Saturday, January 30, 2021
Friday, January 29, 2021
Stephen Wilkes captures Joseph R. Biden's inauguration from sunrise to sunset in one striking picture
Stephen Wilkes
The inauguration, from sunrise to sunset, captured in one striking picture.
Photographs taken over the course of 15 hours are combined in this historic image. "Sometimes it’s this magical serendipity that I have no control over but I am just present for." --Stephen Wilkes
Read the full article on the making of this historic photograph during unprecedented times here.
See Stephen Wilkes' complete Day To Night collection here.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Hollywood Film Re-creates Bob Gomel's Iconic Photograph
January 24, 2021
One Night in Miami is a movie streaming on Amazon Prime. The film, directed Regina King, is a fictional account based on a true story of the events after Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston in February 1964 in Miami.
As you can see in the images above, the movie is based on an actual photograph taken by Bob Gomel. Amazon Studios photographer Patti Perret painstakingly recreated the iconic photograph that appeared in LIFE Magazine.
In the actual picture Sam Cooke and Jim Brown are not in the image as they are in the picture by Perret. The movie is a fictional account based on actual events.
The picture by Bob is featured in the documentary (also streaming on Amazon Prime) Bob Gomel: Eyewitness, as is the entire story leading up and including the fight, as well as, the post fight celebration at The Hampton House where this image was taken.
Bob Gomel owns the rights to the original image. Signed prints are sold through Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.
Bob was not consulted, credited, or compensated in any way in the making of the film or the recreation of the image.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Nina Berman's photographs of January 6 Insurrection featured internationally and in "History Now" exhibit
President Trump's image appears onscreen at a rally outside the White House
January 6, 2021 by Nina Berman
"The normally solemn atmosphere at the Capitol Building was transformed into a scene of chaotic violence unprecedented in modern times on Wednesday afternoon, as a mob of insurgents waving Trump flags, Confederate symbols, pro-Nazi messages, and other symbols of right-wing extremist groups breached the building’s security, halting proceedings to certify Trump’s defeat and forcing lawmakers to take cover as they were evacuated to safety with gas masks, as violent protesters roamed hallways, smashed windows, and destroyed Congressional property." Via National Geographic
"America First" Flags at Capitol Insurrection, Washington, DC,
January 6, 2021 by Nina Berman
"We are part of a team of researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Columbia University’s Engineering and Journalism schools that has been developing a tool called VizPol, which helps journalists identify unfamiliar political symbols, since April 2019. Nina had the idea to help improve journalists’ understanding of visual political symbols at a right-wing rally in 2018 after she saw a TV journalist fail to point out a contradiction between what an interviewee was saying and what a symbol she had tattooed on her forearm suggested about her political beliefs. As part of keeping the app’s database up-to-date with the constantly evolving landscape of symbols, we have paid close attention to the various symbols appearing at political rallies across the political spectrum in the United States." Via Vice News
Monday, January 11, 2021
Ashley Gilbertson's Photographs of January 6 Insurrection Featured in NY Times and Monroe Gallery Exhibit
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".
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Santa Fe Workshops Presents: Perspectives — Stephen Wilkes Day to Night, through Ellis Island, to "Jay Myself”
January 12 - 15, 2021
In a world where humanity has become obsessively connected to personal devices, the ability to focus in a profound and contemplative way is becoming an endangered experience. These three lecture-format presentations promise to provide an engaging alternative to that trend.
Over the course of three days, fine-art and documentary photographer, National Geographic Society explorer, and filmmaker Stephen Wilkes takes you on a deep dive into his most important bodies of work.
Each day Stephen provides an exclusive in-depth look at his creative and technical processes, imbued with treasured stories and inspiration about a single project. This format allows him the rare opportunity to share the rich details of each one and weave them together to showcase the arc of his iconic career.
Day One - Day to Night
Day to Night represents Stephen's 10-year personal journey to capture fundamental elements of our world through the span of 24 hours, as light passes in front of a lens over the course of a full day. This synthesis of art and science is an exploration of time, memory, and history, as witnessed through the daily rhythms of our lives. For Stephen, it also became a meditation. The concept of Day to Night has redefined the medium of photography, melding aesthetics and technology to create a new way of seeing time, capturing history, and using imagery to convey a narrative. Blending these epic images of cityscapes and landscapes into a single photograph is a process that takes months to complete. Day to Night has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and exhibited around the world.
Day Two - Ellis Island
We explore Stephen's critically acclaimed photographic documentary project capturing the abandoned infectious disease hospital on Ellis Island. In 1998, a one-day assignment to the south side of Ellis Island led to a five-year photographic study of the island’s abandoned medical wards, where immigrants were detained before they could enter America. The project, which was featured on NPR and CBS Sunday Morning, eventually became Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, named one of the top 10 photography books of 2006 by Time magazine. Stephen served for five years on the board of directors for Save Ellis Island.
