Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2023

David Butow Photographs Star Ballroom Shooting Memorials and Resilience for CNN

 Via CNN

January 29, 2023


By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN. Photographs by David Butow

After tragedy struck Monterey Park’s vibrant dance community, residents insist they will return to their beloved ballroom --click for full article.

clolor photograph of people gathered at the Monterey Park City Hall for a candlelight vigil honoring 11 victims of a mass shooting in the city on Lunar New Year's Eve.
People gather at the Monterey Park City Hall for a candlelight vigil honoring 11 victims of a mass shooting in the city on Lunar New Year's Eve.



The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.


The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial with flowers and portaits of the victims


The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.


Kevin Leung stands outside of the dance studio where he rented space for years to teach Kung Fu and traditional lion dancing. He knew two of those killed in the shooting.
Kevin Leung stands outside of the dance studio where he rented space for years to teach Kung Fu and traditional lion dancing. He knew two of those killed in the shooting.





Thursday, January 26, 2023

A show celebrating acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar) can be viewed for five more days—through Jan. 29

 Via The Santa Fe Reporter

January 25, 2023


Honoring Vaccaro


Speaking of countdowns, a show celebrating acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar) can be viewed for five more days—through Jan. 29. Monroe mounted two exhibitions—here and a New York pop-up last month—to honor Vaccaro’s 100th birthday; the photographer died on Dec. 28, just eight days after his centennial, which he celebrated in New York with friends at a surprise birthday dinner. 

A New York Times obituary recounts how Vaccaro became a war photographer in World War II—also the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary. After the war, he transitioned and began to make fashion, travel and celebrity photographs for the country’s leading magazines. 

Those celebrities included Georgia O’Keeffe, whom Life magazine assigned Vaccaro to photograph in 1960. O’Keeffe expected a more famous photographer and at first refused to pose: “To win her over, Mr. Vaccaro cooked a meal and made a picnic lunch. When the weather turned too windy for the picnic, he gave her a plate of Swiss cheese as she sat in the back of his car. And when she playfully peered through a hole in a piece of the cheese, Mr. Vaccaro went into action,” the obituary reads. His other famous subjects included John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso and Sophie Loren, to name a few. 

This quote from Vaccaro accompanies Monroe’s information on the exhibition: “We call each other German, French, Italian. There is no Italian blood. There is no French blood. It’s human blood. On this Earth there is one humanity. Let’s do something about it. Let’s live! In a way, photography was my way of telling the world, ‘We have better things to do than to kill ourselves.’”

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Gallery Photographer Nate Gowdy Interviewed on PBS New Hour for Anniversary of January 6 Insurrection

 

Via PBS News Hour

January 6, 2023

screen shot of PBS News Hour feature artice on Nate Gowdy's "Insurrection" book with image of crowd of rioter on Capitol steps, January 6, 2021


On Jan. 6, 2021, photographer Nate Gowdy was at the U.S. Capitol on assignment for Rolling Stone when what was billed as a pro-Trump rally escalated into an insurrection. He was on his way to take photos of the rally at the Ellipse when groups of people started walking toward the Capitol.

Hours later, Gowdy writes in his new book, he was “caught in a melee of war cries, adrenaline and suddenly surging bodies.”

After covering the mayhem outside the Capitol, Gowdy faced his own chaotic situation days later. His camera and computer with his Jan. 6 images were stolen from Washington’s Union Station.

“I would have sacrificed an arm or a leg to get those photos back,” he said.

Beyond capturing a shocking chapter in American political history, the images were also meant to be the conclusion to a book he had been long working on.

As friends tried to console him and help him replace his equipment, one acquaintance had a lucky, one-in-a-million break, spotting his original gear for sale online, and eventually reuniting him with his images.

“Insurrection,” a recent collection of 124 of Gowdy’s photos, offers a timeline of the day’s events through vivid portraits of the Trump supporters who broke into the complex while Congress counted Electoral College votes to confirm President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

More than 950 people have been arrested for participating in the Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department reported Wednesday — two days ahead of the attack’s two-year anniversary. Hundreds of demonstrators and law enforcement officers were physically injured. The Capitol building sustained $1.5 million in damage. Eighteen journalists were assaulted and news equipment and cameras were damaged, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Nine deaths have been connected to the attack and its aftermath.

“Almost four years prior to Jan. 6, 2021, I stood in the audience at the Inauguration Day stand and stared in disbelief as [President-elect Trump] vowed to uphold the Constitution and to end the specter of societal ‘American carnage,’” Gowdy said. “Now I found myself in the space – one historically reserved for solemn and dignified assembly – as it was flooded with true American carnage.”

Gowdy has worked since 2011 as a photographer for various editorial and commercial clients. He has also produced exhibitions and projects, including “The American Superhero Project” – a series of patriotic portraits featuring people of all stripes – and “Our Students, Their Stories: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Students, Families, and Staff,” a project commissioned by Seattle Public Schools.

Trump rallies became a focus of Gowdy’s work in recent years, he says in an attempt to better understand the movement. “I wanted to make photographs that could help us bridge this divide potentially. And now I see that because, again, we see what we want to see, they [my images] only perpetuate the divide, certainly with the climate we’re in. That’s not what I set out to do, but that’s what it’s become.”

The PBS NewsHour spoke with Gowdy by phone and email over the last few weeks about his experience covering the Jan. 6 attack and what led to his new book.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Some of the photos featured in this story are graphic.

I’m curious how you came to be on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. What led up to that?

Time magazine had reached out after I photographed a Bernie [Sanders] rally here in downtown Seattle being interrupted by Black Lives Matter demonstrators. … And that kind of gave me the confidence to get out there and do it. … I ended up getting the Bernie Sanders cover of Time magazine in June of 2016. … At the time, I’d only had a camera for four and a half years. So that was pretty cool.

