Monday, November 4, 2013

Springfield Museums All Access: Our time with Bill Eppridge

Bill Eppridge (1938-2013)
Photo by

Via MassLive.com
By Holly Smith Bovè The Republican    
November 04, 2013 at 6:00 AM, updated November 04, 2013 at 8:14 AM



The staff and curators here at the Springfield Museums were saddened to learn that Time Life photographer Bill Eppridge had passed away on October 3. Bill had recently paid us two visits, both in conjunction with our recent exhibit, The Beatles: Backstage and Behind the Scenes. Bill’s work comprised the majority of that exhibit, and we were honored to have him join us just prior to the opening.

On a cloudy day in March, I met Bill and his wife, Adrienne Aurichio, at the D’Amour Museum for a quick meeting before he was due to tape an interview on WGBY’s Connecting Point. Our brief “hello” turned into an impromptu guided tour of the photos by Bill himself. As a Beatles fan, it was truly amazing to hear his recollections of meeting the Fab Four after their arrival at JFK airport, and how they charmed the press corps with their energy and enthusiasm– a far cry from the “drug fiends” that Bill and his colleagues were told to expect. Seeing a potential bigger story to tell, Bill quickly asked his editors at LIFE if he could stay on and photograph the group. Luckily, they agreed, and Bill’s photographs from those first weeks in the U.S. captured a critical moment in our national and cultural history.

Bill charmed all of us in that first meeting, stopping to chat with staff and even taking a picture with some lucky photography students from Sci-Tech who happened to be attending the exhibit. He, in turn, was transfixed by the Indian Motocycles and Rolls-Royces at the Wood Museum; he had always dreamed of owning a vintage Indian.

Holly photo-1.jpg


Bill guides Holly through his Beatles photos at the D'Amour Museum.  
 

Bill returned to the Museums in April for a special talk in conjunction with the exhibit, during which he recalled his time with the Beatles and his many other major assignments. He seemingly covered every major news stories of the time – from the Civil Rights Movement to Vietnam, and from Woodstock to Apollo 13. His photos from even one of those assignments would have been the peak of any photographer’s career, but they were all eclipsed by Bill’s haunting photo of Robert F. Kennedy, mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet, his head cradled by a busboy. Bill spoke with obvious emotion about his time covering RFK’s campaign for president in 1968, and how the candidate inspired a truly diverse group of supporters. On that fateful day in Los Angeles, Bill was only steps behind Kennedy when the shots rang out. Bill was clearly proud of that picture, was haunted by it, and recognized its place in this country’s history.

In an industry where we meet many interesting and inspiring people, Bill truly stood out as one of the most memorable. Wherever he went, he was gracious and accommodating, and he always had his camera at the ready, fully prepared for that next great shot. We at the Museums mourn Bill’s passing, and we feel blessed to have had the chance to not only display his work and meet one of the true legends in his field but also to introduce him to our amazing city and community.

A selection of Bill Eppridge's photographs will be featured in the exhibition "The LIFE Photographers", Monroe Gallery, November 29 - January 24, 2014.

Related: Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Sunday: Dick Stolley tells the story of the Zapruder film

As Jacqueline Kennedy crawls away from her fatally wounded husband, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill jumps onto the back of President Kennedy's limousine, in a frame from Abraham Zapruder's amateur movie of the assassination.
As Jacqueline Kennedy crawls away from her fatally wounded husband, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill jumps onto the back of President Kennedy's limousine, in a frame from Abraham Zapruder's amateur movie of the assassination. (The Sixth Foor Museum: Zapruder (1967); WFAA TV Collection)

(Via CBS News) - "It was the single most dramatic moment of my 70 years of journalism," Dick Stolley, former editor of LIFE magazine, says of his first time watching the film of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Sunday on "Face the Nation," we'll talk to Stolley, who helped the magazine purchase the 26 second film, as well as the granddaughter of the man who captured the most famous home movie in American history.

As offers poured in to purchase the film, Alexandra Zapruder says her grandfather feared his footage would be used distastefully. When Zapruder did hand over film to Stolley and his colleagues at LIFE, the contract mandated that the film be used "consonant with good taste and dignity."

We hope you'll join us Sunday for this special interview. Local listings here.



On the 6:25 from Grand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963
On the 6:25 from Grand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963
Carl Mydans  ©Time Inc.


Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce "The LIFE Photographers”, an exhibition concurrent with the publication of the new book "LIFE: The Day Kennedy Died, 50 Years Later LIFE Remembers the Man & the Moment". The exhibition opens with a public reception and book signing by renowned LIFE editor Richard Stolley on November 29, and will continue through January 24, 2014. The famous Zapruder film first appeared in LIFE, after being acquired by Richard B. Stolley. At the time, Stolley also interviewed Dallas police, Kennedy administration officials, members of the Oswald family, and workers at Jack Ruby's bar.