Day Three - Jay Myself
A special screening of Jay Myself is made available for participants to watch between the webinar's second and third presentations. Then Stephen shares his fascinating story about the making of the film and his enduring 40-year friendship with its subject, Jay Maisel. The film charts the arduous logistical and emotional journey of Maisel—himself a renowned photographer—as he moves out of his six-story, 72-room home in New York City's Bowery. Variety's film critic Owen Gleiberman said: “After watching Jay Myself, you yourself may begin to see the world in a whole new way, as if you’d woken up to all the images that might have been invisible before, but only because you passed them by.”
These three presentations by a visionary photographer and filmmaker leave an inspirational and indelible mark on all who choose to open their eyes and minds to his technical and artistic mastery. You are invited to join Stephen and experience an unforgettable photographic journey through time. Tune in and let’s get busy!
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Fighter with a camera: Renown photographer, who battled COVID-19, will celebrate turning 98 with a virtual show
By Kathaleen Roberts
January 3, 2021
“The Violinist,” 1947, by Tony Vaccaro. Courtesy of Monroe Gallery
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Tony Vaccaro reigns as one of the few people to have battled both COVID-19 and the beaches of Normandy.
The photographer will celebrate his 98th birthday with a virtual show at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography through Jan. 17, at monroegallery.com.
Vaccaro contracted Covid early in the pandemic – in April. He spent two days in the hospital.
He couldn’t walk from room to room,” his daughter-in-law Maria said in a telephone interview from their home in Long Island City, New York. “He just stopped eating and had no energy.”
Vaccaro survived, despite a 103-degree fever.
“I am a runner,” he explained. “I’ve been running since I was a child.”
“Peggy Guggenheim, Venice, 1968” by Tony Vaccaro
Courtesy Monroe Gallery
He’s also a fighter who carried a camera from the invasion of Normandy through the reconstruction of Europe, capturing some of the most iconic images of World War II. Drafted at 21, he brought his 35mm Argus C-3 camera with him, spending the next 272 days photographing his personal witness to the carnage. He fought on the front lines, developing his photographs in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches.
Photographer Tony Vaccaro
Photo by R. David Marks
“Normandy to Berlin was just tough,” he said, “because you could get killed any minute. I was in the infantry and in direct contact with the Germans.”
After the war, he remained in Europe, covering the rebuilding of Germany for Stars and Stripes. It was in Italy that he heard the strains of a violin coming from a narrow Venetian street.
“I was in Plaza San Marco in Venice,” he said. “And I had an idea of going into the small streets. So I go in and there was a violinist playing, of course, for people to throw down money. When I heard this violinist, it intrigued me. I went into the tiny streets of Venice and don’t you know, I had met him before in Rome.”
He captured his famous portrait of an American GI kneeling to kiss a little girl by accident. He came upon residents of St. Briac, France, singing and dancing in the streets after the 1944 liberation.
“Kiss of Liberation,” 1944, by Tony Vaccaro
Courtesy Monroe Gallery
“There were these people holding hands and singing a song in French,” Vaccaro said. “Here’s this GI who knows not one word of French. They put a handkerchief under the knees of the little girl. It’s the symbol of a carpet for ladies.”
It was the Handkerchief Dance.
When Vaccaro returned stateside, he worked as a commercial photographer for Look, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek and more.
His portrait of the art patron Peggy Guggenheim features a hidden joke. On assignment to do a profile, he followed her to the Guggenheim Museum in Venice. A statue by the Italian sculptor Marino Marini guards the entrance.
“There’s a man on a horse and he’s naked and his penis was as long as half my arm,” Vaccaro said. “She had this habit of whenever she had new guests, she unscrewed it.”
Guggenheim expected a children’s tour group, so she unscrewed the phallus and hid it beneath her cloak. It’s concealed under the garment in Vaccaro’s picture of Guggenheim in the gondola.
“She didn’t want the children to see it,” he said.
“Georgia O’Keeffe, Abiquiú, New Mexico, 1960” by Tony Vaccaro
Courtesy Monroe Gallery
Vaccaro met Georgia O’Keeffe on assignment for Look magazine with art editor Charlotte Willard in Abiquiú in 1960.
The artist refused to speak to him for five days.
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, Vaccarro cooked the artist a steak and fixed her broken washing machine, to no avail.
“Georgia O’Keeffe at the very beginning didn’t want anything to do with me,” he said. “She didn’t even look at me. She had just left her husband.”
