Via Cowboys and Indians Magazine
December 21, 2024
December 18, 2024
Waiting for election results at a Trump watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center. They came faster than expected, with former President Donald J. Trump declared the winner early the next morning.
Mark Peterson for The New York Times
“It was before people knew Trump was going to win. It was shortly after they let a lot of the public in. They could have been waiting hours in line. They kept filing in and filling up the chairs until all of them were full. They were all dressed so alike. I took five frames and that was that.” — Mark Peterson
From the project “Watching the Total Eclipse Across North America,” April 8
As darkness raced across the sky during the total solar eclipse, people in Niagra Falls gathered outside to look up for a moment of reverence.
Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
December 16, 2024
#onthisday, December 16, in 1944, The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, the last major German offensive campaign of WWII began. With the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor.
The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II.
“I never wanted to be a fighter, but I always wanted to be a photographer. I decided to photograph portraits of the people in my unit, because they were the people I lived with. We slept together, we risked together. We did so much together. I never saw soldiers. I saw human beings. I saw red blood, human blood. The battlefield, in a way, helped me, because when the war is on, that’s all that it is, fighting all the time. You know that it can happen to you. What do you do about it? I took pictures.” –Tony Vaccaro
In the spring of 2025, Monroe Gallery of Photography will present a major exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Details to be announced soon.
December 9, 2024
By Stephen Dando-Collins | 4 December 2024
Early on Christmas Day, 1942, 26-year-old George Silk rose from his cot at battalion HQ at Soputa in northeast Papua and began walking to the Buna battlefront 10km away.
Around his neck hung his two cameras – a Rolleiflex Standard for close-ups, and a 35mm Zeiss Ikon Contax fitted with a telephoto lens for distance shots.
Silk was a New Zealand camera shop assistant who’d turned up in the Canberra office of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies in January 1940.
He talked Menzies into hiring him as Australia’s second government combat photographer, and after working in North Africa, Silk was reassigned by the Australian Department of Information (DOI) to the New Guinea campaign.
For close to three years Silk had striven to take the ‘great’ war picture, something to emulate or surpass Robert Capa’s famous 1937 shot from the Spanish Civil War, The Falling Soldier.
Now, with the Australians and Americans starting to gain the upper hand in the fight against the Imperial Japanese Army in Papua, Silk was anxious to get his best shot before the Battle of Buna-Gona ended.
So, on December 24 he dragged himself from his hospital bed outside Port Moresby, where he’d been laid low by malaria, and hitched a ride back to the front.
On the track to Old Strip, Silk, rounding a bend in the tall kunai grass, saw two men approaching side-by-side. One was a wounded Australian soldier, Private George ‘Dick’ Whittington.
Barefoot, walking with the aid of a long stick, his eyes were covered by a rough bandage. Guiding Whittington was volunteer Papuan carrier Raphael Oimbari, a farmer in his twenties.
It almost seemed as if Silk would be intruding if he photographed the pair. “I wanted to take the picture, but I didn’t at first,” he later recalled.
But his documentarian’s instincts kicked in. Using his Rolleiflex from the waist with the pair less than two metres away, Silk snapped a single shot without even looking down into the viewfinder.
Seemingly unaware of him, the wounded soldier and carrier passed Silk by. Hurrying after them, he obtained the soldier’s details before the pair continued on.
Later that day, Silk joined Whittington’s 2/10th Battalion. Clicking away in the thick of the fighting that afternoon, he collapsed face-down on the battlefield. Malaria had caught up with him.
Towards sunset, an Aussie soldier found the photographer lying with the dead all around him. Evacuated to Moresby, Silk ended up in a malaria ward.
You can’t keep a good photographer down. Silk was soon back at the front. At Giropa Point on December 31 and January 1, he took what he considered his two best pictures of the war, close-ups beside Bren-gunners and Vickers-gunners with bullets whistling all around. Again, Silk collapsed with malaria, and again he ended up in hospital.
