MONROE GALLERY PHOTOGRAPHERS' EVENTS

The fall season is very busy for several Monroe Gallery photographers. Stephen Wilkes is being featured at Monroe Gallery in his first-ever retrospective exhibition. The exhibition features several new photographs, and will continue through November 22.

Eris Smith's photographs are featured in the first first installment of Michigan Public Radio's "The Picture Project". His series of photographs titled "What We Eat" is running through October 2009. For more of Smith's work, click here.

Bill Eppridge just returned home from the Photography at The Summit workshop and speaking at the Senior World Games in St. George, Utah. He is appearing at the annual Eddie Adams workshop, Barnstorm, October 8,9,10; and then on October 20th Eppridge receives The Missouri School of Journalism's Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.

The Beatles formed in April, 1960; and the band split up on April 10, 1970. 2010 will be the respective 50th and 40th anniversaries of the seminal dates in Beatles history. Bill Eppridge was there when they arrived, and we are pleased to share his special collection of photographs of The Beatles.

On November 17, the Skirball Cultural center in Los Angeles is featuring nearly 170 unforgettable images by more than thirty-five photographers, Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968. Included in the exhibition are photographs by Bill Eppridge and Steve Schapiro. The exhibit is complemented by sound recordings of music and speeches, artifacts, and other archival materials that provide historical context, and will be on view through March 7, 2010.

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of his death, the extensive photographic archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Eddie Adams has been donated by his widow, Alyssa Adams, to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.

An exhibit of Adams' photographs will be on display at the Briscoe Center's Sid Richardson Hall until January 16, 2010, and on October 28, 2009, the center will host a screening of "An Unlikely Weapon," a documentary film that examines Adams' life. Showing at the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas at Austin campus, the film is free and open to the public. The movie was made by filmmaker Susan Morgan Cooper along with the photographer's sister-in-law, Cindy Lou Adkins. After the screening, remarks are scheduled to be made by Alyssa Adams along with David Hume Kennerly.

And, save the date for a major exhibition of Neil Leifer's iconic sports photography. On November 13, the Annenberg Space for Photography opens "Sport: Iooss and Leifer". Two of the world’s most preeminent sports photographers come together in this compelling exhibit celebrating the athlete, which will run through March, 2010.

Congratulations to all! Watch for news of our next exhibit, "On The Town", opening November 27. The subject has provided rich material for photographers for decades: magnificent environments, beautiful and exquisite women and handsome and poised men celebrating with exuberance and gusto. Also pictured are some of the simpler pursuits of happiness, such as when the drive-in theater and drive-in restaurant were novel and luxurious attractions. Just in time for the Holidays!

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

112 Don Gaspar

Santa Fe, NM 87501

505.992.0800

505.992.0810 (fax)

info@monroegallery.com

www.monroegallery.com

IRVING PENN IS DEAD AT 92

Copyright The New York Times

October 7, 2009

Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.

His death was announced by Peter MacGill, his friend and representative.

Mr. Penn’s talent for picturing his subjects with compositional clarity and economy earned him the widespread admiration of readers of Vogue during his long association with the magazine, beginning in 1943. It also brought him recognition in the art world; his photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries and are prized by collectors.

His long career at Vogue spanned a number of radical transformations in fashion and its depiction, but his style remained remarkably constant. Imbued with calm and decorum, his photographs often seemed intent on defying fashion. His models and portrait subjects were never seen leaping or running or turning themselves into blurs. Even the rough-and-ready members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, photographed in San Francisco in 1967, were transformed within the quieting frame of his studio camera into the graphic equivalent of a Greek frieze.

Instead of spontaneity, Mr. Penn provided the illusion of a seance, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan jalaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer. Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it. Except for a series of close-up portraits that cut his subjects’ heads off at the forehead, and another, stranger suite of overripe nudes, his subjects were usually shown whole, apparently enjoying a splendid isolation from the real world.

He was probably most famous for photographing Parisian fashion models and the world’s great cultural figures, but he seemed equally at home photographing Peruvian peasants or bunion pads. Merry Foresta, co-organizer of a 1990 retrospective of his work at the National Museum of American Art, wrote that his pictures exhibited “the control of an art director fused with the process of an artist.”