“Guggenheim Hat, New York, 1960” by Tony Vaccaro
Courtesy Monroe Gallery
Suddenly, the topic turned to bullfighting. Vaccaro mentioned he had photographed the great Spanish matador Manolete.
O’Keeffe pivoted to face him. She never looked at Willard again.
Vaccaro still works and goes for regular walks.
“I am shooting, but not as before,” he said. “Before it was survival. Somehow, I have an eye for what’s good before I can click it. I have seen so much that it is really an instinct.”
As for Covid, he said, “I have an idea that the body forgets what it doesn’t like.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Tony Vaccaro at 98”
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe
WHEN: Through Jan. 17
CONTACT: monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800.
Friday, December 25, 2020
The "BEST" Photos of 2020/Pictures of the Year 2020
2020 was a year most of us would like to forget, but if you would like to review the year in photographs there are plenty of sources. After taking 2019 off, we present our annual compilation of the Year in Photographs.
Visit our current Virtual Project to view "History Now', an on-line exhibit with three highlight photographs of 2020 by Monroe Gallery photographers Ashley Gilbertson, Gabriella E. Campos and Ryan Vizzions.
Is this the Picture of the Year?
The Guardian: Butterflies, bushfires and bears: Age of Extinction's year in photography
Haaretz Photographers' Top 2020 Photos
BBC: 2020 in pictures: Coronavirus in the UK
New Atlas: The best photography of 2020
MIT Technology Review: A look back at our best photography of 2020
Santa Fe New Mexican: 2020: The year in photos
Texas Monthly: The Photographs That Stopped Us in Our Tracks in 2020
CNET: 2020: The year in pictures, from lockdowns and protests to vaccines and hope
The Guardian: My best pandemic shot: Guardian and Observer photographers' take on 2020
Face off! The best Guardian portraits of 2020 – in pictures
South China Morning Post: This was 2020: the biggest pictures from around the world
BBC: Striking News Photos from around the world in 2020
NY Times: Photography From the Year Time Stopped
NY Times: Our Favorite Arts Pictures of 2020
CRUX: Pope Francis in 2020: A pandemic year in pictures
Reuters: Our oddest photos from 2020
TRTWORLD: In pictures: 2020 in review
Aperture’s Best Photography Features of 2020
The best photos of 2020 from Tampa Bay Times photographers
BuzzFeed News: The Best Photo Stories From This Year
BuzzFeed News: The Most Memorable Photo Stories We Published This Year
Sydney Morning Herald: Photos of the Year 2020
NIKKEA Asia: 2020 in pictures: A year of coronavirus, shifting politics and more
AnOther: Ten Art and Photography Projects That Perfectly Captured Life in 2020
LA Daily News: Photos: Staff photographer Keith Birmingham shares his images of the year 2020
Albuquerque Journal: FACES OF 2020 Journal photos express a year in crisis
Le Monde: 2020, une année en photos
Irish News: The stories behind the best photographs of 2020
Irish Times: 2020 in pictures: Irish Times photographers select their images of the year
InForum: The Forum's Pictures of the Year
The Guardian: Australia in 2020: bushfires, Covid and Black Lives Matter – in pictures
Our favorite photos from 2020: how Guardian US saw the year
The Guardian: The best photography and architecture of 2020
Foreign Policy: The Global Pandemic: A Year in Photos
The Times: My 2020 in pictures: Times photographer Jack Hill
BBC Science: The best scientific images of 2020
BBC: 2020 in pictures: The defining moments that changed Asia
NBC News: 2020's Year in Pictures
Euro News: In pictures: 2020's biggest news stories month by month
UPI: Pictures of the Year: Top images from 2020
UPI: UPI Pictures of the Year 2020 - NEWS & FEATURES
Forbes: 2020 In 20 Pictures: The Formidable Faces Of Young Power
The Guardian: The best photographs of 2020 – and the stories behind them
AP: Year End Latin America & Caribbean Photos 2020
New Yorker Photography in a Year of Crisis
NonDoc: Visuals of our culture: 2020 in photographs
Forbes: 2020 In 20 Pictures: The Formidable Faces Of Young Power
Chicago Sun Times: 2020 in photos: An unprecedented year
LA Taco: L.A. 2020: PHOTOS THAT CAPTURED OUR CITY’S BEST AND WORST YEAR
2020 in pictures: A journey through a year like no other in Pittsburgh
Philadelphia Inquirer: The pictures that captured 2020
Philadelphia Inquirer: 2020: Our photographers’ favorite pictures of the year
Baltimore Sun: The Aegis' 2020 Pictures of the Year
The Times UK: A year like no other: 2020 in pictures
India Today: A flashback at the year 2020 | Pictures from across Asia