Meanwhile, another George, American Life photographer George Strock, snapped three dead American soldiers on Buna Beach.
In hospital, George Silk learned the DOI had banned his two Giropa Point photos – one showed a dead Digger, while one of the Bren-gunners had dropped down dead beside him seconds after he took his picture.
At the same time, Silk’s photo of Whittington and the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel’ was also banned for being ‘too graphic’.
Silk was incensed. So, he wined and dined a young female clerk working in the DOI’s Port Moresby office and brought her into a conspiracy.
She had prints of his three banned pictures made at the DOI’s Sydney photographic laboratory and sent to her.
She gave them to Silk, who passed them to a war correspondent friend, who had them approved by the American censor at GHQ in Brisbane. Silk then gave his prints to George Strock, who smuggled them to Life.
Strock knew the Pentagon banned publication of photos of American dead, but was appalled by apathy towards the war at home. He was determined to jolt his fellow Americans into getting behind their troops.
On March 8, 1943, Life published Silk’s The Blind Soldier, full page.
Readers hailed it the best picture of the war. A month later Silk was fired by the DOI. Parliamentary backbenchers called for him to be charged with treason. His friend Damien Parer resigned in protest at his treatment.
Meanwhile, Life management struggled for seven months to gain War Department approval to publish Strock’s Three Dead Americans.
Going all the way to the White House, they discovered that, like George Strock, President Roosevelt was determined to cement Americans behind the war effort by being honest with them. With his approval, Three Dead Americans appeared in Life on September 20, 1943, shocking America.
In 2014, Time magazine would describe it as ‘the photograph that won the war’. Two iconic images, and one amazing story. ❂
The Buna shots: The Amazing Story Behind Two Photographs that Changed the Course of World War Two, by Stephen Dando-Collins, is published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. It’s the never before told story of two arresting photographs, two courageous photographers, and the quest for truth in war. You can order a copy here: https://bit.ly/3ZQ5DpV
November 29, 2024
In the 2023 photograph Ancestral Strength by Eugene Tapahe, four Indigenous women — Cayuse, Umatilla, Newe Sogobia, and Tséstho’e — stand side by side wearing brightly colored traditional garb, staring toward the sky behind the photographer. The stark winter beauty of the background in Wyoming’s Teton National Park further highlights the women’s projected power.
In the 1949 photograph Southern Pacific Steam Engine by John Dominis, a steam engine plows through a snowy landscape at Donner Pass, California.
Both images showcase forms of strength, but that’s not the tie that binds them. Both are part of Frozen in Time, an exhibition that Monroe Gallery of Photography describes as an “imaginative survey of compelling images.” It covers a range of human experiences, from the joy of exploration in George Silk’s 1946 shot Tourists Climb Fox Glacier in Tasman National Park, taken in New Zealand, to the ugly brutality of war in Tony Vaccaro’s White Death, Pvt. Henry Irving Tannebaum Ottre, taken in Belgium in 1945.
It opens with a reception from 4-6 p.m. Friday, November 29. — Brian Sandford
details
Through January 19
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar Avenue
505-992-0800, monroegallery.com
By Kathaleen Roberts
November 24, 2024
Winter brings both beauty and brutality.
Open at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography, “Frozen in Time” brings images of both joy and despair by some of the most renowned American photojournalists. The photographs cover the 2016 protests during the Standing Rock pipeline construction, a skating waiter at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the early 1900s, and images of the grim winter conditions during World War II.
Several of the photojournalists worked for Life magazine.
"It always makes for a beautiful, serene, contemplative experience,” said Michelle Monroe, gallery co-owner, of the frosty season. “We know it’s cold, we know it’s quiet, we know there is a veil of light.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection: Ice Skating Waiter, St. Moritz, 1932
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “Ice Skating Waiter” encapsulates the grace of skating while balancing a tray of glasses and liquor.
“He had a very rudimentary camera with glass plates,” Monroe said. “He said the whole thing was a technical challenge.”
The photographer focused on the chair until the waiter swanned by.