A courtly man whose gentle demeanor masked an intense perfectionism, Mr. Penn adopted the pose of a humble craftsman while helping to shape a field known for putting on airs. Although schooled in painting and design, he chose to define himself as a photographer, scraping his early canvases of paint so that they might serve a more useful life as backdrops to his pictures.
He was also a refined conversationalist and a devoted husband and friend. His marriage to Lisa Fonssagrives, a beautiful model, artist and his sometime collaborator, lasted 42 years, ending with her death at the age of 80 in 1992. Mr. Penn’s photographs of Ms. Fonssagrives not only captured a slim woman of lofty sophistication and radiant good health; they also set the esthetic standard for the elegant fashion photography of the 1940s and ’50s.

Ms. Fonssagrives became a sculptor after her modeling career ended. In 1994, Mr. Penn and their son, Tom, a metal designer, arranged the printing of a book that reproduced his wife’s sculpture, prints and drawings. In addition to his son, Mr. Penn is survived by his stepdaughter, Mia Fonssagrives.Solow (who renders her name with a dot), a sculptor and jewelry designer; his younger brother, Arthur, the well-known director of such films as “Bonnie and Clyde,” and nine grandchildren.

Continue reading the full obituary here.

What We Eat: Obesity Interviews and Photo Essay

Photograph by Eric Smith


Pictures on Michigan Public Radio? Not quite, but Michigan Radio is launching the Picture
Project, a photography site and blog space featuring photography about Michigan people,
places, events and issues. The first installment of the Picture Project will run in October
2009 with photo essays that expand on stories featured in Michigan Radio broadcasts. In
the future the Picture Project will be expanded to include a wide mixture of
Michigan-centric content including photographic essays, historical photographs, fine art
photography, pictures from various archives and collections, and more - all Michigan
related.



Monroe Gallery photographer Eric Smith is featured in the first installment: What We Eat: Obesity Interviews & Photo Essay.


This week Michigan Radio's Charity Nebbe presents a series of interviews about obesity on All Things Considered 4-6:30p. Photographer Eric Smith explores the epidemic in Michigan Radio's brand new web feature The Michigan Radio Picture Project.



MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.992.0800
505.992.0810 (fax)
info@monroegallery.com
www.monroegallery.com

BILL EPPRIDGE AND THE BEATLES

Screaming Girls, JFK Airport, NY, February 7, 1964. Copyright Bill Eppridge

The Beatles formed in April, 1960; and the band split up on April 10, 1970. 2010 will be the respective 50th and 40th anniversaries of the seminal dates in Beatles history.

Two hundred six songs. Thirteen original albums plus two CDs worth of miscellany. Seven years in the making - the complete recorded works of the Beatles rolled out on September 8.

Renowned photojournalist Bill Eppridge was there at the beginning.

Bill Eppridge was on assignment for LIFE magazine, not yet on staff, but a regular photographer in 1964. He didn't really know who The Beatles were, nor did most of America "One morning my boss said, 'Look, we've got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They're called the Beatles.'"

Bill Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 awaiting the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and "stick with them." He was with them in Central Park and at the Ed Sullivan Show for both the rehearsal and the historic performance. He rode the train to Washington, D.C. with them for the concert at the Washington Coliseum, and photographed their Carnegie Hall performance on February 12, 1964.

"These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around," Eppridge recalls. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. "I'm not going to ask you to do a thing," was Eppridge's reply. "I just want to be there." An exhibit of Eppridge's Beatles photographs has been touring since 2001, and was seen by over 2 million people at the Smithsonian Museum.

See Bill Eppridge's photographs of the Beatles here.

STEPHEN WILKES: RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION WITH NEW PHOTOGRAPHS OPENS OCTOBER 2

Stephen Wilkes: Snow Covered Shore
40 x 28

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition featuring the documentary projects of leading contemporary photographer Stephen Wilkes. The exhibition includes new photographs and opens on Friday, October 2. (ARTslant has just selected the opening a their "pick of the week".)

Stephen Wilkes will discuss his work in the gallery from 5 - 6; with a public reception for the photographer from 6 – 7:30 PM. This is a unique opportunity to hear Wilkes discuss his varied photography projects in an intimate setting. The exhibition continues through November 22.

Featured in the exhibition are large-format photographs from several of Wilkes' major projects, including:

"America in Detail": In 2000, Wilkes crisscrossed the country over a 52-day to create a millennial portrait of the United States and record the photographic details that captured the mood and texture of America as the new century began.

