Tony Vaccaro, who photographed World War II in Europe describes 6 of his photos that reveal the 'insanity of war'

 Via Business Insider

Memorial Day, May 31, 2021

A dead GI in Germany's Hurtgen Forest in 1944. 

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

Michelantonio "Tony" Vaccaro wanted to serve his country with a camera during World War II, so he tried to join the US Army Signal Corps. But under Uncle Sam's rules, the 20-year-old draftee was too young for that branch.

So Vaccaro, the orphaned son of Italian immigrants, became a private first class in the 83rd Infantry Division. By June 1944, days after the first wave of 156,000 Allied troops descended on the beaches of Normandy, Vaccaro landed on Omaha Beach, where he saw row after row of dead soldiers in the sand.

Vaccaro was armed with an M1 rifle. He also brought along his personal camera: A relatively compact Argus C3 he'd purchased secondhand for $47.50 and had become fond of using as a high-school student in New York.

In addition to fighting on the front lines during the Battle of Normandy and the ensuing Allied advance, Vaccaro photographed what he was seeing. At night, he'd develop rolls of film, mixing chemicals in helmets borrowed from fellow soldiers. He'd hang the wet negatives on tree branches to dry and then carry them with him.

When he had enough to fill a package, he'd generally mail them home to his sisters in the US for safekeeping and to ensure the images would survive even if he did not.

                                Then-GI Tony Vaccaro on the wing of a B-17 Bomber in 1944. 

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

From 1944 to 1945, he moved through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.

Along the way, he took photographs that few others — even the press and Signal Corps photographers — were in a position to take: a fellow soldier's last step before shrapnel tore through him, a jubilant kiss between a GI and a young French girl in a newly liberated town, and many stomach-churning portraits of ransacked corpses that still haunt him.

During 272 days at war, he captured thousands of photos. After the Allied victory, he felt sickened and debilitated by the devastation he saw. He wasn't ready to return to the US. And he never wanted to photograph armed conflict again.

He bought a Jeep and traveled with his camera, eventually photographing brighter moments, like the reconstruction of Europe and the beauty in the lives of famous artists and everyday people.

Vaccaro went on to make a name as a fashion and culture photographer. He traveled the world shooting for magazines like Look and Life and taking portraits of bigwigs including John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Georgia O'Keeffe, and many more.

A half-century would pass before Vaccaro began publishing the bulk of his surviving wartime photos. The surviving images have been shared widely, including in the 2016 HBO documentary "Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC. Tony Vaccaro," in which Vaccaro revisits the history that he had to break Army rules to chronicle.

Tony Vaccaro. Manolo Salas/courtesy of Tony Vaccaro Studio

Vaccaro, now 98, survived a bout with COVID-19 last spring that put him in the hospital.

He continues roaming his neighborhood photographing everyday people and selling prints through Monroe Gallery of Photography. From his Queens, New York, studio more than seven decades after World War II, he closes his eyes and thinks of the brutality he documented as an infantryman.

"I see death," Vaccaro told Insider. "Death that should not happen."

Below, he describes six of his photos that he says capture "the insanity of war."

'White Death', Near Ottré, Belgium, January 1945.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

Vaccaro developed the roll containing this image while on leave in 1945. He remembers calling this photograph "Death In The Snow" at first, later deciding that "White Death" was a more "elegant" and fitting name to honor Pvt. Henry Tannenbaum's service and sacrifice. Tannenbaum was killed in action on January 11, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge.

"When I first took this photo of a GI dead in the snow, I was not aware of who he was. What I did was to chip the snow away and look for his right arm, because in those days, [on] the right arm we carried our dog tags. He was Pvt. Henry Irving Tannenbaum. He was one of the soldiers who fought there, just like me. We fought in the snow. He died in the snow. He was my friend. I knew he had a son. … Many years later I got a call from his son."

'Gott Mit Uns', Hürtgen Forest, Germany, 1944

The burned body of a German tank driver, as seen through Vaccaro's lens.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

.

"He's burning. This was frontline. You can smell him. We knocked out his German tank. We knocked it out, and he jumped out of there and fell dead in front of us. He was the pilot of this tank. Similar age [to me]. Here he's gone. … But [before the photograph] I heard him scream, 'Muter, muter.' He was calling for his mother."