The whole time I was out there traveling, self-funding these trips to primary states, sleeping in rental cars and doing what I had to do just to get the photos while this was happening. I thought the whole Trump-MAGA thing was a blip and I thought I had to catch it then and it would be over soon. And, you know, it didn’t end…

I saw Jan. 6 as Trump’s last stand. Excuse my language, but I knew it would be a stupid day. … I didn’t anticipate it being deadly and what it was.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Some of the photos featured in this story are graphic.

I’m curious how you came to be on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. What led up to that?

Time magazine had reached out after I photographed a Bernie [Sanders] rally here in downtown Seattle being interrupted by Black Lives Matter demonstrators. … And that kind of gave me the confidence to get out there and do it. … I ended up getting the Bernie Sanders cover of Time magazine in June of 2016. … At the time, I’d only had a camera for four and a half years. So that was pretty cool.

The whole time I was out there traveling, self-funding these trips to primary states, sleeping in rental cars and doing what I had to do just to get the photos while this was happening. I thought the whole Trump-MAGA thing was a blip and I thought I had to catch it then and it would be over soon. And, you know, it didn’t end…

I saw Jan. 6 as Trump’s last stand. Excuse my language, but I knew it would be a stupid day. … I didn’t anticipate it being deadly and what it was.

Did you ever go inside the Capitol at any point during the day?

No, I did not. … Everyone on that terrace where the inauguration platform [was on the West Front of the Capitol] had their backs to us. And so there was obviously something going on behind them. And that’s where the battle for the tunnel was. And that’s why I got to a higher elevation to have a view of it. But I didn’t want to be in the middle of it.

I didn’t have any protective gear, whereas a lot of my colleagues out there that day were militarized – wearing gas masks, goggles, helmets, boots, kneepads, you name it. But that also worked to “other” them, … whereas, I was wearing a maroon hoodie and Carhartt beanie and, besides my N95 mask and cameras othering me, a lot of people who were suspicious of me couldn’t be 100 percent certain I wasn’t a fellow “patriot” for the cause.

You were able to kind of blend in a little bit.

Yeah, I think in ways that worked to my advantage. But, that said, I was still attacked twice that day for having cameras.

How have you been since that day? How has what you saw affected you? Are you doing okay?

A lot of people care about me and ask that question a lot. And my response is that I don’t feel like I have any lingering trauma from that day. A whole lot of people do. And I’m just fine.

The trauma I experienced regarding that day didn’t have to do with the danger and the chaos or the events of Jan. 6. They had to do with on my way back to Seattle – … my camera, my computer and my photos were stolen. I’d just witnessed and photographed the most historic thing I’ve been to. And suddenly that was all gone, but for the 25 medium-res JPEGs I delivered to Rolling Stone.

Tell me about that.

This book’s photos were almost lost. On Jan. 8 at Union Station, my backpack—in it, my camera, hard drives, and laptop—were stolen. If not for the sleuthing efforts of an acquaintance, this book would not exist. Just two days after the theft, he found my camera listed on an online marketplace. I messaged the seller that it was unmistakably my Leica Q and laptop. Silence.

So close yet so far from recovering my things and particularly these images, I boarded my flight home to Seattle. Upon landing, I learned that the seller wanted me to call them. Over the phone, they claimed that they had “found” my backpack. “Praise be to God,” they exclaimed, for putting us in a position to help each other—as they attempted to extort $2,000.

Very fortunately, they agreed to return to the scene of the crime for the exchange the following day at Union Station with my friend. Amtrak Police officers went above and beyond to work with him to arrange a safe and successful sting operation. For a multitude of reasons, I didn’t press charges. The detained individual was banned from Union Station, but didn’t spend the night in jail.

What gave you the idea for a book?

I’ve been a photographer since I got a camera in 2011, and I’ve always been kind of pretty obsessed with photo books. Photography is the only thing that I let myself collect and get materialistic about. And so I’ve always kind of done long-form documentary projects in anticipation of curating the archives into books. And I’ve just never had the means to do that. And so I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. …

What spurred me to do this one was my ex-partner’s parents. When I met them, they’re very Trumpian. I love talking politics, but I tried to redirect away from politics with them. But when I mentioned, you know, I was there at the Capitol on Jan. 6 at the insurrection, her father threw a fit and made a scene at the restaurant we were at – at just me calling it an insurrection. That’s when I got the idea that, “Wow, people need to see this. They need something they can hold in their hands and point to and say, ‘Yes, this happened. Look, here it is.’”



Related: A Seattle photographer’s firsthand account of the Jan. 6 chaos | Crosscut

Friday, December 23, 2022

Tony Vaccaro centennial exhibition on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography

 Via Art Daily

December 23, 2022

color photograph of a glowing sunset portrait of the twin towers of the World Trade Center from 1979

A glowing sunset portrait of the twin towers of the World Trade Center from 1979


SANTA FE, NM.- A new exhibitions celebrates the 100th birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro in Santa Fe. The show has been on view at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe since November 25, 2022, and will end on January 29, 2023.

Vaccaro is known for his photographs of WWII, which were the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary, and his editorial work for Life, Look, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and countless other publications. The exhibitions coincide with Tony Vaccaro 100! on view at the Museum für Photographie in Braunschweig, Germany. In both locations, Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition, juxtaposes the living legend’s powerful war images with the lyrical mid-century fashion, film, and pop culture photographs that came later.

On view are more than four dozen photographs dating from 1944-1979. From the battlefields of Europe to the rooftops of Manhattan, Vaccaro trained his inimitable lens with a sensitivity derived from early hardship as an orphan in Italy. After the war, he replaced the searing images of horror embedded in his memory, by focusing on the splendor of life and capturing the beauty of fashion and those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and cultural figures. From a photograph of a running soldier in 1944’s Battle of the Bulge to a shot of the actress Gwen Verdon swinging in a hammock against a New York skyline, the exhibition illustrates Vaccaro’s will to live against all odds and to advance the power of beauty. Several never-before-exhibited photographs are on view: a 1951 image of a bevy of beautiful women surrounding one in a pink dress on a balcony, a 1968 shot of Vaccaro holding up a test strip during a photo shoot, and a glowing sunset portrait of the twin towers of the World Trade Center from 1979.