"Bethlehem Steel": In 2002, Wilkes photographed the abandoned buildings that once formed the great Bethlehem Steel plant. Known as “The Steel”, the former plant, which closed on November 18, 1995, encompasses about 100 acres with more than 25 buildings and other structures dating from as early as 1863. . Using natural light, Wilkes painstakingly photographed the peeling paint, rusted iron, broken glass and halls with wind-strewn debris and created an ethereal diorama that is captivating and compelling. Wilkes’ photographs capture the haunting beauty of these historic buildings and preserve a memory of that not-too-distant age, when proud men and women produced "the steel that built a nation".

"In Katrina's Wake": Wilkes' photographed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and created a lasting record of the terrible destruction. Wilkes said at the time: "Maybe with our age of technology we have lost some respect for nature. The warnings about Katrina were not taken seriously and evacuation was not done properly. In conclusion we should learn to work with nature instead of against it and ignoring nature always leads to catastrophes."

"Ellis Island": Perhaps Wilkes’ most ambitious project was photographing the south side of Ellis Island (1998 – 2003).The result is visual history of the benign neglect of the medical facilities and dormitories of the historic immigration center, which at that time, unlike the Great Hall, had not yet been restored. Wilkes’ photographs capture the haunting beauty of this century old building. With his exclusive photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. Today all that remains of the past are Wilkes' haunting images. These photographs are featured in the monograph "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" and will be included in several museum exhibitions in 2010.

"China": Traveling throughout old and new China during a period from 2005 through 2008, Stephen Wilkes expertly portrayed a nation amidst rapid and vast transformation. Focusing on both rural and industrial settings – and the increasing number of areas where they collide – Stephen Wilkes draws our attention to a changing way of life.New Work: Wilkes is constantly looking for photo projects to feed his soul. Wilkes is relentlessly taking and making pictures that let us feel the experience of being there, the experience of being in the moment. Included in the exhibition is the premiere of several recent photographs never before exhibited, including the following:

Stephen Wilkes: Glacier and climber, Alaska

40 X 50 inches

Stephen Wilkes: Red Canoe

35 x 29

Stephen Wilkes: Red Bag, Yellow Mountains, China

42 x 30

Stephen Wilkes: The High Line, New York

20 x 37

Stephen Wilkes: Eulogy to a Dumpscape: Fresh Kills Landfill

37 x 30

Stephen Wilkes: Huntington Beach, California

18 x 22

The September issue of F-Stop magazine features the work of Stephen Wilkes. Editor Zack Seckler interviews Wilkes about his career and his craft.

"Whether shooting Jason Kidd for Sports Illustrated or the anonymous maintainers of Times Square’s “guts” for the New York Times Magazine, Stephen Wilkes frames his subjects to reveal a truth about them. He captures the humanity of a glistening Chinese skyscraper, of an Ellis Island office a century removed from the last huddled masses it welcomed. His impressive career encompasses editorial, advertising, and fine art work of equal skill and renown. All are united by his attention to detail and his keen sense of the eye’s hidden rhythm."

Continue reading the full article here.


MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

112 Don Gaspar Santa Fe, NM 87501

505.992.0800

505.992.0810 (fax)

info@monroegallery.com

www.monroegallery.com

http://monroegallery.blogspot.com/

Follow Us: http://twitter.com/Monroegallery

Archive of Photojournalist Eddie Adams Donated to Briscoe Center for American History

September 18, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas – The photographic archive of renowned photojournalist Eddie Adams has been donated by his widow, Alyssa Adams, to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

The archive documents Adams's career and includes "Saigon Execution," his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of General Loan executing a Vietnamese prisoner in 1968. "Saigon Execution" is widely considered to be one of the most influential photographs taken during the Vietnam war.

"Eddie Adams was a photojournalist of immense talent," said William Powers Jr., president of the university. "His collection gives the university another invaluable resource to advance our understanding of 20th century American history and photojournalism. We are grateful to Alyssa Adams for this gift of such power and significance."

"The Eddie Adams Photographic Archive is one of the most important collection gifts ever made to the Briscoe Center, said Dr. Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center. "It is a monumental addition to the photojournalism component of our news media archive. Adams was a hugely influential photographer and journalist, whose body of work would be remarkable for its visual impact alone. But more important, his work had the power to shape the course of history. I cannot overstate the degree to which this donation enhances our already impressive photographic and news media holdings."