"I took cover [by lying down next to him] and read his belt buckle: 'Gott mit uns.' … It means 'God is with us.' [Before the war] I had seen people that die and go to the church, and from church they go to the cemetery, like my father when I was four. This was a different death."

'Final Steps of Jack Rose', Ottré, Belgium, January 11, 1945.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

Vaccaro captured this image of a soldier he identifies as US Army Pvt. 1st Class Jack Rose of the 83rd Infantry Division, still upright, just after shrapnel from a mortar explosion severed his spine. The explosion, visible between Rose and the fence, threw Vaccaro back many feet. Rose, 23, was killed in action.

"That was Jack Rose. The last step. I was photographing him when this shell comes and explodes. He got killed there, in the village. … The shell could have come to me, too. I was lucky."

'Rhineland Battle', Near Walternienburg, Germany, April 1945.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

Vaccaro says the streaking on some of his war photos comes from the grueling conditions he was in — he didn't have time to properly process and store his work in combat — and possibly from water damage due to a flood in the office where the images were stored after the war.

"We were going forward when a shell comes in, in the back, and explodes. This was Rhineland Battle. I was in a hole as the mortar exploded. I raised my arm up with the camera in my hand above the hole to catch this picture. If that shell had come 20 yards over, I was with these two [soldiers seen in the picture], and my hole was here, and if the shell came [where the two soldiers were or where Vaccaro was], I wouldn't be here talking today."

The Family Back Home', Hürtgen Forest, Germany, January 1945.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

When Vaccaro encountered this dead German soldier, it appeared that other American soldiers had already looted his valuables.

"This is a man who we killed in frontline [fighting]. … That was it. The family back home. A dead German soldier with the pictures he was carrying of his family. … Of course I had photos of my family too. … It reminds me of the tragedy of mankind. He's not a German. He's a human being."

"We just must stop using 'I'm Italian. I'm French. I'm Spanish. I'm German.' That's what makes us enemies of each other. We're all humans. In Spain. In Germany. It's a terrible mistake that man has made. We are humans. And nothing else."

'Defeated Soldier', Frankfurt, Germany, March 1947.

Tony Vaccaro/Tony Vaccaro Studio

Vaccaro captured this image after the war, while photographing the reconstruction of Europe for Stars.

"This man came back [from being a prisoner of war in the US]. He's crying. … He gave up. You see where his family had been. The war is over. He came back, and his house had been destroyed. That's why I call this the defeated soldier. He was German. … Later I was told that he lived here."

"The point is, you see, on this Earth there is only one species, one church. Unfortunately we take this one species and create hundreds and thousands of churches, and each one is different from the next. And that's why man is not attaining peace yet."

View the Tiny Vaccaro collection here

Watch the video "Tony Vaccaro at 98" here 

Not standing still: new approaches in documentary photography at the Monash Gallery of Art includes Ashley Gilbertson's photography

 

Via Monash Gallery of Art

On exhibit through May 16, 2021

Virtual tour here

PHOTO is a major new biennial international festival of photography that will activate Melbourne and sites across regional Victoria with the most inspiring photography from Australia and around the world.

MGA’s headlining Photo 2021 exhibition will explore the festival’s theme of ‘Truth’ through the lens of new documentary photography.

Not standing still: new approaches in documentary photography, will introduce Australian audiences to leading photographers from around the world who are making new documentary photography, many never having exhibited in Australia before. This exhibition will place Australian photographers alongside their international contemporaries; spanning 11 countries of origin, these are the photographers who are changing the way we think about photographic storytelling.

Truth is implicitly linked to photography because of its capacity to be a medium of record, but photographers have been using their tools to uncover and reimagine truths through investigative, imaginative and allusive photography.

New documentary photography is about rethinking the traditional ways of representing what the camera sees. Instead of straight documentation, these photographers have sought new ways to show pressing social and political issues, and in doing so are transforming photography itself.

Ashley Gilbertson

 Marine Corporal Christopher G. Scherer, 21, was killed by a sniper on July 21, 2007 in Karmah, Iraq. He was from East Northport, New York. His bedroom was photographed in February 2009. 2009

Included in the exhibition are selections from Ashley Gilbertson's "Bedrooms of the Fallen" series.