As Vaccaro passed his 100th birthday on December 20, 2022, he has survived two bouts of Covid, and is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and Covid. He attributes his longevity to “blind luck, red wine and determination.”

“To me, the greatest thing that you can do is challenge the world,” said Vaccaro. “And most of these challenges I win. That’s what keeps me going.”

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on December 20, 1922, Michelantonio Celestino Onofrio Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the village of Bonefro, Italy, after his family left America under threat from the Mafia. Both of his parents had died by the time he was eight years old, and he was raised by an uncaring aunt and a brutal uncle. His love of photography began in Bonefro where at age ten, he began taking pictures with a box camera. When World War II broke out, the American ambassador in Rome ordered Vaccaro to return to the States. He settled in with his sisters in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he joined his high school camera club. His teacher and mentor Bertram Lewis guided him through a year of concentrated apprenticeship.

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

Returning to the States in 1950, Vacarro started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Flair, Life, Look, Harper’s Bazaar, Quick, Newsweek, Town and Country, Venture, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from Enzo Ferrari and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim and Frank Lloyd Wright. From 1970 to 1980 he taught photography at Cooper Union.

“Il Maestro,” as the Italian press calls him, has won numerous honors and awards. These include the Art Director’s Gold Medal (New York City, 1963), The World Press Photo Gold Medal (The Hague, 1969), The Legion of Honor (Paris, 1994), The Medal of Honor (Luxembourg, 2002), Das Verdienstkreuz (Berlin, 2004), and the Minerva d’Oro (Pescara, 2014).

Since retiring in 1982, Vaccaro’s work has been exhibited world-wide over 250 times and has been published or been the subject of ten books and two major films. In 2014, the Museo Foto Tony Vaccaro was inaugurated in Bonefro, Italy.

Vaccaro’s works are in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

In 2016, HBO Films premiered Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro. The film tells the story of how he 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. The film has led to a career renaissance for Vaccaro.

In 2018, Vaccaro’s photographs were featured in major one-person exhibitions in Venezia, Italy; Potsdam, Germany; London, England; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2019, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Mo. In 2021 the Kunsthalle Helsinki presented the exhibition Tony Vaccaro: Life Is Wonderful, a selection of 130 images from his career of nearly 80 year

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Photographer Tony Vaccaro, 99, captures ‘beauty of life’ — from WWII to haute couture

 Via The NY Post

December 10, 2022


Tony Vaccaro in his stufio with pictures of Calder, Sophia Loren, and Georgia O'Keeffe

What began as a childhood pastime in Italy turned into a career that took Tony Vaccaro around the world Photo credit  Manolo Salas

Tony Vaccaro took his first picture when he was 10 years old and living in Italy. He soon started toting a camera everywhere — to school, on camping trips, a visit to the Vatican, and eventually to the frontlines of World War II, where, as an American soldier, he documented the Battle of the Bulge, the Liberation of France and the tragic deaths of his comrades.

After that, Vaccaro vowed he would devote himself not to the brutality of war, but to “beauty.”

“I said to myself, ‘You must photograph those people who give mankind something,’” the 99-year-old photographer, who lives in Long Island City, told The Post. “And I went after them — all of them.”

He sure did: Vaccaro has snapped everyone from Jackson Pollock to John F. Kennedy, Jr., Sophia Loren, Lee Krasner, Frank Lloyd Wright — who gave Vaccaro one of his canes, which the shutterbug still uses today — and countless other luminaries, who often became his friends.

Vaccaro turns 100 on Dec. 20, and a new exhibit celebrates his extraordinary life and career. “Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition” runs Dec. 13 to 18 at the Monroe Gallery of Photography pop-up at 21 Spring St., Nolita. It features some two dozen images from a deep body of work, from harrowing war photos to whimsical fashion shoots to portraits of celebrities and artists, including Eartha Kitt and Georgia O’Keeffe.

“In the process of doing that, I hope I gave mankind something back,” Vaccaro said.

Tony Vaccaro in his studio holding on of his framed photographs

Now nearly 100, Vaccaro has snapped countless celebrities, creatives and other luminaries.
Phot credit  Manolo Salas

Vaccaro likes to joke that he has survived the Battle of Normandy and two bouts of COVID, but his entire life story is one of remarkable resilience. Born in Greensburg, Penn., on December 20, 1922, he spent his early childhood in Italy after his family had to flee the States under threat of the Mafia. By the age of 5, both of his parents were dead.

“I was raised by my uncle, who physically abused me,” Vaccaro said. “But he did give me my father’s box camera, and my love for photography was born.”

As fascism swept through Italy, a teenaged Vaccaro went back to the States, reuniting with his two sisters in Westchester County. As an immigrant who didn’t speak English, carrying his camera, which he used to document his classmates and their adventures, made him feel accepted.

Tony Vaccaro on NY rooftop holding a color test strip, 1960
As a young immigrant who didn’t speak English, Vaccaro found that his camera helped him feel accepted.  Tony Vaccaro with test strip, NY, 1960
Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

At 21, he was drafted into the US Army. He carried his 35 mm Argus C3, along with his gun, to the frontlines. He used army helmets to develop his film at night and hung the prints on tree branches to dry. He was shot and injured twice and got a purple heart. Afterward, he used his experience shooting on the front lines to bring life and spontaneity to the staid world of fashion shoots, much like Richard Avedon and Gordon Parks.

Vaccaro retired in the 1980s, but he still takes pictures of his 8-year-old twin grandchildren, Luke and Liam (who live in the apartment across the hall from him in Queens), and even photographed the New York City Marathon in November. He also shares an incredible array of vintage snaps on Instagram — @tonyvaccarophotographer — with the help of his daughter-in-law, Maria.