Newsroom: Voting and the virus: 2020 in pictures
El Pais: 2020 en imágenes. Cuando todo se desmoronó (2020 in pictures. When it all fell apart)
The Scientist: 2020 in Pictures
Yahoo: 25 of the most powerful images of 2020 capture a year we'll never forget
TIME's Top 100 Photos of 2020AlJazeera: 2020 In Pictures: The best photos from around the world
2020 in photos: The best images from Spartanburg Herald-Journal photojournalists this yearCenter: 2020: A Year in Photos
Gulf News: 2020 in review: The finest landscape photography of the year
Natives Photograph 2020 Year in Pictures
AP: Virus casts shadow over AP's Picture of the Year in Asia
NY Times: 2020 In Pictures: A Year Like No Other
NY Times: 2020 in 12 Photographs
NY Times: Thousands of Photographs, and a Year Like No Other
Women Photograph: 2020 Year in Pictures
Vice: An Incomplete Timeline of the Moments I Remember From 2020
Relief Web: Photo story: A year in pictures 2020
Getty Images: 2020 Year in Review Video
AnOther: The Best Photo Stories of 2020, Documenting Youth Culture
Radio Free Europe: 2020: The Year's Best From RFE/RL's Photographers
AFP: 2020 PICTURES OF THE YEAR
BBC: The most striking images of 2020
The Atlantic: Hopeful Images From 2020
The Atlantic: 2020 in Photos: Wrapping Up the Year
The Atlantic: Top 25 News Photos of 2020
The Atlantic: 2020 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded
New Atlas: Little things, grand visions: The best small photography of 2020
The Whyy/PBS: A camera, a mask and 2020’s most enduring image
World Economic Forum: 10 of this year’s best pictures on the environment
The Lutheran Reporter: Photo essay: A photographer’s look back at 2020
KSAT: 29 moving images that paint the picture of an epic 2020
WCBD News 2: AP: 2020 in pictures
Denver Post: 2020 Year in Photos Part 1
Year in pictures: Photos from azcentral photographers in 2020
My Modern Met: Best of 2020: Top 60+ Photographs From Around the World
The Independent: Canon photographers capture the highs and lows of 2020
CNN: 2020 The Year in Pictures
NY Times: The Most Important Moments in Art in 2020
The Guardian: The winners of the 2020 RAF photo competition have been chosen.
The Guardian: Agency Photographer of the Year 2020 – shortlist
The Guardian: Earth Photo 2020: nature photography winners – in pictures
UPI Pictures of the Year 2020 - NEWS & FEATURES
UPI Pictures of the Year 2020 - U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The Independent: AP photographers capture a sports world disrupted in 2020
NY Post: AFP’s best photos from 2020 highlight crazy year
Sun Sentinel best of 2020 | PHOTOS
Marblehead Photos of the Year, a look back at 2020, by staff photographer David Sokol
National Geographic: These are the history-defining moments that shaped 2020
National Geographic: Best Travel Photos of 2020
National Geographic: Best Science Photos of the Year
National Geographic UK: These are our best animal photos of 2020
The Guardian: 2020 Historic Photographer of the Year Awards
Republic World: IN PICTURES | 2020: A Year In Isolation And A Never-ending Wait
Rueters: Pictures of the year: Life under coronavirus lockdown
Rueters Pictures of the year 2020
Rueters Pictures of the year: Sports
Rueters Pictures of the year: Oddly
Anadolu Agency's best pictures of 2020
Photos: Emerald’s 50 best of 2020
Tulsa World Chief Photographer Tom Gilbert’s most memorable photos of 2020
CNN: Virtual vacation: Amazing photos from a strange year for travel
The Scotsman: Arts review of 2020: The best photography books of the year
Smithsonian: The Ten Best Photography Books of 2020
The Times UK: Best photography books of the year 2020
LensCulture: Favorite Photobooks of 2020
Photoeye Favorite Photo Books of 2020
Buzzfeed: Here Are 20 Photo Books That Brought Us Joy In The Very Exhausting Year Of 2020
Insider: 50 of the most incredible photos captured in 2020
The year in pictures: AP photographers captured a world in distress
Arizona Daily Star: Photos: Rebecca Sasnett's Fave Five photographs from 2020
The Atlantic: Winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020
The Guardian: Landscape photographer of the year 2020 – in pictures
The Guardian: Weather Photographer of the Year 2020 – in pictures
National Geographic: See the best wildlife photos of 2020
The MARS 2020 Comedy Pet Photography Awards
The 2020 Audubon Photography Awards: Top 100
New Atlas: Travel back in time with the best historic photography of the year
Wonderwall: THE BEST PHOTOS OF GLOBAL ROYALS IN 2020
Friday, December 18, 2020
"Bob Gomel has been a witness and participant in it all, albeit with a front row seat to history and the perspicacity of a seasoned observer."