In 2004, Australian photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson spent time documenting the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq. Images he made during this assignment won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for ‘best photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise’. During the trip, one of the young marines escorting him was killed. 

War photography is a complex phenomenon. It often relies on the bravura of a photographer to be in the ‘right place’ at the ‘right time’, capturing the action and the adrenaline on film to illustrate the drama of battle. To demonstrate the cost of this drama and to peel back its layers, Gilbertson has photographed bedrooms left behind by 40 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers represented come from America, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Scotland. Their rooms show us what remains of lives cut short, displaying what is not evident in pictures of the battlefield. The familiar and ordinary objects that pepper these images communicate some of the texture of a soldier’s life, which is preserved in these photographed spaces – like an altar or memorial – in a way that a picture of an explosion or even a coffin struggles to convey. 

This series also show us what families cling to, and how memory and remembrance work in the real world of contemporary conflict. Gilbertson’s photographs show an aspect of war that is often secondary to images of battle. In their quietness these images reach no crescendo or catharsis, and so force a shift in pace in both the making and viewing of war photography.

View more of Ashley Gilbertson's work here

Ashley Gilbertson's Photographs of January 6 Insurrection Featured in NY Times and Monroe Gallery Exhibit

Via The New York Times

January 10, 2021

Photographer Ashley Gilbertson witnessed the events of January 6, 2021 that will be cemented into US history while on assignment for the New York Times. See the full series of photographs with an important essay by Timothy Snyder here.

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photojournalist with the VII Photo Agency living in New York. Gilbertson has covered migration and conflict internationally for over 20 years.

Gilbertson's photographs are included in the current exhibition "History Now".

Steve McCurry on Tony Vaccaro in "Unsung Heroes" Project

 Via Digital Camera World

In the behind-the-scenes video below, Steve McCurry talks us through this three choices for the #MyUnsungHeroes project. First up is 98-year-old fellow photographer Tony Vaccaro who is best known for his powerful pictures of World War II – but who hit the news this year as a Covid-19 survivor. In the picture that McCurry takes, Vaccaro is seen holding portraits that he took of Pablo Picasso and Sophia Loren during his post-war career as a fashion & magazine photographer.

 

Video: Steve McCurry takes you behind the scenes of the portraits he shot for the Xiaomi #MyUnsungHeroes portrait project

"One of the things I admire about Tony is that he photographed in virtually impossible circumstances during the war; he even sometimes developed his film in his helmet at night", explains McCurry.

“Heroines and heroes, from all walks of life, are the backbone in this difficult moment when we all need to toughen up and carry on. I would really want to make a memory to make these faces remembered."

The other two heroes he chose were closer to home –his four-year-old daughter Lucia, and his Studio & Exhibitions Manager Camille Clech. 

--Tony Vaccaro celebrates his 98th birthday on December 20, 2020. View the exhibition "Tony Vaccaro at 98" here. A brief bio film about Tony may be viewed on our YouTube channel here.

Monroe Gallery Sponsors FREE Streaming of "Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro"

 

In association with the current exhibition "Tony Vaccaro at 98", Monroe Gallery is pleased to offer FREE streaming of the acclaimed documentary "Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro". 

This offer is limited, please contact the Gallery for details.

UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Tony Vaccaro (trailer). from Cargo Film & Releasing on Vimeo.

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

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

The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone.

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

In addition to numerous interviews with Tony, interviewees include Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario; Anne Wilkes Tucker, a photography curator and curator of the comprehensive exhibition WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY; James Estrin, a Senior Photographer for the New York Times and editor of the Times’ Lens blog; and John G. Morris, who was the photo editor of Life Magazine during World War II and was Robert Capa’s editor.

Tony Vaccaro celebrates his 98th birthday on December 20, 2020.

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES

Tony Vaccaro: Georgia O'Keeffe on her Abiquiu Portal, 1960

Retrospective covers the long, eclectic career of Tony Vaccaro

Via The Albuquerque Journal

December 15, 2019

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When photographer Tony Vaccaro first met Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiú 1960, the artist refused to speak to him for five days.

On assignment from Look magazine, Vaccaro had traveled to New Mexico by train with art editor Charlotte Willard.

O’Keeffe had been expecting a different photographer, one of her favorites, such as Ansel Adams, Todd Webb or Richard Avedon.