Adams began his photography career as a high school student in Kensington, Pa. He was a Marine combat photographer during the Korean War, and in 1962, he joined the Associated Press (AP). After 10 years, Adams left the AP for Time magazine and freelance work. In 1976, he rejoined the AP as the first and only photographer to hold the title of special correspondent. From 1980 until his death in 2004, he was a photographer for Parade magazine, which featured more than 350 of his photos on its covers.

While he was on assignment for the AP, Adams carried his camera through 150 operations in Vietnam. He also covered wars in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland, Lebanon, and Kuwait. "Boat of No Smiles," his series on the Vietnamese boat people, influenced the United States to admit 200,000 Vietnamese refugees at the end of the war.

"It was important that Eddie's legacy be preserved by an educational institution, one that collects photojournalism for teaching and research," said Alyssa Adams. "He was such an important mentor and colleague to the community of photojournalists, so it's particularly fitting that his work will be in the same institution that holds the archives of his peers."

Measuring 200 linear feet in size, the Eddie Adams Photographic Archive includes slides, negatives, prints, audio and video materials, news stories, diaries, notes and tear sheets. In addition to substantive coverage of the Vietnam War, the collection includes his in-depth features on poverty in America, the homeless, Mother Teresa, Brazil, alternative society, anti-war demonstrations, and riots. The collection also includes his intimate portraits of such high-profile figures as Ronald Reagan, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, Clint Eastwood, Bette Davis, Bill Cosby, and Jerry Lewis.

Adams was awarded more than 500 photojournalism awards during his lifetime, including the George Polk Award for News Photography in 1968, 1977 and 1978, the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1977 and numerous awards from such organizations as World Press Photo, the National Press Photographers Association, Sigma Delta Chi, and the Overseas Press Club.

The Adams collection joins the archives of a number of his colleagues already held at the Briscoe Center, including David Hume Kennerly, Dirck Halstead, Wally McNamee, Diana Walker, Dick Swanson, Flip Schulke, and Cynthia Johnson.

In conjunction with the announcement of the donation of the Adams collection, the Briscoe Center will host an exhibit of his photographs at its Sid Richardson Hall location. For details on the exhibit, which closes Jan. 16, 2010, please visit the Briscoe Center's Web site. The Briscoe Center will also host a screening of a documentary that examines Adams's life, on Oct. 28 at the Blanton Museum of Art. The screening is free and open to the public, and will be followed by remarks from Alyssa Adams and Eddie Adams's professional colleague David Hume Kennerly. Details on the event will be available shortly.

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to represent Eddie Adams' photographs.

112 Don Gaspar

Santa Fe, NM 87501

505.992.0800

505.992.0810 (fax)

info@monroegallery.com

www.monroegallery.com

STEPHEN WILKES INTERVIEW IN F-STOP MAGAZINE; RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION PREVIEW

Stephen Wilkes: Snow Covered Shore

The September issue of F-Stop magazine features the work of Stephen Wilkes. Editor Zack Seckler interviews Wilkes about his career and his craft.

"Whether shooting Jason Kidd for Sports Illustrated or the anonymous maintainers of Times Square’s “guts” for the New York Times Magazine, Stephen Wilkes frames his subjects to reveal a truth about them. He captures the humanity of a glistening Chinese skyscraper, of an Ellis Island office a century removed from the last huddled masses it welcomed. His impressive career encompasses editorial, advertising, and fine art work of equal skill and renown. All are united by his attention to detail and his keen sense of the eye’s hidden rhythm." Continue reading the full article here.


Stephen Wilkes: Glacier and climber, Alaska

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition featuring the documentary projects of leading contemporary photographer Stephen Wilkes. The exhibition includes new photographs and opens on Friday, October 2.

Stephen Wilkes will discuss his work in the gallery from 5 - 6; with a public reception for the photographer from 6 – 7:30 PM. This is a unique opportunity to hear Wilkes discuss his varied photography projects in an intimate setting. The exhibition continues through November 22.

Featured in the exhibition are large-format photographs from several of Wilkes' major projects, including:

"America in Detail": In 2000, Wilkes crisscrossed the country over a 52-day to create a millennial portrait of the United States and record the photographic details that captured the mood and texture of America as the new century began.