Two weeks ago, he went to the hospital with a burst stomach ulcer, and was still recovering from surgery when he spoke with The Post last week. (His son, Frank, helped Vaccaro form his responses, jogging his memory.)

Still, he has not lost his boundless zest for life.
Tony Vaccaro seated in his studio in front of his photograph of DeKooning seated

Vaccaro with a photo of Willem de Kooning — the abstract expressionist artist was one of many 20th century boldface names to befriend the photographer over the years.Manolo Salas

“I feel super,” he said over the phone from his hospital bed, adding that he credits “chocolate, red wine and determination” for his longevity.

“I have been lucky,” he said. “I want the world to know the beauty of life.”


"White Death" a dead soldier cover in snow, WWII, Belgium, 1944
Tony Vaccaro’s “White Death”   Tony Vaccaro, courtesy of Monroe Gallery

Vaccaro snapped this stark photo of a fallen soldier lying face down in the snow before he realized the body belonged to his friend, Pvt. Henry Irving Tannenbaum. More than 50 years later, Tannenbaum’s son Sam contacted Vaccaro to ask about his father, and the two ended up going to the field where he had been killed. “I was confused to find that the field had transformed into a forest — pine trees everywhere,” Vaccaro recalled. “The land owner told us that it wasn’t actually a forest, but that the field is used for growing Christmas trees to be sold in Spain. Can you imagine — tannenbaum means Christmas tree in German!”
WWII American soldier kissing a young girl in liberated town in France
Tony Vaccaro’s “Kiss of Liberation,” 1945.Tony Vaccaro, courtesy of Monroe Gallery

Vaccaro often credits this photo of American soldier Gene Costanzo kissing a small French girl in St. Briac, Brittany at the end of the war as his favorite picture. “The day we liberated this small town in France I will never forget,” he wrote in an Instagram post. It was an early summer morning and when news of the liberation broke, women and children flooded the streets. “I was lucky that the French kiss three times [instead of one]. Otherwise I may have missed this warm moment between the soldier and this little girl.”
a distraught German soldier returns home to find his house gone, Frankfurt, Germany, 1946
Tony Vaccaro’s “Defeated Soldier,” 1947.Tony Vaccaro, courtesy of Monroe Gallery

After the war, Stars and Stripes magazine asked Vaccaro to stay in Europe to document the rebuilding of Germany. As he was leaving the US embassy in Frankfurt to pick up his passport, he stumbled upon a German soldier crying outside what was once his home. “He had lost his wife and children,” Vaccaro said. “He had apparently been released from a prisoner camp in Texas or Oklahoma.” The experience of getting to know the enemy made him realize “we all bleed the same blood.” “When we got to know each other we were not much different,” he said.


Georgia O'Keefe on the portal of her Abiquiu home in New Mexico with s cow's skull on the door frame
Georgia O’Keeffe at home in 1960.Tony Vaccaro Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography

Vaccaro was assigned to photograph then 72-year-old artist O’Keeffe at her home in New Mexico for Look magazine in 1960. But when he arrived, she refused to look at him. “She was expecting a different photographer,” Vaccaro said. After five days of ignoring him, she mentioned something about Manolette, considered the greatest bullfighter of all time. “I told her that I had photographed Manolette and that I could send her a photograph,” Vaccaro recalled. “So she turned towards me, and for the next two days, never looked, nor talked, to the writer [who had accompanied Vaccaro for the story], Charlotte Willard.” Willard left “in a huff,” and Vaccaro stayed nearly two weeks, snagging scores of intimate portraits.
Gwen Verdon in a hammock on a NY rooftop, 1953

Gwen Verdon on a New York City rooftop in 1953.Tony Vaccaro, courtesy of Monroe Gallery

The Tony Award-winning actress, dancer and choreographer Gwen Verdon was one of Vaccaro’s favorite fashion subjects. “She was a sensation,” he recalled. “She did anything and tried everything.” The photographer was shooting Verdon for a quickie fashion shoot and had to improvise something on the outside balcony of the 12th floor of LOOK magazine, so he tied a hammock and instructed Verdon to lounge on it. “I also had a basket of apples at the studio that day, and we ended up rolling them all on the floor of the photoshoot.”


color photo of Gicenchy holding a camera to his eye by his pool in the South of France, 1961
Givenchy at home with partner Phillip in 1961.Tony Vaccaro  Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography


Vaccaro struck up a friendship with the French couturier Hubert de Givenchy after photographing him and his designs for various magazines. After one shoot, Vaccaro joined Givenchy and his partner Philip by their pool and taught the designer how to use a camera, which Vaccaro of course documented with his own point-and-shoot.

 
color photograph of Eartha Kitt being dressed by designed Givenchy in his Paris showroom

Eartha Kitt at Givenchy’s showroom in 1961.Tony Vaccaro, courtesy of Monroe Gallery

Vaccaro caught the frenzy chaos of a fitting with superstar Eartha Kitt at Givenchy’s Paris showroom. To the right, you can spot the shutterbug holding his camera, “just having fun.”
The Fashion Train, New York, 1960


color photograph of fashion model in pink outfit and hat with suitcase on a commuter train in NY

Tony Vaccaro’s “The Fashion Train” 1961Tony Vaccaro  Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography


Vaccaro took this picture in 1960 for Good Housekeeping of a fashion model walking through a smoke-filled train. He strove for naturalism in his fashion shoots. “Over time I was able to remove anything artificial – even poses,” he said. “I put my subjects in an environment — their favorite environment — and then I took photos.”


models in colorful Marimekko dresses with colorful umbrellas on a dock in Finland
Tony Vaccaro’s “Fun in Finland” 1965. The model on the left, Anja Lehto, would later become his wife.Tony Vaccaro  Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography


Vaccaro shot many campaigns for the Finnish brand, Marimekko, mainly because he was in love with one of the company’s models, Anja Lehto, shown here on the left. “I met her in 1961, when LIFE magazine sent me to 57th Street, between Park and Madison, to photograph [the brand],” he recalled. “Girl number one came in, did her walk, girl number three, girl number four — I looked at her and said, ‘That’s my wife.’” It took a couple years and photoshoots — Lehto was married to Finnish royalty at the time — but the two got hitched in 1963 and had two children. (She died in 2013.)
38

model with an architectural hat resembling the Guggenheim museum in front of the Guggenheim, NY, 1960
Tony Vaccaro’s “The Guggenheim Hat” 1960 Tony Vaccaro  Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography


Vaccaro had incredible freedom in his photo shoots, and when LOOK magazine sent him this sculptural hat to shoot for a story, he immediately knew he wanted to photograph the model Isabella wearing it in front of his favorite museum, the Guggenheim in New York City.