Bob Gomel was the go-to photojournalist for LIFE magazine in our state in the 60s, covering The Beatles on their first U.S. tour and then Cassius Clay on the night that he became Muhammad Ali.
Via Naples Florida Weekly
December 17, 2020
By Evan Williams
PHOTOGRAPHY HAS LONG BEEN A mass medium, but absent the cost of developing film or making prints, the digital revolution allows people now to practice it almost as freely as writing. Debates continue to percolate about the qualities of a phone camera compared to compact cameras and more expensive tools of the trade, with a resurgence of film formats that counter a growing digital revolution, not to mention the social ones.
Bob Gomel has been a witness and participant in it all, albeit with a front row seat to history and the perspicacity of a seasoned observer. A photographer for LIFE magazine from 1959 to 1969, his iconic images of presidents, sports stars and mop-topped pop singers are among many others in a storied career.
In October on a webinar in Houston to announce a new documentary about his career, “Bob Gomel: Eyewitness,” he was asked about the equipment he has been using and how technology has made the art form more democratic than ever.
The Houston, Texas resident, age 87, shoots digital these days.
Photographer Bob Gomel covered The Beatles’ first appearance in the United States, capturing this photo of Paul, Ringo, George and John in Miami Beach in 1964. COURTESY PHOTO / © BOB GOMEL
“I think talent will prevail,” Mr. Gomel said. “There is a lot more competition out there and a lot more outlets (for photographers). But there are still exceptionally wonderful examples of the best photojournalism available, and I see every day pictures that I would have been proud to call my own. The technology allows more capability perhaps than we had with film. However, it is still the mind of the artist that is the governing factor, not the equipment.”
He added that a well-known writer he had worked with once asked him what type of camera he was using.
“I answered him by saying I had read his most recent article and I was curious about what typewriter he used to tell that story,” Mr. Gomel said, “and I think he got the point right away.”
Some of his favorite photographs appear in his old hometown paper, The New York Times, which he still reads regularly, and National Geographic. Mr. Gomel spoke more about his life and career with Florida Weekly on a phone call in October.
Photographer Bob Gomel traveled with President Kennedy and his inner circle along the Florida coast, making this image. COURTESY PHOTO / © BOB GOMEL
End of an era
In a pre-internet world, the gushing firehose of content that floods our sightlines on social media now was narrowed to a relative handful of prestigious print newspapers and magazines: the gatekeepers of content and culture in the 20th Century United States of America.
The era was a world of its own. And when it came to photojournalism, LIFE magazine was at the pinnacle, even if photojournalism was shunned by fine art galleries. That line still exists even as it continues to blur.
“The entire journalistic landscape has just changed dramatically since that era,” said Sid Monroe, co-owner of the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., which has mounted several solo and group exhibitions of Mr. Gomel’s work.
“You had institutions in that time like LIFE and even Walter Cronkite for the TV news, they were just seen as the towers of information. It is almost like rolling all the social media into one package because (LIFE) covered politics, it covered disasters, it covered if there was a hurricane, if there was a society wedding; it would cover the latest Hollywood movies, it would cover the Royal family; and it would go to the ends of the earth to cover stories that normally people wouldn’t be exposed to.”
Photographer Bob Gomel remembers covering events in Florida, and discusses his experiences in the documentary “Bob Gomel: Eyewitness,” available on Amazon Prime for viewing. COURTESY PHOTO / © BOB GOMEL
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Mr. Gomel is among fewer than 100 men and women who worked for the weekly magazine during its heyday, from 1936 to 1972. LIFE is now an online only archive.
Mr. Gomel jokes, but truthfully, that the average age of a LIFE staffer these days is “deceased.”
“It’s the end of an era, a very wonderful era,” he said.
The job at LIFE was as competitive and demanding as you might expect. In the 1960s, Mr. Gomel traveled with President Kennedy and his inner circle along the Florida coast, visiting Cape Canaveral, before later ending up at Rice University in Houston.
Photographer Bob Gomel became friends with boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who he found to be funny and gracious. He is shown photographed here with Gomel’s son Corey as a toddler on the boxer’s lap. Many of his photos ran on the covers of LIFE, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, below. COURTESY PHOTO / © BOB GOMEL
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” the President famously said there.
Mr. Gomel recalled the scene when JFK would get off at a local stop along the way.
“So I’m three feet in front of the President, walking backwards,” he said, “and the local guys are saying, ‘give us a break.’ But I couldn’t do that because God forbid something happened in that moment and I missed it. I certainly respected my fellow professionals but I didn’t give any ground either. I felt obligated to stay, to the best of my ability.”