"Bethlehem Steel": In 2002, Wilkes photographed the abandoned buildings that once formed the great Bethlehem Steel plant. Known as “The Steel”, the former plant, which closed on November 18, 1995, encompasses about 100 acres with more than 25 buildings and other structures dating from as early as 1863. . Using natural light, Wilkes painstakingly photographed the peeling paint, rusted iron, broken glass and halls with wind-strewn debris and created an ethereal diorama that is captivating and compelling. Wilkes’ photographs capture the haunting beauty of these historic buildings and preserve a memory of that not-too-distant age, when proud men and women produced "the steel that built a nation".

"In Katrina's Wake": Wilkes' photographed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and created a lasting record of the terrible destruction. Wilkes said at the time: "Maybe with our age of technology we have lost some respect for nature. The warnings about Katrina were not taken seriously and evacuation was not done properly. In conclusion we should learn to work with nature instead of against it and ignoring nature always leads to catastrophes."

"Ellis Island": Perhaps Wilkes’ most ambitious project was photographing the south side of Ellis Island (1998 – 2003).The result is visual history of the benign neglect of the medical facilities and dormitories of the historic immigration center, which at that time, unlike the Great Hall, had not yet been restored. Wilkes’ photographs capture the haunting beauty of this century old building. With his exclusive photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. Today all that remains of the past are Wilkes' haunting images. These photographs are featured in the monograph "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" and will be included in several museum exhibitions in 2010.

"China": Traveling throughout old and new China during a period from 2005 through 2008, Stephen Wilkes expertly portrayed a nation amidst rapid and vast transformation. Focusing on both rural and industrial settings – and the increasing number of areas where they collide – Stephen Wilkes draws our attention to a changing way of life.

New Work: Wilkes is constantly looking for photo projects to feed his soul. Wilkes is relentlessly taking and making pictures that let us feel the experience of being there, the experience of being in the moment. Included in the exhibition is the premiere of several recent photographs never before exhibited, including the following:

Stephen Wilkes: The Highline, New York

Stephen Wilkes: Huntington Beach, California

Gallery hours are 10 to 6 Monday through Saturday, 10 to 5 Sunday. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com.

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

112 Don Gaspar Santa Fe, NM 87501

505.992.0800

505.992.0810 (fax)

info@monroegallery.com

www.monroegallery.com

http://monroegallery.blogspot.com/

Great French Photographer Willy Ronis Dead at 99

September 12, 2009

©The Associated Press

Published in The New York Times

PARIS (AP) -- Willy Ronis, the last of France's postwar greats of photography who captured the essence of Paris in black and white scenes of everyday life, died Saturday. He was 99.
Ronis died at a Paris hospital where he had been admitted days earlier, said Stephane Ledoux, the president of the Eyedea photo agency.

Lovers, nudes and scenes from Paris streets were the mainstay of Ronis' photographs, which reflect the so-called humanist school of photography in an award-winning career that began in the 1930s and reaped honors for him in France and abroad.

In a wheelchair and on dialysis for some time, the mustachioed Ronis nevertheless managed to address the crowd at the annual Arles photographic exhibition in July, where he was honored.
''We have lost the last of the great men,'' said Stephane Ledoux, head of the Eyedea agency, which took over the Rapho Agency that for decades handled Ronis' photographs.

Ronis, along with friend Robert Doisneau and photojournalist Henri-Cartier Besson, were among France's great photographers who emerged after World War II. The three along with two other photographers were honored as early as 1953 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ronis' genius spilled forth in his spontaneous photos of the streets of working class Paris, from its bistros to its lovers and gardens and even its strikes, always captured with a benevolent eye.

''I never took a mean photo,'' Ronis in an interview with The Associated Press in 2005. ''I never wanted to make people look ridiculous. I always had a lot of respect for the people I photographed.''

Photographs of eastern Paris, where Ronis lived, were collected in a book of the Belleville and Menilmontant neighborhoods that reached cult status in France. His photos of lovers against the Paris skyline or a nude at a wash basin also helped define him. Ronis' last photo, taken in 2001, was of a nude.

Born in Paris on Aug. 14, 1910, Ronis studied violin, but gave up a music career to take over the family photo studio when his father, Emmanuel Ronis, fell ill. For four years, he photographed weddings, babies and communions.