Trying his best to charm her, Vaccaro cooked O’Keeffe a steak and fixed her broken washing machine, to no avail.

Suddenly, the topic turned to bullfighting. Vaccaro mentioned he had photographed the great Spanish matador Manolette.

The artist pivoted in her seat to face him. She never looked at Willard again.

“Georgia O’Keeffe kept me waiting for over a month,” the 96-year-old Vaccaro said in a telephone interview from his home in Long Island City, N.Y. “She wanted nothing to do with this kid. At that time I was pretty young and naive. She said, ‘Talk to me about Manolette.’ After that, we became great friends.”

“Extras on the set of ‘8½’,” Lazio, Italy, 1962, by Tony Vaccaro.

That perseverance served Vaccaro well during World War II and on film and fashion sets across a nearly 80-year career. Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is hosting “Tony Vaccaro: La Dolce Vita,” an exhibit of more than 40 photographs through Jan. 19, 2020.

Vaccaro was drafted into World War II at the age of 21. By the summer of 1944, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach six days after the first landings at Normandy. He was determined to photograph the war, bringing his portable 35mm Argus C-3. He fought on the front lines, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches.

When it all ended, he shot “Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, Aug. 14, 1944.”

“I stopped at a cafe and suddenly I see this GI and this little girl kneeling down,” Vaccaro said. “I quickly race there and he started to kiss this little girl three times: to the left and to the right and back again.”

Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944,” by Tony Vaccaro.


Vaccaro credits an abusive childhood with helping him survive the carnage. He was orphaned when he was 4 years old, when he was adopted by an uncle in Italy.

He had no idea how to raise a child,” Vaccaro said. “I was black and blue from this man. I had become like an animal to go into every little hole or corner to survive the war.”

After the war, Vaccaro remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes. Returning to the U.S. in 1950, he started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Vaccaro went on to become one the most sought-after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from President John F. Kennedy and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright.

The 1960s found him on the film sets of Federico Fellini’s “8½” and “La Dolce Vita.” One image shows a bevy of women posing from the windows of a three-story house.

“One of those houses was really a house of ill repute,” Vaccaro said of “Extras on the set of ‘8½.’ ”

His attention turned to the woman displaying her legs from a window on the lower left.

“Those are all wonderful models,” he continued. “I’m aware one of the ladies was a girl who played around with men.”

He still carries a camera and puts in six or seven hours daily without a break, creating prints in his studio and identifying jobs for his staff. On Nov. 1, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

If YOU GO

WHAT: “Tony Vaccaro: La Dolce Vita”

WHEN: Through Jan. 26, 2020

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

HOW MUCH: Free at 505-992-0800, monroegallery.com.

Talking Pictures with Tony Vaccaro

Kenneth Jarecke interviews Tony Vaccaro for "Talking Pictures". Tony's exhibition "La Dolce Vita" is on view through January 26, 2020 - you will also see his work with Monroe Gallery at Photo LA and Paris Photo NY/AIPAD in 2020.

Kenneth Jarecke (born 1963) is an American photojournalist, author, editor, and war correspondent. He has worked in more than 80 countries and has been featured in LIFE magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and others. He is a founding member of Contact Press Images. He is notable for taking the famous photograph of a burnt Iraqi soldier that was published in The Observer, March 10, 1991.

HISTORY IN PICTURES

Carl Mydans

Female French Collaborator Having Her Head Shaved During Liberation of Marseilles, 1944



February 15 - April 7, 2019

“History In Pictures” is a gripping selection of images that brings home the power of visual storytelling. These unforgettable images are imbedded in our collective consciousness; they form a sort of shared visual heritage for the human race, a treasury of significant memories. Many of the photographs featured in this exhibition not only moved the public at the time of their publication, and continue to have an impact today, but set social and political changes in motion. Several of the photographs in the exhibition are consistently referred to as among the most influential photographs in history; they shaped the way we think, changed the way we live, and some were turning points in our human experience.


Looking at the pictorial documentation of such extraordinary events we often get the impression that we are feeling the pulse of history more intensively than at other times. Although often not beautiful, or easy, they are images that shake and disquiet us; and are etched in our memories forever.

View the exhibition on-line here.

PHOTO LA FAIR 2019

Monroe Gallery of Photography is very pleased to exhibit at the Photo LA Fair January 31st - February 3rd, 2019, in The Historic Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, CA.