21 Spring Street, NY


Tony Vaccaro The Centennial Exhibition Santa Fe ongoing through January 15, 2023
112 Don Gaspar Avenue, Santa Fe, NM

Thursday, October 20, 2022

The magazine that gave photography unprecedented power

 Via The Washington Post

October 20, 2022


photograph of covers of 3 LIFE magazine issues
© Ann and Graham Gund Gallery/Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Ann and Graham Gund Gallery
Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


This fact floored me: Between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, according to the organizers of “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography,” an exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, “the majority of photographs printed and consumed in the United States appeared on the pages of illustrated magazines.”

Today, with photographs published and consumed everywhere, it’s staggering to think that their dissemination was ever so concentrated.

Preeminent among illustrated magazines was Life. Published as a weekly news magazine between 1936 and 1972, Life magazine sold in the tens of millions. When you include pass-along readership, its pages regularly reached about one-quarter of America’s population. -- click to continue with full article


Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Through Jan. 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. mfa.org.


Related exhibit: The LIFE Photographers

Monday, October 10, 2022

Bill Eppridge’s Vibrant Portrait of America in the 1960s: A new exhibition charts the legacy of a photojournalist who chronicled the nation during a turbulent era.

screen shot of Blind magazine article on Bill Eppridge wth mourners holding "Goodbye Bobby" signs as the RFK funeral train passes, 1968

 Via BLIND Magazine

October 10, 2022


“A journalist does not necessarily imply ‘artist’ but you are not going to make your point if you cannot make a picture that people will stop and explore,” said Bill Eppridge (1938 – 2013). As one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the 20th century, Eppridge chronicled the breaking stories of his day, helping to shape the way in which the nation navigated a tumultuous era. Whether documenting the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and the Civil Rights Movement or bearing witness to the tragic end to Senator Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign, Eppridge brought a humanistic approach to reporting. (click for full article with photographs)


The Legacy of Bill Eppridge is on exhibit through November 20, 2022

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Tony Vaccaro 100: A Life of a Photographer from War to Culture

 

The Museum für Photographie Braunschweig logo


Via Photography in Berlin

October 1, 2022

color photograph of Tony Vaccaro holding a test stip, NY, 1968


A Life of a Photographer from War to Culture

Curated by Barbara Hofmann-Johnson, Director Museum für Photographie Braunschweig.

The Museum für Photographie Braunschweig shows for the 100th Birthday of Tony Vaccaro (* December 20, 1922 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, lives in Long Island, NY) an exhibition of the American photographer of Italian descent and presents important and award-winning works from different creative phases. These include photographs taken during and after World War II in Europe and important portraits of artists, musicians, politicians and cultural figures.

With a special sense for composition and the connection to the outside space, fashion photographs are also part of Tony Vaccaro’s work. Some of the artistically staged fashion shots are part of the exhibition, especially those that were taken for a documentary for Marimekko, the Finnish design house in the 1960s, are particularly noteworthy.

The exhibition at the Museum für Photographie Braunschweig is created in cooperation and with the support of Tony Vaccaro Studio, New York City, USA and the Monroe Gallery of Photography Collection, Santa Fe, NM, USA.


Museum für Photographie Braunschweig

Helmstedter Straße 1 · 38102 Braunschweig
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 1 – 6 pm, Sat & Sun 11 am – 6 pm
Admission: 3,50 € / reduced 2,00 €. Happy Thursday: Free admission & extended opening hours until 8 pm & guided tour at 6 pm every first Thursday of the month.




Monroe Gallery of Photography will announce two additional major exhibits celebrating Tony Vaccaro's 100th birthday. "Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition" will be on view in Santa Fe, NM and New York, NY - details to be announced

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Gabriela Campos, born and raised in Sante Fe, New Mexico, began cultivating her photography skills in high school and her camera is now a vehicle for telling powerful visual stories

 

color photograph of Gabriela Campos with her cameras

Via Culturelines


Gabriela Campos, born and raised in Sante Fe, New Mexico, began cultivating her photography skills in high school. Seduced by the magic of the dark room film process, Campos slowly (and intentionally) transformed a creative outlet into her lifeblood. Her camera is now a vehicle for telling powerful visual stories, building community, connecting with strangers and showcasing the people and stunning natural beauty of her home state. As a freelance photographer, her incredible work has been featured in several noteworthy publications, including The Guardian, High Country News, Al Jazeera, VICE, The Daily Beast and various local publications. She’s also exhibited in Washington, D.C. alongside fellow photographer Nathaniel Tetsuro Poalinelli. 

I connected with Campos to explore the genesis of her career, her creative vision and the importance of being a homegrown creative. 

When did you know you wanted to be a photographer?

Gabriela Campos: I first fell in love my senior year of high school. I switched to a new high school and they had this program where you could take photography classes at the community college. I was always interested in [photography] because my dad used to be into [photography]. I took black and white number one, got my dad's old Pentax camera and I experienced the beauty and magic of the dark room — where you just watch something come out of darkness. From that first class, I was hooked.

Why is it important to tell New Mexican stories?

