The World Salutes Tony Vaccaro On His 100th Birthday

Frankfurter Allegeime   Tony Vaccaro documented life on the battlefields in Europe and the glamour of celebrities in America. Now he celebrates his hundredth birthday.

The Eye of Photography: Monroe Gallery of Photography : Tony Vaccaro : The Centennial Exhibition

Quotidiano Molise  He conquered the world with his shots, Tony Vaccaro turns 100

News ES Euro  Monroe Gallery of Photography: Tony Vaccaro: Exposición del Centenario

BlueNews: Il fotografo Tony Vaccaro compie 100 anni

Swiss Info   USA: fotografo Tony Vaccaro compie 100 anni

Art Limited   Tony Vaccaro The Centennial Exhibit

Il Mattino  Il 20 dicembre 1922 nasce Tony Vaccaro, il fotografo molisano che immortalò lo sbarco in Normandia

Ansa Molise   Tony Vaccaro compie 100 anni, videochiamata da Bonefro

Monroe Gallery of Photography: Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition

December 20, 2022 is Tony Vaccaro Day in the City of New York

Photography under fire TONY VACCARO

 

Via Pasatiempo

The New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment, and Culture

November 20, 2020

By Jason Strykowski

Private First Class Tony Vaccaro, of the 83rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, taught himself to take photographs while under enemy fire. Deployed for 272 days in the Western Front during World War II, Vaccaro snapped 8,000 pictures. Many were of his fellow American soldiers. Others captured street scenes of war-torn France and Germany. “Bullets came right toward me, but somehow the one that kills never came about,” Vaccaro says. “I was scratched by bullets a few times, but I never had a bullet that injured me seriously.” Vaccaro survived the war to become a prolific and successful photographer.

“He’s among the most versatile photographers of his generation because he photographed war under live fire — European-style street photography — but, then fashion, storytelling, and documentary,” says the co-owner of Monroe Gallery, Sid Monroe. “He was game for any assignment.” Over time, Vaccaro would receive many.

To celebrate Vaccaro’s upcoming birthday, a new retrospective exhibition on his work opens at the Monroe Gallery on Friday, Nov. 20, called Tony Vaccaro at 98. To mark the occasion, the gallery holds a Zoom call with Vaccaro at 5:30 p.m. that day.

In April, Vaccaro fell ill with CoViD-19. He dismissed the illness as a mere “cough,” and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. As we spoke, he pointed out photographs in his Long Island City home and studio. All told, his archive holds hundreds of thousands of negatives, and the number keeps growing. He still goes out most days and captures the city using the same Leica he purchased in Germany 70 years ago.

Vaccaro was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1922 and later moved to Italy following the death of his parents. He returned to the United States and was later drafted into the Army. Vaccaro already had his first camera and hoped to employ his skills for the Signal Corps, but he was told that he was too young. He reasoned that if he could squeeze a rifle trigger, he could squeeze a shutter button, but the Signal Corps was not convinced. Vaccaro was assigned to the infantry and brought his lightweight Argus C3 with him. (The little camera was often referred to as “the brick” for its rectangular shape.)

At the time, other war photographers moved slowly and carried bulky equipment. Often, they were forced to stage their pictures, reenacting important moments. Vaccaro, though, was a soldier first and photographer second. The fight was his priority, and he only took photos when he wasn’t forced to hold his rifle. When Vaccaro could shoot, he captured the brutal realties of war because he lived through them. “I shot from anywhere,” Vaccaro says. “From a foxhole. Standing up. Lying down. From the top of the trees. I would climb trees and take pictures there.”

There’s a powerful rawness to Vaccaro’s war photos. The black-andwhite images are steeped in contrast, not just between light and dark, but also between serenity and atrocity. “You have to be cold-blooded. You have to be a son of a bitch,” Vaccaro says of taking pictures during a war, in the documentary Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro (2016). Although the scenes of warfare were tragic, Vaccaro put aside his feelings and acted as the consummate photographer.

His favorite photo, though, is one that depicts hope and love. The Kiss of Liberation features an American sergeant kneeling and kissing a small girl on the cheek in St. Briac, France, in 1944. The photo brims with compassion and perhaps pointed toward Vaccaro’s future in the medium.

“After the war, he decided to stick with photography because he knew he had an eye for it,” says Tony Vaccaro archives manager and Vaccaro’s daughter-in-law, Maria Vaccaro. “He signed up to work for a magazine run by the Army called Stars and Stripes, and he became one of the staffers.” Vaccaro, in his early 20s, purchased a used Army Jeep and traveled across Europe to document the recovering continent.