Monroe Gallery will be located near the front entrance of the fair in Booth #A01.

We are especially excited that Tony Vaccaro will be in attendance during the Fair January  in the gallery’s booth. On Friday, February 1, Photo LA will screen the HBO documentary “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro. (Seating is limited, tickets required from the Photo LA Fair). Also in attendance will be Ryan Vizzions, and we will be exhibiting his photographs from the forthcoming book “No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to Standing Rock”, in addition to selections of his other work.

Rounding out our exhibit will be important civil rights photographs and historic examples of photojournalism.

Photo LA 2019


Opening Night to Benefit Venice Arts
Thursday, January 31 (6pm - 9pm)

Public Hours
Friday, February 1 (11am - 8pm)
Saturday, February 2 (11am - 8pm)
Sunday, February 3 (11am - 4pm)

 Tickets available here

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Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is exhibiting more than 50 photographs by the acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro

Photographer follows resurgent career back to Santa Fe with exhibit

The Albuquerque Journal

By Kathaleen Roberts / Journal Staff Writer

Sunday, November 18th, 2018

Georgia O'Keeffe with Cheese, New Mexico, 1960

©Tony Vaccaro

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When photographer Tony Vaccaro first met Georgia O’Keeffe in 1960, the great artist refused to speak to him for five days.

On assignment from LOOK magazine, Vaccaro had traveled to New Mexico by train with art editor Charlotte Willard.

O’Keeffe had been expecting a different photographer, one of her favorites, such as Ansel Adams, Todd Webb or Richard Avedon.

Trying his best to charm her, Vaccaro cooked O’Keeffe a steak and fixed her broken washing machine, to no avail.

Suddenly, the topic turned to bullfighting. Vaccaro mentioned he had met the great Spanish matador Manolette.

The artist pivoted in her seat to face him. She never looked at Willard again.

“When O’Keeffe found out, she kind of embraced me and that’s when we became the greatest friends,” the 95-year-old Vaccaro said in a telephone interview from his home in Long Island City, N.Y.

Givenchy by the Pool, South of Paris, France, 1961 

©Tony Vaccaro

Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is exhibiting more than 50 photographs by the acclaimed photographer in “Tony Vaccaro: Renaissance,” opening Friday, Nov. 23. The gallery will offer a free screening of the 2016 HBO documentary “Under Fire: The Private Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, followed by a question-and-answer session with the photographer. The show will hang through Jan. 27, 2019.

After that initially frosty meeting, Vaccaro spent a month in Abiquiú photographing O’Keeffe, producing some of her most iconic portraits.

The photographer captured “Georgia O’Keeffe with cheese” while they were traveling. The artist looks playfully at the camera through a hole in a piece of Swiss cheese.

“We had decided to go to the desert for a picnic,” Vaccaro said. “The desert she liked was White Sands. I arranged the catering, the salad, everything, but it began to rain, so we moved into the car. So we had the picnic sitting in the car. I was driving; I looked back and I saw her looking at me through a hole in the cheese.”

Vaccaro kept in touch with O’Keeffe over the years.

“She had an opening in 1971 at the Whitney Museum,” he said. “We were talking. She pulled me away and said, ‘Tony, let’s go see our picture,’ which is the famous one where she holds a famous painting she had made.”

Georgia O’Keeffe with painting, New Mexico, for LOOK, 1960  ©Tony Vaccaro

Vaccaro’s career across the decades included war photography, fashion photography and celebrity portraiture.

ne fashion assignment featured a collection of hats. Vaccaro spotted a spiral-shaped hat resembling a certain building. He asked the slinky model Isabella Albonico to pose in the chapeau in front of the Guggenheim Museum.

He said Albonico sported the longest neck he had ever seen.

“You look at Isabella’s face and you know she thinks it’s funny,” he added.

“I saw Frank Lloyd Wright design the Guggenheim from scratch,” Vaccaro continued. “I photographed it as it went along.”

Guggenheim Hat, New York, 1960

©Tony Vaccaro

The HBO documentary about Vaccaro’s war photography has kindled a career resurgence. He will turn 96 on Dec. 20.