Gabriela Campos: Some people are always seeking to go outside of themselves, and they don't see the potential of their home. There are so many culturally significant things in New Mexico. I'm going through a phase where New Mexico is very much a muse. I am so inspired by the people, the places, the textures, the landscape. It's important to tell the stories that you feel passionately about.

How do you build trust when you go into a new space?

Gabriela Campos: There are two different ways that I approach it. For [The Santa Fe New Mexican] newspaper, I have to be thrown into new situations every single day and feel I can create that sort of intimacy. I show up and I'm interested, and I'm curious. I like to ask people questions. I feel genuine interest goes a long way. Because, it's not often that people get to show off their worlds. Sometimes it's about talking to people. Sometimes I go on assignment and I take photos for the first five minutes, but then people just want to sit down and tell me their story, what's really going on in their lives and the worst of their worlds. 

Have you learned a lot from other creatives?

Gabriela Campos: I learn a lot from watching other photographers work. I've been in situations where there's five [or] six photographers and we're all covering the same event. Everybody approaches it a little differently. It's fun to see if people are throwing themselves directly in there, if they're standing far back in the corner trying to get environmental things or if they're trying to get close. I try to remind myself to touch on all the things. Sometimes, I have to say, “step back, show a little bit more, there's more to the story than just people.” 

Why is natural lighting your preferred environment?

Gabriela Campos: When you step into somebody's world, you don't often have the luxury of being able to orchestrate all the details. It's about working with what you have, because then you're never reliant on having a flash or a strobe; you're equipped to do what you need to do anywhere if you just train your eye to seek out that natural light. There's nothing more beautiful, [when] it hits in that perfect way.

What’s better, color or black and white?

‍Gabriela Campos: Sometimes colors can be a little bit distracting. Certain colors, like reds and yellows, are really flashing and people are drawn to them. But maybe you're drawn to it for the wrong reasons. Maybe what I like about the frame is the expression of the person, the shapes, the lines or the way the light hits something. There is definitely a place for colors, because sometimes I'm really attracted to the vibrancy of something. 

Could you ever imagine sitting behind a desk?

 Gabriela Campos: No, I always wanted to be interacting with people and entering people's worlds; photography is the most absolute, ideal situation for that. Every day I get to be something different. Some days, I'm a firefighter. Some days, I'm a doctor. Sometimes, I drive an Impala around. It lets me see life from [different] perspectives. 



Friday, September 9, 2022

LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography October 9, 2022–January 16, 2023

 Via Museum of Fine Arts Boston

3 frames of female welder Ann Zarik with torch, 1943  by Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White, Flame Burner Ann Zarik, 1943

From the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, almost all of the photographs printed for consumption by the American public appeared in illustrated magazines. Among them, Life magazine—published weekly from 1936 to 1972—was both wildly popular and visually revolutionary, with photographs arranged in groundbreaking dramatic layouts known as photo essays. This exhibition takes a closer look at the creation and impact of the carefully selected images found in the pages of Life—and the precisely crafted narratives told through these pictures—in order to reveal how the magazine shaped conversations about war, race, technology, national identity, and more in the 20th-century United States. From Neil Armstrong’s photographs of the historic moon landing to Charles Moore’s coverage of the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations, the photographs on view capture some of the defining moments—celebratory and traumatic alike—of the last 100 years.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Life magazine’s picture and paper archives as well as photographers’ archives, the exhibition brings together more than 180 objects, including vintage photographs, contact sheets, assignment outlines, internal memos, and layout experiments. Visitors can trace the construction of a Life photo essay from assignment through to the creative and editorial process of shaping images into a compelling story. This focus departs from the historic fascination with the singular photographic genius and instead celebrates the collaborative efforts behind many now-iconic images and stories. Particular attention is given to the women staff members of Life, whose roles remained forgotten or overshadowed by the traditional emphasis on men at the magazine. Most photographs on view are original working press prints—made to be used in the magazine’s production—and represent the wide range of photographers who worked for Life, such as Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

Interspersed throughout the exhibition, three immersive contemporary “moments” feature works by artists active today who interrogate news media through their practice. A multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photographs by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel frame larger conversations for visitors about implicit biases and systemic racism in contemporary media.

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” offers a revealing look at the collaborative processes behind many of Life’s most recognizable, beloved, and controversial images and photo essays, while incorporating the voices of contemporary artists and their critical reflections on photojournalism.

The exhibition is accompanied by a multi-authored catalogue, winner of the College Art Association’s 2021 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award. “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” is co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Princeton University Art Museum.


Visit the Monroe Gallery of Photography exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Coming in October: See ‘Life Magazine and the Power of Photography’ at the MFA Boston

 Via Boston.com

August 26, 2022

3 frames of woman welders at work in 1943
Flame Burner Ann Zarik, taken in 1943. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, Life picture collection

The museum displays photos from the archives of the publication that shaped American photojournalism.

The Museum of Fine Arts will display dozens of original photos from Life magazine’s archives in “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” this fall, highlighting Life’s cultural impact and the way its photos shaped American media throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Life printed in some capacity from 1883 through 2000. Published independently until 1936, Life was a light entertainment magazine heavy on illustrations, featuring the likes of Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell. Publisher Henry Luce bought the publication in 1936, turning it into the notable American photographic magazine we know it as today. The first of its kind, it defined photojournalism and chronicled historic moments of the last century, like the moon landing and the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations. Life was the first to publish Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square.”

The exhibit will display original photos alongside objects from Life’s paper archives like assignment outlines, memos, and layout drafts, taking a close look at how Life photo essays were constructed from assignment all the way through to completion. In peering behind the scenes of the magazine’s creation, the exhibit also examines how Life shaped conversations around topics like race, war, technology, and national identity. 

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” also displays three immersive contemporary works interspersed throughout the exhibit—a multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photos by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel all examine modern news media and themes like implicit biases.

The exhibit features the work of photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith, and runs Oct. 9 through Jan. 16 in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.