LIFE magazine photographers had unparalleled access to John and Jacqueline Kennedy, from even before they were married. Fifty years ago on November 22, 1963, in Dallas's Dealey Plaza, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while traveling in a motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline. LIFE magazine, the weekly pictorial chronicle of events in America and throughout the world, was quickly on the scene. The exhibition features a special selection of well-known historical Kennedy photographs and several seldom-seen rare images of the now-famous Kennedy mystique that was "Camelot".

LIFE published an astonishing number of the most memorable photographs ever made, and the exhibition also includes many of these photographs from defining moments of the 20th century. The preeminent LIFE photographers set the standard for presenting us with poignant images that seem to lift right off the page and vividly reflect our society’s mindset at the time.

The exhibition of more than 50 photographs also includes iconic images from World War II, and, of course, Alfred Eisenstaedt's sailor kissing the nurse on VJ Day; powerful photographs from the American South during the Civil Rights movement; memorable images of Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles and many more indelible photographs.



Related: EXCERPTS FROM AN EVENING OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

Friday, November 1, 2013

WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath at Brooklyn Museum




Louie Palu (Canadian, b. 1968). U.S. Marine Gysgt. Carlos "OJ" Orjuela, age 31, Garmsir District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, from Project: Home Front, 2008. Inkjet print, artist's proof, 21½ x 14¼ in. (54.6 x 36.2 cm). The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Joan Morgenstern. © Photographer Louie Palu

Via The Brooklyn Museum
November 8, 2013–February 2, 2014
Robert E. Blum Gallery, 1st Floor
 
WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath explores the experience of war with an unprecedented collection of 400 photographic prints, books, magazines, albums, and camera equipment, bringing together iconic and unknown images taken by members of the military, commercial portraitists, journalists, amateurs, artists, and numerous Pulitzer Prize–winning photographers.

Including the work of some 255 photographers from around the globe who have covered conflicts over the last 166 years, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY examines the interrelationship between war and photography, reveals the evolution of the medium by which war is recorded and remembered, and explores the range of experience of armed conflict: recruitment, training, embarkation, daily routine, battle, death and destruction, homecoming, and remembrance. In addition to depicting the phases of war, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY includes portraits of servicemen, military and political leaders, and civilians and refugees.

The objects on view include rare daguerreotypes and vintage photographs, such as Roger Fenton’s iconic The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855) from the Crimean War and an early print of Joe Rosenthal’s Old Glory Goes Up on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. More recent images include a 2008 photograph of the Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in eastern Afghanistan by Tim Hetherington.

WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath has been organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, curatorial team of Anne Wilkes Tucker, Will Michels, and Natalie Zelt. The Brooklyn presentation is organized by Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum.

Generous support for the exhibition in Brooklyn has been provided by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Exhibition Fund.


  
Perspectives Talk: Ashley Gilbertson
Friday, November 8, 2013 at 2 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052   
Get detailed directions

Monday, October 28, 2013

One-year anniversary photography exhibit on Hurricane Sandy at the Museum of the City of New York



DESCRIPTION
Strong winds and waves unmoored this home from its foundation in the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island. 2012.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

With war photography in the news, wrote Bob Gomel of Life magazine, how about some recognition for Max Desfor of The Associated Press?


Max Desfor  ©Photo Bob Gomel


Via The New York Times Lens Blog
October 28, 2013


It was one celebrated photographer’s salute to another. With war photography in the news, wrote Bob Gomel of Life magazine, how about some recognition for Max Desfor of The Associated Press?

“Max was a great inspiration and mentor,” said Mr. Gomel, 80, of Houston. “He was a sweetheart, a gentle soul.”

Mr. Desfor had won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for photography with his Korean War pictures, particularly the haunting shot of a bombed bridge crawling with refugees (Slide 1).

In 1958, he had offered Mr. Gomel a coveted job with The A.P’s Wide World Division. Mr. Gomel had turned it down for a career in feature photography. Whereupon Mr. Gomel became perhaps best known for his 1969 Life cover, shot from high above, of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s coffin ringed with mourners in the Capitol rotunda. He also photographed the Kennedys, the Beatles, Malcolm X, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), Mickey Mantle and Marilyn Monroe.

“Max is 98,” Mr. Gomel said, and was living in a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md. Full article with slideshow here.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Stephen Wilkes-Bethlehem Steel

 Bethlehem Steel
Stephen Wilkes: Steel Remains, Bethlehem Steel 

Via ArtsQuest
ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks
Stephen Wilkes' photographs are on display in the ArtsQuest Center's second-floor Alvin H. Butz Gallery
101 Founders Way
Bethlehem, PA 18015



This presentation highlights Stephen Wilkes' two-plus year documentation of the former Bethlehem Steel plant, which began as a three-day assignment for Archaeology Magazine. A long successful career leads up to his acclaimed - Day to Night - series.