Vaccaro had the experience, skill, and, apparently the boldness to walk into the New York offices of Look and Life magazines to ask for a job. One of his photos, a dead solider buried in the snow, impressed an editor at the magazines, who asked Vaccaro if he could shoot celebrities with the same kind of vision. Vaccaro could, and would, for the next few decades.

Working freelance for Look, Vaccaro took portraits of Sophia Loren, President John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Enzo Ferrari, and Georgia O’Keeffe, among many others. As with his war photographs, Vaccaro’s portraits are present and of the moment. “He was absolutely charming. He was this suave, debonair Italian. He could talk his way into anything,” Monroe says. “There’s nothing between him and his subjects.” For Vaccaro, the people he photographed kept his mind off the atrocities of the war.

For almost four decades, Vaccaro worked as a freelance photographer all across the world. He traveled by camel up the Nile River and took a helicopter to the South Pole. Much of his war photography, though, remained unheralded until a 1998 exhibition laid the groundwork for a Taschen book called Entering Germany 1944-1949.

Six years ago, Vaccaro turned his negatives over his son Frank and daughter-in-law. All told, he documented the 20th century with more than a million negatives. “He kept everything in rolled-up paper in Kodak boxes,” Maria Vaccaro says. The family moved his studio to his apartment in Long Island City where they are working on the archives.

“When you’re a photographer, a serious photographer, you take chances, and you try to do the best you can,” Vaccaro says. “There was not another photographer better than me during the war.”

“I shot from anywhere. From a foxhole. Standing up. Lying down. From the top of the trees. I would climb trees and take pictures there.”

Happy Birthday Art Shay!

Art Shay, born March 31, 1922 in the Bronx, NY

We are very excited to wish photographer Art Shay a very Happy 94th Birthday!

For over 70 years, Art Shay has documented his life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy.

Born in 1922, he grew up in the Bronx and then served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he flew 30 bomber missions and 22 aid missions.

From 1947-1949, while on staff as a writer for Life magazine, Shay wrote hundreds of bylines while helping out some of the greatest of Life's photographers. In 1949, Shay became a Chicago-based freelance photographer, landing thousands of assignments for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated and other national publications.

Elijah Muhammed's Grandchild sleeping with Black Muslim Sisters, 1969

Shay photographed nine US Presidents & major literary, business, entertainment, science and political figures of the 20th century.

A world class street photographer, Shay wondered countless miles throughout the 1950s exploring the city with author Nelson Algren, the winner of the first National Book Award.

Shay wrote weekly columns for various newspapers, several plays, children's books, sports books and several photo essay books including "My Florence" released in February 2015.

Shay's photography is included in the permanent collections of museums including the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography , Chicago. His photographs are included in the current exhibition "Vintage Photojournalism" at the Monroe Gallery of Photography through April 24, 2016. Monroe Gallery will also feature several of Art Shay's photographs at the AIPAD Photography Show in New York, April 13 - 17.

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY: MUHAMMAD ALI

Steve Schapiro: Cassius Clay, Lexington, Kentucky, 1963

Via Life.com:
Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Pictures
Via TIME Light Box:
Happy Birthday, Muhammad Ali: 70 Iconic Images for 70 Years
Via ArtDaily.org:
Muhammad Ali is coming home to Louisville to celebrate another milestone — his 70th birthday:
Muhammad Ali returning to Kentucky for 70th birthday- fundraiser for center and museum organized

Via MSNBC:
Muhammad Ali soaked in familiar cheers and chants along with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" on Saturday night as friends and admirers celebrated the boxing champ's coming 70th birthday at a party in his Kentucky hometown.

As party-goers mingled in a lobby of the Muhammad Ali Center before the party, Ali walked slowly to a second-floor balcony overlooking them. The crowd immediately began to clap, then broke into chants of "Ali! Ali!" followed by singing as Ali watched for about two minutes.

Neil Leifer:

But my favorite subject, no matter what the sport, was and still is Muhammad Ali.