Related: Monroe Gallery Exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

LIFE Magazine Show Opens At Monroe Gallery Of Photography

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

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.

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Richard Skipper Celebrates the world of Bill Eppridge with Adrienne Aurichio

screen shot of Richard Skipper Celebrates the world of Bill Eppridge with Adrienne Aurichio YouTube page


Monroe Gallery is pleased to welcome Adrienne Aurichio to Santa Fe on September 30 for a talk about the life and career of legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge. The talk opens a new exhibition of Eppridge's photographs that features many new, rare early works.

September 30 - November 20, 2022

 

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Imagine A World Without Photojournalism – Monroe Gallery Celebrates 20 Years in Santa Fe

 


Via The Arizona Photography Alliance

Mark Timpany

August 1, 2022


Most likely readers have seen some or all of the photographs hanging on the wall of the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Gallery co-owner, Sid Monroe will explain, though, that matting, framing, and gallery display transforms these images to something beyond their original use to document a current event. When viewed away from the newspaper or magazine page, multiple levels of meaning are conveyed through these photographs. They provide us with insight into a historical period in today’s world.

The exhibit currently displayed, Imagine A World Without Photojournalism, coincides with the 20-year celebration of Monroe Gallery’s presence in Santa Fe. Michelle and Sid Monroe opened their gallery in New York City but moved to Santa Fe in the aftermath of the terrorist events of 9/11. Their focus has always been on photojournalism. To that end, they have had the advice and support of some of the most noteworthy members of that community, the likes of Alfred Eisenstaedt and Carl Mydans. Some of the earliest advice was the suggestion that such a gallery could not succeed.

The gallery has survived. The current exhibit serves as a retrospective of the shows that have been hung in their transplant location in New Mexico. Viewers will find iconic photos such as Robert Capa’s images from Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Eddie Adams’s Saigon Execution, and numerous photos originally seen in Life magazine to photos from the present day Australian photojournalist, Ashley Gilbertson’s depiction of Officer Eugene Goodman holding back January 6th insurrectionists. The broad range of material serves to communicate the importance of photojournalism in our lives and for the several generations before us. The exhibit is important at a time when journalism is under attack (along with journalists) and lacking in funding.

This exhibit runs through September 18, 2022. For those who cannot make it to Santa Fe during the run of the exhibition, Monroe Gallery has produced a video sampler of many of the images on display. The presentation Threats to Photojournalism with photographers Nina Berman and David Butow took place in the gallery on Friday, July 22 but can be accessed on YouTube. Details on the presentation and the exhibit can be found at the Monroe Gallery website.

Link to article and photos here.



Sunday, July 24, 2022

George Eastman Museum Acquires Ashley Gilbertson's Photograph of Office Goodman: The Storming of The Capitol, January 6, 2021

 

 Eastman Museum 

July/August 2022 Bulletin

"Throughout its history, our institution has collected and exhibited photographs and films that address timely and timeless topics. For example, we have recently acquired the powerful photograph (above) taken by Ashley Gilbertson, who bravely documented the events at the United States Capitol during the insurrection on January 6, 2021."


scan of Eastman Museum July/August 2022 Bulletin announcing acquisition of Ashley Gilbertson's photograph of Office Goodman at US Capiton on January 6, 2021
Ashley Gilbertson (Australian, b. 1978) Officer Eugene Goodman: The Storming of the Capitol, Washington, DC, January 6, 2021. Chromogenic development print, 12 x 18 inches. George Eastman Museum purchase from Monroe Gallery of Photography with funds from the Rusitzky Photograph Endowment Fund. ©Ashley Gilbertson


Sunday, July 17, 2022

Capturing The Front Lines Through The Lens

 

screen shot of Albuquerque Journal article "Capturing the front lines through the lens" about Monroe Gallery photo exhibition "Imagine A World Without Photojournalism"
Via The Albuquerque Journal

July 17, 2022


David Butow photograph through train window of Mother a and son leaving Ukraine in March, 2022
Two of the millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, this woman and her son leave for Poland and a completely unpredictable future. (Courtesy of David Butow)

From the Depression years to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a human through line weaves among heroism, deprivation, power and oppression.

Open at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, “Imagine a World Without Photojournalism” explores those repeated connections through a roster of 24 photojournalists and 44 prints.

The photographs cover an arc of 20th and 21st century social and political change, from the battles of World War II to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, from the Dust Bowl to the devastation of climate change, from the frenzy of presidential elections to the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

“I think of it as a survey of our 20 years in Santa Fe,” gallery co-owner Michelle Monroe said. “We’re reinforcing the power of being educated by a free press. We’re trying to draw parallels between past events and current events.”

David Butow’s haunting portrait of a Ukrainian woman and her son leaving home for an unknown future in Poland reflects the uncertainty of migrants everywhere.

“It’s the heroism of every day people,” gallery co-owner Sidney Monroe said.

“He was in Ukraine covering the exodus when millions of people were trying to evacuate. He just returned from Uvalde, Texas (the site of the latest school massacre, where a gunman killed 21 people). He was also has covered the aftermath of other tragic school shootings.”


Line of African Americans at a Red Cross relief station in front of billboard that says "There's No Way Like The American Way", following flood in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937

Margaret Bourke-White’s 1936 image of a line of African American flood victims lining up for food and clothing beneath a sign touting the “American Way” reveals her ironic and subversive intent. Similar lines formed during the ravages of COVID-19.


Steve Schaprio’s “Stop Police Killings, Selma March, 1965” could have been taken at a Black Lives Matter march.

African - American woman holding a sign that says "Stop Police Killings" during the Selma March in 1965


“It’s never changed; the concept of an armed occupier,” Michelle Monroe said. “They can’t manage power responsibly.”

A photo of floating Zanzibar primary school students holding empty water jugs leads to the treatment of women, particularly in Muslim countries.