Biography
Stephen Wilkes is an American photographer known foremost for his series of abandoned structures such as at Ellis Island and the former Bethlehem Steel plant, both of which he has captured as a lost world caught in a sort of visual amber. Wilkes' photo essay on Ellis Island, Ellis Island Ghosts, helped to raise $6 million from the United States Congress for the preservation of the structures on the south side of the island including the former hospital for infectious diseases. His fine art and photojournalism have been featured in such publications as Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine.

Wilkes' awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2004 Lucie Award, and the Epson Creativity Award. His photographs are in the permanent collection of the International Museum of Photography in the George Eastman House, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Griffin Museum of Photography, Jewish Museum of New York, Library of Congress and numerous private collections.


Related:

        "Oh Silent Town of Bethlehem"

        "Stephen Wilkes’ photos in Remembering Bethlehem were stunning … literally breathtaking."

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Robert Capa Centennial Birthday (born Friedmann Endre ErnĹ‘; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954)




Robert Capa, photographer, on a destroyer during the ship arrivals in French beach
for landings and liberation of France, June 6, 1944
 




Portrait of Robert Capa during the Allied liberation of Italy, Naples, 1943
Magnum photo by George Rodger


 (Contact Gallery for print details)


Robert Capa: Magnum

Get Closer: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”                    

New York Times Lens: Robert Capa: Finding a Fearless Photographer’s Voice

The Telegraph: Robert Capa: a giant of modern war photography

The Telegraph: Iconic War Photographs

International Center of Photography: Capa at 100

Robert Capa: International Center of Photography

Friday, October 18, 2013

Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy



Oct 29, 2013 - Mar 2, 2014
1220 5th Ave, Manhattan, NY 10029
 
Presented to mark the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, Rising Waters draws on work submitted by over a thousand photographers, both professional and amateur, who responded to an open call for images in the storm's wake. The juried exhibition features striking before-and-after images of the hurricane's impact on the New York region, including preparations, the storm's destructive effects, and the ongoing rebuilding efforts.

This exhibition is part of the City Museum's ongoing initiative to present the photographic works of people from all walks of life as they capture pivotal moments in the city's history and is presented in conjunction with the International Center of Photography.


Photograph by Amy Medina
Once Again, October 30, 2012
Sayville, Long Island
Photograph by Amy Medina(DangRabbit)
 
 


The exhibit includes several photographs taken by Stephen Wilkes during Hurricane Sandy, including the iconic image of the Roller Coaster in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

45 Years Ago Today: Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympics




Olympic Athletes  Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) raise black-gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who won silver in the 200 meters and supported Carlos and Smith's protest, stands at left


John Dominis—Life Picture Collection

Gold medalist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) raise black-gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who won silver in the 200 meters and supported Carlos and Smith's protest, stands at left


Via LIFE.com

On the 45th anniversary of their Oct. 16, 1968, salute, and in tribute to Smith, Carlos and every other athlete — Muhammad Ali, Eric Liddell, Curt Flood, Sandy Koufax and on and on — who has acted on principle in a highly public way, LIFE.com presents John Dominis’s indelible portrait of that moment.

Smith and Carlos (both of whom are National Track and Field Hall of Famers) were vilified at home for their stand. They were suspended from the U.S. team. They received death threats. But neither man ever apologized for his raised fist or his bowed head — and neither ever had need to.

“We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” Smith said years later, in a documentary on the 1968 Mexico City games produced for HBO. “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag — not symbolizing a hatred for it.”

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Australian silver medalist in the 200 meters in 1968, Peter Norman, stood solidly with Smith and Carlos, both literally and figuratively — displaying his solidarity with their action by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the medal ceremony. Four decades later, in 2006, both Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman’s funeral.

“We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat,” Carlos was quoted as saying at the time. “[Norman] said, ‘I’ll stand with you.’”

Carlos expected to see fear in Peter Norman’s eyes before the medal ceremony, when there was no turning back from what they were about to do. But he didn’t see fear.

“I saw love,” he said.

[MORE: Read Madison Gray's 2010 interview with John Carlos on TIME.com.]

Related:   "A raised arm, black power and Olympic trauma"

                50 stunning Olympic moments No13: Tommie Smith and John Carlos Salute

                The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games


Saturday, October 12, 2013

"one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced"





Photo  ©Timothy Hyde
Congressman John Lewis with Sidney Monroe, Monroe Gallery Booth,
DC Fine Art Photography Fair. To the right of Congressman Lewis' shoulder is:
 
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
 © Steve Schapiro Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights
with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman
 and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965


Photo ©Timothy Hyde
Congressman John Lewis viewing Ernest C. Withers' iconic
"I Am A Man" photograph
 
 
 
 © Steve Schapiro: John Lewis, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1963