Tony Vaccaro’s photograph of soldiers partially buried in snow during the 88-day Battle of Hürtgen Forest captures the longest fight on German ground of World War II. An estimated 24,000 were killed, wounded or captured.
“There was no one more uncomfortable than the other,” Monroe said. “You couldn’t even find any comfort being together. (Vaccaro) said there was a lot of dark humor.”
In 2023, Navajo photographer Eugene Tapahe took “Ancestral Strength” in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
Tapahe was studying at Utah’s Brigham Young University when the pandemic hit. He decided to take four Native jingle dancers (two of whom were his daughters) across the country.
“The jingle dress has always been used for healing,” Monroe said. “Since the schools were closed, perhaps he could heal the country. They went all over performing. It had a tremendous effect on people.”
Those stops included Mount Rushmore, Yosemite and New York’s Central Park.
Ryan Vizzions photographed the protests over the Standing Rock pipeline in 2017, including a portrait of a medicine man.
“He was a spiritual counselor and guide for everything there to keep people in focus,” Monroe said.
“(For) a lot of the older photographers, in order to be put on the front page, it was to get out there and get a shot of this latest snowstorm,” Monroe said. “She was part of the Photo League (cooperative.) They were shut down by the Red Scare movement for being subversive.”
The photographs also include images of the 1939 Russo-Finnish War, harsh winter conditions in the northern Soviet Union taken during its collapse in the 1990s and several ice skating scenes, including Truman Capote at New York’s famed Rockefeller Plaza in 1959, as well as tranquil snow scenes of the American West.
Monroe Gallery specializes in photojournalism. It was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.
'FROZEN IN TIME'
WHEN: Opening Reception on Friday, Nov. 29, 4-6 pm; exhibition continues through Jan. 19, 2025
WHERE: Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe
MORE INFO: monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800
WITNESS: Nate Gowdy’s Lens on January 6th, 2021
January 9 - February 15, 2025
On January 20, 2017, Nate Gowdy stood at the U.S. Capitol, camera in hand, as Donald J. Trump—with right hand raised and left atop the Lincoln Bible—took the oath of office, vowing to end “American carnage.” It was an ominous prelude to a presidency that would redefine American political expression.
Four years later, on January 6, 2021, Gowdy returned to Washington, DC, prepared to document Trump’s “Save America” rally at the Ellipse. Instead, he witnessed surreal scenes unfold: militants marching, kneeling in prayer, posing for group photos, breaking for hotdogs, rampaging against the Capitol’s sworn protectors, and leading thousands to defile the Inauguration Day stage.
This fine art exhibition, WITNESS: Nate Gowdy’s Lens on January 6th, 2021, examines that day as a theater of chaos and conviction. Gowdy's stark, unflinching images depict the U.S. Capitol, one of democracy’s most sacred symbols, as it becomes a haunting set piece in a dystopian tableau of domestic terror—an inside job.
Twice assaulted for being deemed "fake news," Gowdy persisted in exposing the truth. Shot on assignment for Rolling Stone, his images transcend traditional photojournalism, revealing the kinetic energy and raw emotions of insurrection: vulnerability, rage, fear, and euphoria. These are not just photographs of an event but intimate portraits of the humanity—and inhumanity—that defined it.
Through this collection, Gowdy challenges viewers to confront the complexities of identity, power, and the fragility of democratic ideals. WITNESS invites us to reflect on the contradictions of that day, presenting the Capitol not only as a battleground but as a mirror to the nation itself. What do these images reveal about us—and what do they demand we reckon with?
On January 20, 2017, Nate Gowdy stood at the U.S. Capitol, camera in hand, as Donald J. Trump—with right hand raised and left atop the Lincoln Bible—took the oath of office, vowing to end “American carnage.” It was an ominous prelude to a presidency that would redefine American political expression.
