truman a plaque containing a replica of the erroneous banner headline. However, Truman died on December 26, 1972, before the gift could be bestowed.

deweydefeatstruman.com

Related: Election Day, 2010