In August the year after President Kennedy was assassinated, Mr. Gomel found himself at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J., photographing the keynote speaker, Senator John O. Pastore of Rhode Island. In doing so, he blocked the view of an annoyed spectator and famous actor.
“I was just a few feet step down from where (the Senator) was and I wouldn’t take my eye off him for one second, looking for a great expression,” Mr. Gomel said. “And who was sitting behind me but Paul Newman. And he said, ‘sit down already, get out of my sight,’ and I did not. And Newman ended up throwing his program at me. I still didn’t back off … It might seem callous and rude and an amateur wouldn’t do that. But my boss at LIFE said to me one time early on in my career he didn’t want any excuses, ‘come back with the picture.’ And I never forgot.”
His picture of Senator Pastore later won best news photo of the year from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
In Miami
February 1964: LIFE sent Mr. Gomel from his Long Island home in Merrick to Miami to photograph The Beatles during the band’s first appearance in the United States. Nine days later, he was watching Cassius Clay (Ali) make good on his promise to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” as he beat Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight boxing title.
On Feb. 16, The Beatles performed in front of more than 70 million viewers for The Ed Sullivan Show at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach — a reprise of their U.S. television debut on the show in New York on the Feb. 9.
Mr. Gomel photographed them in the days that followed, first at a private residence with a pool. The Beatles were in their early 20s, pale, skinny and uncertain, but enjoying Florida with its balmy weather and palm trees.
“That was just like paradise because we’d never been anywhere with palm trees,” Paul McCartney says in a video from the time on YouTube.
The most well-known Bob Gomel picture of The Beatles depicts the four lads in chaise lounge chairs catching some rays.
“They were very willing to cooperate finally when we got to the pool and they wanted to know what to do,” Mr. Gomel said. “So my reaction was ‘go have fun,’ and that’s exactly what happened. And I found myself just recording them doing cannonballs and silly things.”
The next day they headed for North Miami Beach for another shoot.
“It was chaotic,” he remembers. “We thought we’d go in an area where they had some peace and quiet. But these young ladies spotted them and pretty quickly a crowd formed and it was mayhem until escorts, police escorts were able to extricate them and get them back to the hotel. But it was a fun experience, and I was very moved by that phone call many, many years later from one of the young ladies’ parents.”
That young lady was Ruth Ann Clark, age 16 that day on North Beach when she planted a kiss on Paul McCartney’s cheek. Mr. Gomel captured the moment but those pictures would not be published for another 51 years.
“The editor of LIFE, God bless him, he did not care much for the Beatle phenomenon,” Mr. Gomel said.
Later that year, Clark moved with her family from Miami to Portland. She died in 2005 in Elkton, Ore.
Her parents were never convinced of her story about meeting The Beatles. When some of the photographs finally appeared in Closer magazine in 2015, they were surprised to find out the truth. Mr. Gomel ended up providing the family with additional photographs from that time.
On Feb. 25, after shooting the heavyweight title fight at Convention Hall on Miami Beach, Mr. Gomel traveled with the fighter and crew back to the historic Hampton House, which was in the so-called Green Book, a list of motels in the U.S. where Blacks were allowed to stay.
The party got to the hotel close to midnight, Mr. Gomel recalls, and he was the only member of the press in attendance. Ali was hamming it up and the whole crew was pushed into the hotel café, where Mr. Gomel jumped up on the counter and took his best-ever selling photograph: Ali’s close friend, Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, snapping a photo of a celebratory Ali.
“Funny things you remember,” Mr. Gomel said. “Rahmin, his (Ali’s) brother is sitting off to Ali’s left and Rahmin is having a glass of milk. I think in my frame in the far right corner there’s a glass of milk. You can’t see Rahmin, he was chopped out.”
It was in the first few hours of the next day when Mr. Gomel returned to his hotel. The picture of the two icons would later end up selling more than any of his other photographs through an art gallery that promoted the work.
But like those shots of the Beatles, LIFE chose not to publish it. A few of Mr. Gomel’s favorite shots of JFK were initially overlooked as well.
“We shot hundreds of pictures every day and they were sent up to the main office,” Mr. Gomel said, “and there was editing or deadlines and such and a lot of things were deemed not appropriate or fitting at that moment to those editors.”
He too remains uncertain why that picture of Ali and X rose to greater fame than so many other pictures in a career full of powerful and iconic moments.
“I am still hard pressed to understand why this picture outshines everything else that I’ve done from the point of view of sales.”
Mr. Gomel got to know Ali, who he found to be funny and gracious, and photographed his son Corey as a toddler on the boxer’s lap. Many years later, Corey went to a conference in Houston where Ali would appear, to get the picture autographed. This time Ali was ravaged by Parkinson’s Disease. As the family story goes, he looked at the now grownup Corey and quipped, “You still ugly.”