I took my most famous picture on May 25, 1965, when Ali stopped Sonny Liston with one punch in the first round of their heavyweight championship fight in Lewiston, Maine. When Sports Illustrated published its special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos," my picture of Ali standing over Liston was the cover, and I was honored and thrilled by SI's choice. "It is a great picture of a key moment, filled with emotion and destined to remain etched in the minds of its viewers," says Steve Fine, SI's director of photography. "You can describe this picture to someone, without showing it to them, and they know exactly what you're talking about. It's a true icon of sports photojournalism." This image represents the way people want to remember Ali: strength, confidence and braggadocio. A two-minute fight might be a major disappointment for the fans, but for a photographer, it doesn't matter whether it goes 15 rounds or 15 seconds. All any editor ever expected from me was a great knockout picture. In Lewiston, the knockout happened exactly where I wanted it to, and my only thought was, "Stay right there, Sonny! Please don't get up!"

 

Muhammad Ali Knocks Out Sonny Liston, Lewiston, Maine, May 25, 1965

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS IN SANTA FE

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present an exhibition celebrating the gallery's ten years in Santa Fe. "History's Big Picture" opens with a public reception tonight, Friday, July 1, 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition of 60 iconic photographs continues through September 25.

We are very pleased to welcome Eric Draper as our special guest Friday evening. Draper served as Special Assistant to the President and White House Photographer for President George W. Bush. Draper documented the entire eight years of the Bush administration and directed the conversion of the White House Photo Office from film to digital, and two of his photographs from September 11, 2001 are featured in the exhibition.

Among the exhibition’s many recognizable images:

Robert Capa: D-Day, Omaha Beach, Normandy, 6th June, 1944. Capa is perhaps the best known of all World War II combat photographers. For a split second this short exposure places us shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of the 16th regiment landing at Omaha Beach. Epitomizing Capa’s remark that "...if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough” the photograph of the GI’s struggling through the churning surf has survived as the definitive image of the Normandy invasion.

Joe Rosenthal: Marines Raise the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945: It had been four days since the AP's Joe Rosenthal landed on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The hail of Japanese fire had not let up. During one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, U.S. Marines captured Mount Suribachi, a volcanic peak on the southern tip of the island. Jubilant, they raised a flag and Rosenthal made a photograph that has been called "the greatest photograph of all time".

Robert Jackson: Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald, November 24, 1964
When Oswald was brought out, Jackson raised his camera as Jack Ruby stepped in front of him. Jackson described the moment: “My first reaction was, ‘This guy’s getting in my way.’ Ruby took two steps and fired—and I guess I fired about the same time.”



Eddie Adams’ Execution in Saigon, South Vietnam, February 1, 1968
This is one of the most memorable images in the history of war photography. We are witnessing an individual’s fear a fraction of a second before the loss of his life. Adam’s photograph appeared on the front page of The New York Times the day after it was taken and was syndicated worldwide, mobilizing public opinion against the Vietnam War.

Nina Berman's photo essay "Marine Wedding" is a series of unstaged photos of Sergeant Ty Ziegel, then 24, back home as he prepares for his wedding to his high school sweetheart Renee Klein, then 21. Ziegel survived a suicide bomber attack in Iraq, but was severely disfigured and needed 50 reconstructive operations. Exhibited at the 2010 Whitney Biennial, the photographs are a stark reminder that these wars have consequences and many of our sons and daughters are having their lives permanently altered in faraway lands. Berman has said in interviews that she started photographing disabled veterans soon after the war began mainly because she didn’t see anyone else doing so.

Please join us tonight, Friday, July 1, from 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition continues through September 25, 2011.

--Former Life, People, and Time Inc. editors Richard Stolley and Hal Wingo will lead a discussion on the impact of Photojournalism through history at a special salon at the gallery during the exhibition August 5, from 5 - 7 PM.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than five decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in classic black and white photography with an emphasis on humanist and photojournalist imagery. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers and exhibits nationally at prestigious Photography Fairs. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

HAPPY (85th) BIRTHDAY MARILYN MONROE

Richard C. Miller: Marilyn Monroe, "Some Like It Hot"




Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was born June 1 in Los Angeles (as Norma Jean Mortensen).

Richard C. Miller: Norma Jean Dougherty, 1946

Alfred Eisenstaedt: Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood, 1953

Irving Haberman: Marilyn Monroe at a New York Yankees game, c. 1954

 

Bill Ray: Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy,

Madison Square Garden, New York, May 19, 1962

Related: Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy


BOB DYLAN AT 70

Bill Eppridge: Bob Dylan with Pete Seeger, Newport Folk Festival, 1964

Don Hunstein: Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo, New York, 1963

Elliot Landy: Bob Dylan, Infrared, Woodstock, 1968

Elliot Landy: Bob Dylan, Woodstock, (Nashville Skyline), 1969

Ken Regan: Bob Dylan, 1975

Ken Regan: Bob Dylan and Bruce Sprinsteen meet for the first time, backstage, New Haven, CT, 1975

Ken Regan: Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac's grave, Lowell, MA, 1975

For 50 years, Bob Dylan has inspired musicians and songwriters, politicians and protesters, presidents and popes. Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota.  Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview, Dylan remarked: "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free".