Four years later, on January 6, 2021, Gowdy returned to Washington, DC, prepared to document Trump’s “Save America” rally at the Ellipse. Instead, he witnessed surreal scenes unfold: militants marching, kneeling in prayer, posing for group photos, breaking for hotdogs, rampaging against the Capitol’s sworn protectors, and leading thousands to defile the Inauguration Day stage.
This fine art exhibition, WITNESS: Nate Gowdy’s Lens on January 6th, 2021, examines that day as a theater of chaos and conviction. Gowdy's stark, unflinching images depict the U.S. Capitol, one of democracy’s most sacred symbols, as it becomes a haunting set piece in a dystopian tableau of domestic terror—an inside job.
Twice assaulted for being deemed "fake news," Gowdy persisted in exposing the truth. Shot on assignment for Rolling Stone, his images transcend traditional photojournalism, revealing the kinetic energy and raw emotions of insurrection: vulnerability, rage, fear, and euphoria. These are not just photographs of an event but intimate portraits of the humanity—and inhumanity—that defined it.
Through this collection, Gowdy challenges viewers to confront the complexities of identity, power, and the fragility of democratic ideals. WITNESS invites us to reflect on the contradictions of that day, presenting the Capitol not only as a battleground but as a mirror to the nation itself. What do these images reveal about us—and what do they demand we reckon with?
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Faces of Ground Zero: A Conversation with Joe McNally
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET
Award-winning photographer Joe McNally’s "Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001" is comprised of 246 large-scale polaroids featuring individuals who responded to 9/11 and contributed to the rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero. A cross-section of these responder portraits will be on view in the Museum beginning this November. In conversation with Executive Vice President of Collections & Chief Curator Dr. Jan Ramirez, McNally will discuss his undertaking of this project in the emotional weeks following the attacks, how this medium served to uniquely capture this community, and his own experience interacting with those at the heart of this tragedy.
This program is presented as a complement to the Museum’s exhibition Faces of Ground Zero. The exhibition will be on view starting late November 2024.
More information and registration here.
November 17, 2024
Today is the final day for the exhibition "The Best Of Us".
At the conclusion of every exhibit, we find ourselves discussing our impressions, thoughts, and the feedback we received from gallery visitors and collectors. This time, our reflections are deeply meaningful.
"The Best Of Us" was an exhibition depicting the ideals and diversity of the human experience; through nearly 50 photographs which explored the characterization of extraordinary and everyday people who renew our faith that all things are possible and exemplify our ideals. People who exemplified the best traits of humanity: kindness, empathy, compassion, consideration, patience, generosity, resilience, and the willingness to make a difference.
Opening on October 4, as America headed into the final stage of a Presidential election, the images in the exhibit emphasized the necessity of understanding and appreciating photojournalism.
There have been many exhibits that we wish could have run longer, and this another; it will be difficult to see it come to an end. Since the opening on October 4, the exhibit has been seen by many hundreds of viewers: young, old, tours, school groups, veterans, politicians, museum curators, collectors, the "famous", and even a few homeless. We have seen parents quietly explaining the situation behind a photograph to their children, we have seen people softly weeping, and the quiet of the gallery has occasionally been startled by someone gasping "Oh my God!"
This exhibition has affirmed our steadfast belief in the power of a photograph. The introductory wall text included this quote from Maya Angelou: "Be sure you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity”.
We are so grateful for all of the participating photographers, so many of whom we have been privileged to have known know personally. For those who are no longer living with us, we thank their families for preserving their archives. For those still working, we honor your commitment and service to humanity.
Thank you to all who visited the exhibit and thank you for your kind words and shared emotions. It has been deeply moving to see "The Best Of Us" personified in visitors to the exhibit.
“I cannot tell you where our history is leading us, or through what suffering, or into what era of war or peace. But wherever it is, I know people of good heart will be passing there.” -Carl Mydans, Life photojournalist
View "The Best of Us" and other past exhibits archived here.