Vaccaro was drafted into World War II at the age of 21. By the summer of 1944 he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach six days after the first landings at Normandy. Vaccaro was determined to photograph the war and brought his portable 35mm Argus C-3. He fought on the front lines, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches.

The result was “White Death, Pvt. Henry Irving Tannebaum, Ottre, Belgium,” 1945, one of the most famous photographs of the war.

“I took that picture and at that time this man had a son who was 1 year old,” Vaccaro said. “Fifty years later I got a phone call saying, ‘I am the son of Mr. Tannebaum.’ He said, ‘Would you take me where you took the picture of my father dead in the snow?'”

He did, only to find the spot had disappeared.

“It was a field of Christmas trees the owner was selling to Portugal,” Vaccaro said. “Fifty years later, it was growing Christmas trees. And it so happens Tannebaum means Christmas tree.”

If you go

WHAT: “Tony Vaccaro: Renaissance”

WHEN: Public reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Jan. 27, 2019.

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

HOW MUCH: Free at monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800

TONY VACCARO AT 95 - WORLD-WIDE EXHIBITIONS

Isabella Albonico flashes a knowing smile in "Guggenheim Hat", one of the new fashion images in the Plaxall Gallery show. ©Tony Vaccaro

Photographer Tony Vaccaro opens a seven week show at the massive Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City on Thursday, July 5 with a 7:00 pm opening reception. After more than 275 international shows in 50 years, it is the first time he will exhibit near his home. "The Maestro" retired to Long Island City in 1982. All sales inquires are handled through the Monroe Gallery of Photography.

The Plaxall Gallery, a jewel of converted industrial space, is organized and administered by the not-for-profit art advocacy group, Long Island City Artists (LIC-A). LIC-A promotes fine art, theater, dance, PTA, Girl Scouts, children's workshops, ESL classes at LaGuardia College, and more. Special thanks for making this show possible go to president Carol Crawford, Edgo Wheeler, Norma Hombergeir dedicated staff.

The Plaxall Gallery
525 46th Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

The Plaxall Gallery is open Thursdays, 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and weekends, 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Currently Mr. Vaccaro is exhibited in Pescara, Italy, and has images at Los Angeles' Annenberg Space for Photography in their Library of Congress show, "Not an Ostrich". Mr. Vaccaro's other solo shows this year include an exhibit of 140 prints at Berlin's Villa Schoningen August 9 - September 9, a 56 print exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery in the heart of London August 6 - September 21, and an exhibition at the Monroe Gallery of Photography November 23 - January 20, 2019 in Santa Fe, NM. During the Monroe Gallery exhibition Tony will turn 96 in December.

The Berlin show is Mr. Vaccaro's largest since his 70th anniversary of D-Day show at Normandy's Memorial de Caen

The Plaxall Show will be the first curated by Tony Vaccaro's daughter-in-law, Maria Vaccaro, and will highlight many of the fashion images discovered by the Tony Vaccaro Studio. Maria has run the Tony Vaccaro Studio since 2016, and has been Tony's darkroom assistant since 1994. The Tony Vaccaro Studio opened in 2015 when Tony, aged 92, allowed his family to access his approximately 500,000 negatives, transparencies, and chromes. View the full Tony Vaccaro collection here.

Plaxall Gallery Hours
Saturday: 11AM – 6PM
Sunday: 11AM – 6PM
Thursday: 6 – 10PM
Closed: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri

Phone: (917) 287-3093

Tony Vacaro's photographs are on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Avenue, Santa Fe, NM. The Gallery is open daily 10 - 5.

1968: It Was Fifty Years Ago Today

Art Shay: "Welcome Democrats", Conrad Hilton Hotel, Chicago, August, 1968

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present “1968: It Was Fifty Years Ago Today”, a major exhibition featuring more than 50 photographs from one of the most tumultuous years in United States history. The exhibition opens Friday, February 2 and will continue through April 15


The year 1968 marked many changes for the United States. It signaled the end of the Kennedy-Johnson presidencies, the pinnacle of the civil rights movement, the beginning of Women's rights and Gay rights, and the beginning of the end of the war in Vietnam. More than that, it meant a change in public attitudes and beliefs. Photojournalism had a dominating role in the shaping of public attitudes at the time. Now, the exhibition comes amid a time of heightened awareness from political, racial, and social tensions.