Guardian UK slide show

THE CENTENNIAL OF RONALD REAGAN

Ida Wyman: Ronad Reagan, "Bedtime for Bonzo", 1951

Neil Leifer: Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Inauguration Day, 1981

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: JAMES DEAN WOULD BE 80 ON FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Richard C. Miller: James Dean during the making of "Giant"

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)

"I, James Byron Dean, was born February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana. My parents, Winton Dean and Mildred Dean, formerly Mildred Wilson, and myself existed in the state of Indiana until I was six years of age. Dad's work with the government caused a change, so Dad as a dental mechanic was transferred to California. There we lived, until the fourth year. Mom became ill and passed out of my life at the age of nine. I never knew the reason for Mom's death, in fact it still preys on my mind. I had always lived such a talented life. I studied violin, played in concerts, tap-danced on theatre stages but most of all I like art, to mold and create things with my hands. I came back to Indiana to live with my uncle. I lost the dancing and violin, but not the art. I think my life will be devoted to art and dramatics. And there are so many different fields of art it would be hard to foul-up, and if I did, there are so many different things to do -- farm, sports, science, geology, coaching, teaching music. I got it and I know if I better myself that there will be no match. A fellow must have confidence. When living in California my young eyes experienced many things. It was also my luck to make three visiting trips to Indiana, going and coming a different route each time. I have been in almost every state west of Indiana. I remember all. My hobby, or what I do in my spare time, is motorcycle. I know a lot about them mechanically and I love to ride. I have been in a few races and have done well. I own a small cycle myself. When I'm not doing that, I'm usually engaged in athletics, the heartbeat of every American boy. As one strives to make a goal in a game, there should be a goal in this crazy world for all of us. I hope I know where mine is, anyway, I'm after it. I don't mind telling you, Mr. Dubois, this is the hardest subject to write about considering the information one knows of himself, I ever attempted."


"My Case Study" to Roland Dubois,
Fairmount High School Principal, 1948

Richard C. Miller



James Dean had one of the most spectacularly brief careers of any screen star. In just more than a year, and in only three films, Dean became a widely admired screen personality, a personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50's, and an embodiment of the title of one of his film "Rebel Without A Cause." En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his performances in "East of Eden" and "Giant." Although he only made three films, they were made in just over one year's time. Joe Hyams, in the James Dean biography "Little Boy Lost," sums up his career:


--"..There is no simple explanation for why he has come to mean so much to so many people today. Perhaps it is because, in his acting, he had the intuitive talent for expressing the hopes and fears that are a part of all young people... In some movie magic way, he managed to dramatize brilliantly the questions every young person in every generation must resolve."

Richard C. Miller

Richard C. Miller

Richard C. Miller

Text Source: The Official Site of James Dean

All photographs ©  Richard C. Miller Trust

BORN ON NOVEMBER 20, 1925: ROBERT F. KENNEDY

Eighty-Five years ago, on November 20, 1925, Robert F. Kennedy was born.

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

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Capetown, June 6th 1966

Steve Schapiro: Robert F. Kennedy Campaign, California, 1966

 "On this generation of Americans falls the full burden of providing the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity." (Speech, Law Day Exercises of the University of Georgetown Law School, May 6, 1961).

Bill Eppridge: Bobby Kennedy campaigns in IN during May of 1968, with various aides and friends: former prizefighter Tony Zale and (right of Kennedy) N.F.L. stars Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, and Deacon Jones

 

 

 

 

The Robert F. Kennedy Center

48 YEARS AGO: MARILYN MONROE SINGS "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" TO PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

On May 19, 1962, screen goddess Marilyn Monroe — literally sewn into a sparkling, jaw-droppingly sheer dress — sauntered onto the stage of New York's Madison Square Garden and, with one breathless performance, forever linked sex and politics in the American consciousness. For the 15,000 spectators there that night, including LIFE photographer Bill Ray, Marilyn's "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy amplified the buzz about an affair between the two. But beyond the titillation, the moment Ray captured in this, his most iconic shot, went on to play a major role in both Marilyn's and JFK's biographies, coming as it did near the end of their short lives. As the 48th anniversary of that legendary birthday party approaches, Ray sits down with LIFE.com to share his photos from that night, most of which have never been seen, and to tell the story of how he overcame countless obstacles — the cavernous setting, tricky lighting, and security "goons" eager to keep the press at bay — to get The Shot. ---life.com