A month after his father died in 1936, Ronis did his first reportage, a Bastille Day parade. He worked steadily until World War II, when he joined the army. When the Nazis invaded France, Ronis, born to Jewish parents who had fled the pogroms, moved to unoccupied France.
The golden age of photography followed, and Ronis emerged as one of its leaders.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy praised Ronis as the ''chronicler of postwar social aspirations and the poet of a simple and joyous life.''

Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Ronis immortalized ''for each of us the poetry of our daily lives and saved it from lost time. This immense narrator gave us a gift that will last forever.''

Ronis worked for numerous publications, including Life magazine, and collected dozens of honors throughout his career, in France, the U.S. and elsewhere.

After nearly 75 years of taking pictures, Ronis, encumbered by canes and no longer able to snap photos, set aside his camera.

''If I can't run, climb up onto a bench ... rush toward something I see far away that might interest me, it's over,'' Ronis said in the AP interview. Age, however, did not defeat Ronis. At 85, he went skydiving, snapping a photo of himself on the way down, his typical childlike joy showing through.

His numerous awards began with the Kodak prize in 1947. A decade later, he received the gold medal at the Venice Biennale. In 2007, he was honored in New York at the 5th annual Lucie Awards, which celebrates photographers, for lifetime achievement.

Ronis is an Officer in France's prestigious National Order of Merit and was named a Commander of Arts and Letters. In 1983, Ronis bequeathed his works to the French state.

There was no immediate information on funeral arrangement or survivors.

THE Magazine Review: "A Thousand Words: Masters of Photojournalism"

Mother and child in Hiroshima, four months after the atomic bomb dropped, 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt ©Time Inc.

The September issue of THE magazine just hit the streets today, and it features a review of "A Thousand Words: Masters of Photojournalism". The exhibition continues through September 27.

©THE Magazine

Richard Tobin

Keepers of the Light— Is a picture worth a thousand words? That cliché is credited to a Fred R. Barnard writing for a trade journal in the early 1920s who popularized the sentiment in an article promoting the use of images in advertising on the sides of streetcars. He passed it off first as a Japanese, then as a Chinese proverb when he pitched it again six years later, changing it to “A picture is worth ten thousand words,” no doubt to justify a jump in advertising costs. Though this is probably the only adage not spoken by Kung Fu’s Kwai Chang Caine, the sentiment if not the sound bite can arguably be traced, in European culture at least, as far back as the Renaissance, when the first modern treatise on painting advanced the notion that an effective image speaks volumes (well, two volumes at the time, actually, the Iliad or the Bible).

Does that mean that a good photo should “say” what it would take a thousand or more words to convey? Consider the Civil War photographs that Matthew Brady staffer Alexander Gardner took of the young Union and Confederate dead who had fallen in a cornfield near Antietam in 1862, displayed for the American public the year before Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg. The grim Gardner photos achieve a mournful parity with the Gettysburg speech, whose two hundred and fifty or so words took Lincoln less than two minutes to deliver. The point is that what gives both image and text their lasting power to teach and to move us is their common quality of economy—or understatement—achieved by circumstance for the images, by intent for the text.

The Monroe Gallery’s current exhibition, A Thousand Words: Masters of Photojournalism, celebrates that quality of economy, or understatement. Some sixty prints by the likes of Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, and lesser-known masters make graphically evident what separates the run-of-the-mill photographer from the
seasoned photojournalist.

The exhibition’s black-and-white photographs cover the American scene from World War II to the mid-1970s, virtually all of them gelatin silver prints. As I am not a photographer I am not qualified to discuss the relative merits of the traditional process versus the new digital technology. From what little I’ve gathered, the quality of black-and-white gelatin silver prints, and palladium-platinum, for that matter, has been a challenge for digital photography, though a significant number of Magnum photojournalists now make use of the new technology. More to the point, the primacy of the gelatin silver print in pre-digital photography has made it something of a hallmark of good photojournalism. The gelatin silver print requires a sure command, gained with experience, of the formal aspects of the craft and their function in capturing the subject. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s image of the Hiroshima mother and child four months after the atomic bomb is a masterful composition in lights and darks demanded by the gelatin-silver process. That very formal mastery enables Eisenstaedt’s placement and setting of his two figures to tap into the Renaissance mother-and-child motif with great effect, transforming its conventional Raphaelite repose into the pathos of a sixteenth-century pietà.