Woke
Mr. Gomel can pinpoint the moment in grade school when he awoke to the medium. He was looking at a picture but there was nothing overtly special about it. Just a pigeon and a manhole cover.
“It was taken by my teacher and his name I remember to this day was Mr. Fields,” Mr. Gomel said. “He was an amateur photographer, obviously, but fortunately he printed his pictures. And this particular print he referred to was sepia toned and truth be told I can see that in my mind’s eye as if I’m looking at it right now. I was smitten by the power of that image… I knew from that moment on that photography would be my calling, that’s how it started.
“On my travels these many, many years later in retirement so to speak, I found a pigeon on a manhole cover and I made that photograph. It became a full circle from the inspiration that started my (career) to finding something very, very similar in India.”
He continues to draw inspiration from many photographers. He described street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s iconic book “The Decisive Moment” as “one of the most exciting visual experiences I can think of.”
Some of LIFE’s early photographers also became mentors.
He recalls one lesson learned from Yousuf Karsh, a portrait photographer who took a famous picture of Winston Churchill.
With just 15 minutes to achieve the striking portrait he was after, Karsh unexpectedly reached out and yanked the cigar right out of Churchill’s mouth, Mr. Gomel said:
“Churchill’s expression was as stern as could possibly be. Now that particular photograph was the inspiration for England to persevere against that horrible bombing they went through night after night. He knew exactly what he was after and he figured out a way he could achieve those results. And that’s what I try to do before I pick up that camera.”
Getting the job at LIFE
Mr. Gomel was born in 1933 in Manhattan. His father was an optometrist and his mother taught history and civics in the New York City Public School System. He had one brother, five years his junior.
The first inklings that he was interested in images came in the form of drawing on a roll of wrapping paper that he and his mother put up in their hallway.
“I remember very clearly using pastel crayons to do the pictures of what I imaged the Pilgrims would be like, perhaps meeting the Indians, and that was my first expression of any kind of artistic interests.”
His family had one of the famous Kodak Eastman Brownie cameras, known for introducing “the snapshot to the masses,” Wikipedia says. One winter he delivered groceries to buy his first camera with full controls. His family agreed to let him turn a closet into a darkroom to develop film.
At New York University, he earned a degree in journalism in 1955. He found mentors in the New York press core at college home games at Madison Square Garden, third-shift photographers he would follow on assignment at night, emulating some of their techniques.
After college he became an aviator in the Navy, stationed in Japan on an aircraft carrier during the Korean War. On the weekends he enjoyed driving out into the country and taking pictures, but flying was frightening. It required high competency in mathematics, a challenge for the journalism major, who was behind his classmates in that regard.
“My classmates were really sharp and I tried like hell to keep up with them,” he said. “It required after lights out, I would go into the bathroom where there was still light to continue studying to keep up with these guys.
“Let me tell you this, night landings at 400 miles per hour out at sea when there is radio silence was as scary a business as exists. That whole operation caused me to be a cigarette smoker for the first time in my life and eventually a rum drinker.”
After coming home he got high-paying job offers from airlines, but he wanted to distance himself from aviation. He was determined to work for one of the picture magazines.
At the time, his brother was seriously injured in a car crash. Mr. Gomel documented his family during a time of crisis, convincing doctors at the hospital to let him in the room as they removed his brother’s lung. When he got the opportunity for an interview at LIFE, that work was strong enough that they offered him a commission to complete the story, Mr. Gomel said — the beginning of his career.
And as it turned out, after his experience in the Navy, photographing famous, powerful people for a national publication seemed almost relaxing in comparison.
Eyewitness
The director of “Bob Gomel: Eyewitness,” David Scarbrough is a photographer and owner of Expirimax, a franchise specializing in pre-owned Apple equipment and repairs.
When Mr. Gomel came in to his Houston store one day, Mr. Scarbrough didn’t immediately recognize him.
He asked a co-worker, who identified him: Bob Gomel, who has remained active in the local photography community and is a superstar to media photographers who know of him, Mr. Scarbrough said:
“He’s a good looking guy, he dresses very well and he’s got this million-dollar smile. You could tell when he walked in the room he was somebody special.”
After they became friends, Mr. Scarbrough inquired about filming a documentary to capture some of the amazing stories that would often come up in casual conversation.
“My point of view on it is the stories are as interesting as the pictures,” Mr. Scarbrough said. “The pictures are just timeless, right? But the story of the (President) Nixon portrait and the Ali thing with the kid sitting on his lap; the way he did the (President) Eisenhower funeral picture; this is groovy stuff, this is great stuff.”