Daily life in the Zanzibar Archipelago centers around the sea, yet the majority of girls who inhabit the islands never acquire even the most fundamental swimming skills. Conservative Islamic culture and the absence of modest swimwear have compelled community leaders to discourage girls from swimming. The rate of drowning on the African continent is the highest in the world. The swimming lessons challenge a patriarchal system that discourages women from pursuing things other than domestic tasks.

“It’s a through line to the oppression of women,” Michelle Monroe said.

color photograph of A lone man stops a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, 1989 Beijing, China. (Jeff Widener/AP)

Associated Press photographer Jeff Widener captured the iconic photograph of a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989 Beijing.


Widener was one of just a handful of photojournalists at the site.

“There were very few that got out with their film,” Michelle Monroe said.

“He hid it and let them take other canisters in his bag to get out,” Sidney said.

“That image is completely forbidden in China now,” he continued. “That whole movement has been erased.”


‘Imagine a World Without Photojournalism’

WHEN: Through Sept. 18

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

INFO: monroegallery.com



Friday, July 15, 2022

The human condition through the lens

screen shoot of cover of Pasatiempo magazine with photo of women in yellow clothinng emerging from water in Zanzibar


Via Pasatiempo

By Brian Sandford

July 15, 2022


The 44 photos adorning the walls at the Monroe Gallery of Photography offer an unvarnished look at the human condition — tracing an emotional range from tender love to the fallout of hatred.

Many showcase the human spirit’s perseverance through challenges or trauma, while others are provocative reminders of recent history that some people would rather ignore or forget. That’s part of the point of Imagine a World Without Photojournalism, an exhibit that runs through Sept. 18 and includes a selection of art that has been shown throughout the gallery’s 20-year history.

The Monroe Gallery’s exhibit represents about a century of photojournalism. Gallery co-owners and spouses Sid and Michelle Monroe say the exhibit’s photographs were selected based on “individual universal relevance,” with each representing an important subject of social and political history.

In a way, records of historical events were created by painters for hundreds of years, if perhaps with less fidelity to the truth. As a result, accounts of historical events could come years — even centuries — later. The invention of photography in 1826 changed that, opening the door to real-time documentation of events and the work of photographers such as Mathew Brady, who defined our notion of the in-between moments of the Civil War.


A ma backs away as St. Louis County police officers approach him with guns drawn and eventually arrest him in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 11, 2014;

Whitney Curtis, Rashaad Davis, 23, backs away as St. Louis County police officers approach him with guns drawn and eventually arrest him in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 11, 2014; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


Modern photojournalism, though, began in the mid-1920s with the invention of the Leica, a portable camera using film able to capture movement.

Some photojournalists have gained fame for their work, such as Robert Capa, who documented war and whose photo of chaos on Omaha Beach in France on D-Day is part of the Monroe exhibit. Others are lesser known, despite producing iconic images, such as Eddie Adams. His name might not ring a bell, but his 1968 photo of the street execution of a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon is an iconic symbol of the brutality of war.

Some of those photos might have been viewed differently had they been taken recently, Sid says.

Human condition on display at photography exhibit

An Afghan Woman in blue burqa holds fer Diploma, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998

Nina Berman, Afghan Woman with Diploma, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography

“One of the challenges journalists are facing is just the outright denial of reality,” he says, adding that some visitors get defensive when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

At least one of the images in the exhibit has created a stir elsewhere: A 2019 photo by Grant Baldwin was removed from a public museum in North Carolina in June. It depicts two men kissing at a Pride parade in Charlotte, North Carolina, while people in the background cheer and take pictures.

County Manager Kim Eagle ordered that the photo be removed from the Gaston County Museum, a move backed by at least two county commissioners there.

Men kissing after Mariage proposal at Pride Parade, Aug. 18, 2019

Grant Baldwin, Charlotte, North Carolina, Pride Parade, Aug. 18, 2019; courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


While some images are divisive, Sid says, others are noteworthy for their unifying qualities. He cited as an example the iconic World War II shot of six Marines raising a flag at Iwo Jima, which is included in the Monroe Gallery’s exhibit. Joe Rosenthal captured the image on the Japanese island in 1945.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, “a photographer happened to capture these firefighters who took a flag off a boat that was docked near the towers, and they were putting it up on a column that had survived,” he says. “And then it was immediately seized upon, like, ‘Oh, this is a rally moment for America after 9/11.’ Well, we need [calls to rally]. Because most of these situations require sacrifice. Ukraine requires sacrifice. World War II required sacrifice. And so in order to galvanize the effort, you need that imagery to bring you all together.”

Selecting images for the exhibit wasn’t an easy task.

“You could do an entire museum, like, three floors and 200 pictures, and still not really tell the full story” of photojournalism, Michelle says.

Human condition on display at photography exhibit

A woman hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag (Vaxjo, Sweden, 1985)


Hans Runesson, A woman hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag (Vaxjo, Sweden, 1985); courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography


Part of that story is simply the power of an image viewed on a white wall, not accompanied by distractions on a computer screen.

“I often ask people in the gallery, ‘I wonder who’s benefiting from us thinking that we can’t be friends even though we think differently?’” she says. “As I like to say to my kids, don’t be an unpaid intern for someone. Because that’s what we’re doing for those people that are benefiting from separating us. We haven’t even examined how we really feel.”

The Monroes don’t aim to influence how others feel, they say.

“There’s never an agenda to the exhibit in terms of a viewpoint,” Sid says. “This is what happened. This is history.” 

Officer Eugene Goodman: facing a crowd, The Storming of The Capitol (Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021)

Ashley Gilbertson, Officer Eugene Goodman: The Storming of The Capitol (Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021); courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography

Details

▼ Imagine a World Without Photojournalism

▼ Through Sept. 18

▼ Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave.

▼ 505-992-0800, monroegallery.com

▼ Also, “Threats to Photojournalism,” a panel program with photographers Nina Berman and David Butow, 5:30 p.m. July 22, at the gallery or via Zoom. RSVP required