The year started with the Viet Cong opening the Tet Offensive by attacking major cities of South Vietnam, a move that triggered President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for peace negotiations. Johnny Cash recorded "Live at Folsom Prison", Eddie Adams photographs a Viet Cong officer as he is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. This photograph made headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war. On March 16, the Mai Lai massacre further shocks the nation, and on March 31st, President Lyndon B. Johnson surprised the nation by choosing not to run for reelection. On April 4th, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to riots in Washington, D.C. and other cities. In late April, student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university, only one of many college protests that would unfold across the county.

In June, Robert F. Kennedy, former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator from New York, was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and Bill Eppridge records a lone busboy trying to comfort Kennedy as he lays sprawled on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel. In August, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was marred by clashes between Vietnam War protesters and Mayor Daley's police force. At Mexico City's Summer Olympic Games, African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and bronze medals, then bowed their heads and raised clenched fists during the playing of the U.S. national anthem in protest of U.S. racism. And in November, as the Beatles' "White Album" is released Richard Nixon was elected President with running mate Spiro Agnew, making one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in U.S. history. Finally, in December, Elvis Presley's "1968 Comeback Special" airs on NBC television and Apollo 8 enters orbit around the moon.

In culture, Barbarella, Funny Girl, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary's Baby, and Yellow Submarine dominate the box office; the Fillmore East opens in New York, Hair opens on Broadway, and "Hey Jude" by the Beatles and "Jumpin' Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones top the music charts.

The Marines and Tet: The Battle That Changed the Vietnam War

On January 25 photojournalist John Olsen will speak as panelist at an evening program as part of the Newseum’s newest exhibit opening, Marines And Tet. More information may be found here.

©John Olsen

John Olsen's photograph "U.S.  Marines at the Battle of Huê" is featured in Monroe Gallery of Photography's forthcoming exhibition "1968: It was 50 years ago today", opening February 2 and continuing through April 15, 2018.

“UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" Now on DVD

UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro DVD with Extras – PRE-ORDER NOW

Pfc. Tony Vaccaro played two roles during WWII: combat infantryman and unofficial photographer. At great personal risk, he shot and developed 8,000 photographs from the front lines that showed the camaraderie, the bravery and the tragedy of war – in a way no one had done before. Directed by Max Lewkowicz. An HBO Film.

71 Minutes. DVD Extras included. Closed Captions.

Pre-Order Now. Expected Delivery December 2017.
ORDER Here  $23.99

Directed by Max Lewkowicz (the New York Emmy-winning Morgenthau), UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of PFC. Tony Vaccaro is the remarkable story of WWII infantryman and photographer Tony Vaccaro, who created one of the most comprehensive, haunting and intimate photographic records of combat.

Through interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers and Vaccaro himself, this moving film examines issues raised by witnessing and recording conflict, following him as he retraces his journey across Europe as a soldier, sharing the stories behind some of his most powerful pictures along the way.

Featuring contributions from Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times photographer Tyler Hicks, Anne Tucker, curator of the Fine Art Museum of Houston, James Estrin, of the Times, and John Morris, former photo editor of Life Magazine and Robert Capa. Executive Produced by Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones, Sopranos). An HBO Film.

*Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary.
DVD Special Feature Extras Include:

– Tony Vaccaro Photographer (Alternate Segment)
– Tony with Mike in Normandy (Extended Scene)
– Omaha Beach Landing (Deleted Scene)
– Moment of Death (Extended Scene)
– Gott Mit Uns (In God We Trust) (Extended Scene)
– 83rd Infantry Division Europe Signal Corp Film

Engrossing, unexpectedly moving..." -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Tony Vaccaro's life was forged by pain and courage. Passion saved his life and enriched ours." - Tim Van Patten, director Game of Thrones, The Sopranos
"No one got closer than an infantryman in war, and no one got closer than Tony." -Alex Kershaw, Historian and New York Times best-selling author, "The Liberator"

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to represent the fine art photography of Tony Vaccaro. "Tony Vaccaro at 95" will be on view in the gallery November 24 - January 21, 2018.

September at Monroe Gallery of Photography

The acclaimed exhibition "Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace" has been extended through September 24, 2017.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was honored to welcome Tony Vaccaro to Santa Fe for the opening of the exhibition. Among the highlights of Tony's visit was his return  to the location near Georgia O'Keeffe's home where he made his iconic photograph of Georgia holding " "Pelvic Series, Red with Yellow.