The documentary was filmed in 2019. Mr. Scarbrough took a paired down approach, filming with a pair of iPhone 10s and letting his subject tell the stories behind his groundbreaking career. The film was released this year on Amazon Prime.
Picture by picture, it delves into how Mr. Gomel persevered through his approach to making momentous images at key moments, whether calling back President Nixon’s office after a botched photo shoot or his (at the time) controversial use of double-exposure to depict a 1965 blackout in New York City.
“He did what it took to get the shot and nothing was out of the question,” Mr. Scarbrough said. “That’s what I hoped to capture with this.”
After LIFE, Mr. Gomel’s work was published in Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Fortune and the New York Times, among many other publications. He went on to focus on commercial photography for companies like Audi, Volkswagen and Merrill Lynch.
In 1977, he moved to Houston, where he lives with his wife Sandra. They have three sons, the youngest of which died at age 32, leaving behind two grandchildren as well.
Advice
This October, Mr. Gomel’s frequent travels were on hold during the pandemic. Although he suffers from atrial fibrillation, he still continues his lifelong habit of swimming, which he practiced competitively in high school and college, he said, “although not nearly with the quality and speed I had as a younger person.”
At home he found himself not shooting pictures even though he remained ready if inspiration should strike. One day he pulled out some of his cameras and recharged batteries that had been sitting idle.
“My motivation these days is all oriented around the trips that we make and that’s when I’m back in my own shooting mode with cameras around my neck,” he said. “These days it’s not the same.
“My interest is now and really always has been in the lifestyle of people, particularly those cultures that are not very well known in the general public. I had the good fortune after leaving my career as a journalist to travel to far flung places.”
He enjoys the high quality images and lighter camera bodies that technology allows these days; “The lighter they are the more I like them.”
One picture for “Eyewitness” shows him holding a new high-definition Nikon digital camera. But he often uses his phone camera as well.
“I use my cell camera quite a lot because it’s always with me,” he said. “We were (in Ethiopia) covering an important religious festival and there was so much going on that I used up my memory cards in my digital camera. I had my cell phone, and the best pictures after eight to 10 hours of shooting from early morning to darkness, I got on my cell phone. And you know what? I was able to make beautiful 16-by-20 prints from those pictures. The technology is just fantastic. Again, it’s not about the tool, it’s the person behind the equipment taking advantage any way he can.”
As an amateur photographer now, his approach is still informed by the lessons honed during his career.
“I think I approach my subjects with knowledge of what had come before, what had been done prior and previously, and wondered and thought about how I could do it better and differently,” he said. “And that basically was how I approached everything. I didn’t want to be part of the pack. I wanted something above that, at a different level.
“I wanted to always create images that would make the viewer look at them and say, ‘Wow.’”
His wife Sandra has joined him in his enthusiasm for photography and he offers some of the same advice he gave her:
“Move in close, work the situation until you have exhausted every possible thing you can think of. Don’t just take a snap and walk away but explore the angles. What about the lighting? What about the time of day or night? All those things you should explore and work until you absolutely, positively cannot think of another thing to do and then you go home and hope you’ve got it. If not, come back tomorrow and try again.”
Afterlife
Now, Mr. Gomel’s work has found new life in another context: displayed on the walls of The Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.
“It is extremely rewarding as a gallerist to sort of be a fly on the wall as people view, enjoy, experience Bob’s photographs,” the gallery’s co-owner Mr. Monroe said. “We could do another 20 exhibits of Bob’s work and still not have shown the full range of what he’s done.”
The pictures take on new meaning in the gallery, where they loom large to be examined more closely for their formal artistic attributes as well as historical resonance.
“We have people crying in the gallery because the pictures hit you emotionally,” Mr. Monroe said. “Even if you weren’t alive in that moment you are aware of the importance of history and what was possible and what was extinguished. And that translates to so many of his pictures.”
He adds, “Just everyday pictures take on a great emotional meaning when seen in the gallery.”
The top photojournalists of Mr. Gomel’s generation were often excluded from the world of fine art compared to other image makers like landscape pioneer Ansel Adams or Helmut Newton, Mr. Monroe said. He added that for many of those old-school photojournalists, they never envisioned their work in galleries either.
“There was almost a disregard for it because it was just sort of seen as news photography or magazine photography,” Mr. Monroe said. “So for the photojournalist, it’s been a long time coming for their recognition in the art world.”
Mr. Gomel’s work can also be found at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and in many books. Four years ago, he donated his archives, including negatives, contact sheets and prints from 1959 to 2014, to The University of Texas at Austin, Briscoe Center for American History.
Bob Gomel Eyewitness is available from Amazon Prime here.
View a selectionof Bob Gomels fine art prints here.
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Steve McCurry on Tony Vaccaro in "Unsung Heroes" Project
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.
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