Marilyn Monroe Singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, Madison Square Garden, NY, 1962

 ©Bill Ray

Madison Square Garden Memories

"On the evening of May 19th, 1962, the brightest stars in the Hollywood galaxy joined Hollywood’s heaviest hitters and New York’s power elite at the old Madison Square Garden to celebrate with President John F. Kennedy his 45th birthday.


It was a good time to be young. The country was “moving” again. Our fathers had voted for Eisenhower; we voted for JFK. We had the Peace Corps, were going to the moon, and the New Frontier was here. It was High Tide in America.

With Jack Benny as host, and a long list of stars that featured Maria Callas, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Durante and Peggy Lee, the evening was going to be great. But the moment every one of the 17,000 guests was waiting for, was for the Queen of Hollywood, the reigning Sex Goddess, Marilyn Monroe to serenade the dashing young President.

Venus was singing to Zeus, or maybe Apollo. Their stars would cross, their worlds would collide.

I was on assignment for Life Magazine, and one of many photographers down in front of the stage.

As the show was about to start, the New York police, with directions from the Secret Service, were forcing the Press into a tight group behind a rope. I knew that all the “rope-a-dopes” would get the same shot, and that would not work for LIFE, the great American picture magazine. I squeezed between the cops and took off looking for a better place.

In addition to 2 Leicas with 35mm and 28mm lenses, and 2 Nikons with 105mm and 180mm, I brought along a new 300mm 4.5 Kilfit just for the Hell of it. I started to work my way up, one level at a time, looking for a place where I could get a shot of both MM and JFK in the same frame. An impossibility behind the rope, the 300mm telephoto was looking better and better.

It seemed that I climbed forever, feeling like Lawrence Harvey in “The Manchurian Candidate” up among the girders. When I found a pipe railing to rest the lens on, (exposure was by guess), I could see JFK through the telephoto, but the range of light level was too great. I worked with feverish intensity every second MM was on stage, but only one moment was truly magical, and perfectly exposed!

When the moment came, the Garden went black. Then all sound stopped. All that low buzz/roar that a crowd gives off stopped; total silence.

One very bright spotlight flashed on, and there was Marilyn Monroe, in the dress, the crystals sparkling and flashing. Marilyn was smiling, waiting several beats, with everyone on the edge of their seats, trying to hear the silence.

Then, in her breathy, sexy, unique voice, looking the entire time at JFK in the front row, she sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President”.

No one that night could imagine that in two and a half months, Marilyn would be dead of an overdose; in eighteen months JFK would be assassinated; Viet Nam would turn into our worst nightmare; Camelot would be gone.

Marilyn wore a dress designed by Jean Louis, that had no zippers, buttons, hooks, or snaps. The pieces were sewn together on her body. It was more or less flesh-colored, and decorated with thousands of Zwarovski crystals. Adlai Stevenson described it as “Skin and Beads”.

It was auctioned off at Christie’s in New York, October, 1999 for over 1.2 million dollars. The buyers later thought it was a steal, and said they were prepared to pay 3 million.

Though the evening was long and illustrious, and Marilyn’s song was short, the world, myself included, only remembers her, the song, the dress, and JFK’s 45th birthday.

The rest is history. " -- ©Bill Ray

President John F. Kennedy at his birthday party after Marilyn Monroe Sang "Happy Birthday", Madison Square Garden, NY, 1962 ©Bill Ray

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA

Photo by Neil Leifer

Statue of Liberty, July 3, 1976

We join in celebrating the Nation's birthday, and wish all our friends a very Happy Fourth of July. We also join in celebrating the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty, with a nice slide show here ; with a comparison to Margaret Bourke-White's two iconic views here and here.

Here in Santa Fe, the annual Pancakes on the Plaza is in full swing, with thousands out for a hearty community breakfast in a beautiful open air setting (follow on the Santa Fe Plaza Webcam).

And we welcome you to visit Monroe Gallery to view the just-opened exhibition, "A Thousand Words: Masters of Photojournalism".

Our best,

Sid and Michelle Monroe

Monroe Gallery of Photography