The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 18, 2024
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
October 12, 2024
In this insightful interview, award-winning photojournalist and filmmaker Ed Kashi dives deep into his journey from a first-generation American with Iraqi roots to becoming a globally renowned storyteller through photography. He reflects on the pivotal moments that shaped his career, from discovering his passion for photography at Syracuse University to capturing the raw realities of global conflicts and social issues. Kashi shares his thoughts on the challenges of photojournalism, the emotional toll of documenting human suffering, and the importance of empathy in his work. He also discusses his commitment to highlighting the positive stories that often go untold, particularly in underrepresented communities. This conversation is a powerful look into the life of a photographer who has dedicated his career to chasing narratives, both profound and personal.
October 11, 2024
The Long Path Toward Establishing Indigenous People’s Day, a Day to Honor and Recognize the First Peoples of AmericaSeptember 28, 2024
Excerpted from "The Politic Aesthetic Access is gone. Moments are dead. Long live the flash"
(see also the virtual exhibition "The Campaign"
David Butow: The landscape of destruction, Lahaina, Maui, seen on August 24, 2023
The George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY, has recently added a print by David Butow taken while on assignment for TIME magazine documenting the aftermath of the August, 2023 fires in Lahaina, Maui. David Butow is a freelance photojournalist whose projects and assignments have taken him to over two dozen countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq, Peru, Yemen and Zimbabwe. His work in covering politics in Washington, D.C. resulted in the monograph BRINK, published in late 2021 by Punctum Press.
Born in New York and raised in Dallas, he has a degree in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. After college he moved to Los Angeles and worked in newspapers before beginning a freelance career for magazines in the 1990's.
From the mid-90's through the late-2000's he worked as a contract photographer for US News and World Report magazine covering social issues and news events such as post- 9/11 in New York, the Palestinian/Israeli Intifada, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the death of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. From 2017-2021, he was based in Washington, D.C., doing primarily political assignments at the White House and US Capitol for TIME, CNN, Politico, NBC, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone and other clients. His photographs of events such as the China earthquake in 2008, the funeral of Nelson Mandela, Hong Kong protests of 2019 and various projects in the U.S. have won awards from Pictures of the Year International, Photo District News, American Photography and others.
In early 2022, the new book BRINK was published by Rome-based Punctum Press, 104 photographs over 152 pages, printed in Italy on heavyweight paper with text by Mark McKinnon and Cecilia Emma Sottilotta. BRINK chronicles politics in the United States from the 2016 presidential election through the chaos of the Trump presidency, the turmoil of 2020 and concludes with the insurrection and its aftermath at the U.S, Capitol in January 2021.
Most recently, Butow's photographs from Ukraine, Ulvalde, Texas, and Lahaina, Maui have been published in Politico, Time, and The New York Times.
The George Eastman Museum is located in Rochester, New York, on the estate of George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography and motion picture film. Founded in 1947 as an independent nonprofit institution, it is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the oldest film archives. The museum holds unparalleled collections—encompassing several million objects—in the fields of photography, cinema, and photographic and cinematographic technology, and photographically illustrated books. The institution is also a longtime leader in film preservation and photographic conservation.Via Monroe Gallery of Photography
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, July 31, 2024The 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.
July 22, 2024
Gallery photographer Joe McNally's photographs feature prominently in today's Guardian feature on Joe Biden’s political career across the decades – in pictures, as well as in The Irish Times.
Original article posted on July 12, 2024
"Throughout history, flags have elevated the emotional impact of images, attracting photographers — and photo editors — like moths to a flame." click to read full article
The article analyzes several photographs, including these by Gallery photographers:
July 16, 2024
An exhibition of more than 40 photographs celebrates the extraordinary life and career of photographer Tony Vaccaro.
Monroe Gallery of Photography honors the late Tony Vaccaro with Tony Vaccaro: The Pursuit of Beauty, an exhibition continuing through September 15. On display are photographs from 1944 to 1979 which depict a wide range of subjects, from the battlefields of Europe to the rooftops of Manhattan. Vaccaro, who died on December 28, 2022 at 100 years old, had seen it all. --full review here.