Chance is said to play a key role in capturing an image that becomes “iconic.” Perhaps it is more accurate to say that what is critical is the training and experience to be in the right place at the right time, recognize the chance, and seize it. Cases in point here: Nick Ut’s untitled photograph of Vietnamese children fleeing an aerial napalm attack, John Filo’s Kent State J’accuse showing a young girl grieving over a slain student, and Stanley Forman’s The Soiling of Old Glory.

A parallel requirement for the photojournalist is an intuitive grasp of the momentous in the everyday moment, as in Bourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces, Carl Mydans’s Migrant Woman, Capa’s print of Henri Matisse in his studio, and Martha Holmes’s iconic photo of Jackson Pollock in his studio.

Perhaps the most significant role of the photojournalist in an age of sound bite and image manipulation is to force us to confront the timeless question, “What is truth?” Two Eisenstaedt photographs in the exhibition, from the close of World War II, speak to this role. One is a Rodinesque image of a sailor kissing a nurse taken in Times Square on VJ Day (Victory over Japan); the other is his mother and child photograph taken four months later in Hiroshima. Viewed in tandem, these images attest to the power of the medium to cut to the truth, and, in rare moments, to intimate its often
tragic complexity.

--Richard Tobin

STEPHEN WILKES COMMENTARY ON PASSING OF WALTER CRONKITE

Pardon our delay in posting this. Stephen Wilkes had a very thought-provoking commentary in The Huffington Post on the passing of Walter Cronkite.

As a gallery devoted to photojournalism, we are often engaged in discussions about the changes in contemporary journalism. In fact, the gallery's current exhibition hearkens to the "golden age" of photojournalism. In today's ocean of bad news for the press--picture editors being laid off, agency, newspapers and magazines closures, diminished fees being paid to photojournalists (see post about the $30 Time cover!), Wilkes' reflections offered a refreshing look at part of what is missing.

The Huffington Post

July 23, 2009

The Art of Listening: In Memory off Walter Cronkite

by Stephen Wilkes

It was a beautiful spring day in March 1974. I was a high school student in the tenth grade and as excited as I've ever been in my entire life. I was the photographer/reporter for my high school T.V. station and my best friend was the manager and lead reporter. It was through his fearless tenacity that we had set up a number of interviews with some of our local TV anchors for our combined piece on great broadcast journalists of the day. We had sent letters to several well-known reporters requesting an interview but were met with disappointment, as many of our letters were unanswered and seemingly unimportant. However, we had somehow managed to pique the interest of one reporter to give us an exclusive. It was on this day, the 20th of March in the spring of 1974, that the legendary Walter Cronkite granted us our first interview and a life changing experience.

We were scheduled to meet Mr. Cronkite at 2:00pm, yet we realized early on that his schedule might change because it was the day that Chet Huntley had died, and Mr. Cronkite was in the midst of writing a eulogy. Yet, with all that was going on during that busy day, he still managed to sit down with us for a full one-hour interview. We sat in his office, both of us with our yellow notepads and all our pre-written questions. He was incredibly gracious and patient as we both read our questions one at a time and answered every single one of them.

At the end of questions he looked at us and in a very calm yet direct manner asked,
"Boys, I'd like to ask you both a question."

Well, my friend and I both looked at our notepads, and quickly realized that this was NOT part of our script. As we blankly stared upward, Mr. Cronkite looked at us and said, "Do you know what makes a good interview?"

Again, we looked down at our yellow pads, as if we might have written something during our one-hour conversation that could have given us THE answer. Scrambling as we were, we could barely even get a word out, and rather than let us struggle with a long silence, he looked at us both, and in the nicest way possible, told us what he was looking for.

"Being a good listener boys. That's what makes for a good interview."

We stared, dumbstruck and in awe.

"Being a good listener will always lead you to the next question."

My friend and I looked at each other, and realized in that very moment that Walter Cronkite just told us what we invariably had missed during our one-hour interview.

I remember leaving his office that day and feeling that I had learned an incredible lesson. It is a lesson that I have applied throughout my life.

He was known as a great and legendary newsman, but I'll always remember him from that brief meeting in March 1974 where he inspired me to listen.

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to announce a major retrospective exhibition featuring the documentary projects of leading contemporary photographer Stephen Wilkes. The exhibition includes new photographs and opens on Friday, October 2. Stephen Wilkes will discuss his work in the gallery from 5 - 6; with a public reception for the photographer from 6 – 7:30 PM. The exhibition continues through November 22.