Courtesy of The Tony Vaccaro Studio

In conjunction with the exhibit, Monroe Gallery sponsored two sold-out free screenings of the Emmy Award nominated HBO documentary film “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone. “Underfire: the Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” was recently nominated for the 2017 Outstanding Historical Documentary Emmy.

Tony Vaccaro, now 94, was the keynote speaker at the recent 100th anniversary of the 83rd Infantry Division reunion in Cleveland, Ohio, August 2-6.

Opening October 6,  the gallery is pleased to present a major exhibition of photographs from one of America’s most accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs opens Friday, October 6 with a public reception from 5 – 7 PM, and continues through November 19.

For over 70 years, Art Shay has documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy. The Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in photography. Art Shay, now 95,  will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York October 29, 2017.

At the same time, renowned photographer Steve Schapiro will receive the Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. Earlier this year the Gallery presented the exhibition "EYEWITNESS” to celebrate the completion of a project based on James Baldwin’s 1963 book, “The Fire Next Time”. Steve Schapiro’s photographs documenting the civil rights movement from 1963 – 1968 are paired with essays from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin in a major book  published by Taschen in March.

Monroe Gallery is now representing Ryan Vizzions, a respected photographer who occupies Atlanta’s underground art circles. In 2014, Vizzions was awarded a Readers Pick for Best Fine Art Photographer in Creative Loafing’s Best of Atlanta issue. Beginning in September 2016, Vizzions, 33, went to the front lines at Standing Rock, North Dakota, documenting the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from scarring sovereign Native American land and tunneling underneath the Missouri River. Working as part of the media team for the Sioux Tribe’s Oceti Sakowin Camp, he photographed outside the mainstream media. One of his photograph, titled "Defend the Sacred," has appeared in publications including Newsweek and People magazine’s “Year in Pictures” spread, among others.

August 14, 1944 - 1945

Tony Vaccaro: Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous  celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944

Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace is on exhibit in the gallery through September 17, 2017

Alfred Eisenstaedt/©Time Inc: VJ-Day in Times Square, New York, August 14, 1945

Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro nominated for Outstanding Historical Documentary Emmy

Underfire: the Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro

is available on demand from HBO here.

Tony Vaccaro: War and Peace is on exhibit at Monroe Gallery of Photography through September 17, 2017. M

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a special free encore screening of "Underfire" in Santa Fe on Saturday, August 26 at 3:45 pm at the Center For Contemporary Arts  Cinematheque. Please call the CCA box office for tickets; seating is limited.

NOMINEES FOR THE 38th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Outstanding Historical Documentary

 HBO Documentary Films        

HBO UNDERFIRE: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro 

Director/Producer Max Lewkowicz
Executive Producers Gianna  Cerbone –Teoli, Sheila Nevins, Ann  Oster, Tim  Van Patten
Senior Producer Jacqueline Glover
Producer Valerie  Thomas

NOMINEES FOR THE 38th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED  
Charles Osgood to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

October 5th Award Presentation at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in NYC
 New York, N.Y. – July 25, 2017 – Nominations for the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced today by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).  The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be presented on Thursday, October 5th, 2017, at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Complex at Columbus Circle in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Awards will be presented in 49 categories.

 “Many say we’re in a ‘golden age’ of television and I would argue that the incredible growth of quality, in-depth reporting in broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking has helped drive that change,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. “We live in a continually-connected world where a tweet can set off a firestorm that travels around the world in seconds. These awards are a tribute to the outstanding work being done by these nominees who provide the viewer with thorough, fact-checked reporting, examining the stories of the day from multiple perspectives while never wavering in their quest to provide us with the truth about world events. It is with great pleasure that The National Academy honors the achievements of these many organizations and individuals.  It is an added delight to honor the one-of-a-kind broadcasting career of Charles Osgood, who through his decades as host of the ‘Osgood File’ and as the anchor of ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ has graced many a news story with his innate ability to engage his audience with humor, warmth and credibility.”  

The 38th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards honors programming distributed during the calendar year 2016. 

The list of nominees is also available on the National Television Academy's website: www.emmyonline.tv

Via Emmyonline.com