RICHARD CRUMP MILLER: August 6, 1912 - October 15, 2010

Richard C. Miller James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor take a break from filming "Giant"

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Richard C. Miller. Miller was an American photographer best known for his vintage carbro prints, photos of celebrities, and work documenting the building of the Hollywood Freeway.

Photographer Richard C. Miller poses on a shoot with model Norma Jeane Dougherty in 1946. He would later photograph her again more than a decade later, when she was known as Marilyn Monroe, on the set of "Some Like It Hot."

Richard Miller's interest in photography began when he was a child and toyed with his father’s 3¼x4¼ folding roll-film camera.  His passion for photography led to his increase in knowledge about established photographers, and when he found out Edward Weston was moving nearby he went over to introduce himself. The rest was history. (See more of Miller's biography here.)

There was a resurgence of interest in Miller's photography in spring 2009, when a collection of his images was shown alongside the work of Paul Outerbridge at the J. Paul Getty Museum.  (See the Los Angeles Times article about selections for the exhibit here.) Monroe Gallery of Photography began to represent his work that same year, and featured his photographs from the making of "Giant" at Photo LA in January, 2010.


Read the Los Angeles Times obituary here.

Listen to Richard C. Miller in an interview "Breakthrough Photographer" with Patt Morrison on 89.3 KPCC, recorded on April 2009 and aired 3 July 2009, here.

See more of Richard C. Miller's photographs here.

Richard C. Miller: James Dean besides his car during the filming of "Giant"

A Story Told: Miraculous Rescue, Remarkable Reunion

©TheBostonChannel.com

“I believe you took a photo for the Boston Herald American in January 1977 of a little girl and another of her mother that were published in the paper. The fire took place on Jan. 21, 1977, on 173 West Sixth St. in South Boston."

So began the message that photographer Stanley Forman received this July on his Facebook page. The message would lead to both a reunion and a hidden past revealed.

Forman, now a photographer for NewsCenter 5, had won three Pulitzer Prizes while working for the Boston Herald. His forte, then and now, is breaking news and fires.

"I am not sure if you would still have these pictures or more pictures that were not published. I am the little girl in the picture, Tammi,” the Facebook posting went on to say.
 
 

  ©StanleyFormanPhotos.com

 

Forman's compelling photos had captured a tragedy, and the girl in his pictures wanted to know more.


"It was one of the most intense fires I had ever been at. Knowing there were people trapped in the building and watching firefighters' attempts to get to them was very dramatic," said Forman.

Four people died in the fire, including Tammi's 6-year-old brother John.

Her mother, Ella May Kurtz, 30, was rescued, but died a few weeks later from her injuries.

But Forman's pictures also captured Tammi's miraculous rescue.
 
"When I got there the first shot I took was of firefighter George Girvan rushing a 3-year-old to safety after she was passed to him from firefighters who rescued her from the fire," he said.

©StanleyFormanPhotos.com

 
"I did not know at the time it was a girl," Forman said.

Forman had dropped off some of the pictures at the firehouse, including those of Alfred Chase, who the photos show being treated with oxygen after stumbling out of building.

After a few days of coverage in the newspaper, he thought the story had come to end.

Tammi Brownlee spent eight months in the hospital and then moved to Arizona for ten years before returning to South Boston. At first she lived with family and later with two foster families.

Thirty-three years after the fire, she went to the Boston Public Library to search for clues. She found Forman's pictures on the newspaper's front page and contacted him.

"This fire would have been another tragic fire that I have covered over my many years in this business," Forman said. "But then this e-mail came from Tammi and almost immediately I knew exactly which photos Tammi was talking about."

Earlier this summer, Forman joined a crew from for an interview with Tammi. After the interview, they took Tammi to South Boston for a surprise.

"The fire scene is now a vacant fenced in lot owned by the city. As Tammi and I walked up to the scene she was looking at this man coming towards us. She seemed confused as to who this man could be," Forman said.

"When I told her this was Alfred Chase, she knew exactly who he was from the newspaper clippings she had read and was taken aback," he said.

"He remembered locating her in the fire room and dragging her to safety with the help of other firefighters and passing her off to safety. It was a very emotional meeting for all," Forman said.

But Tammi's search did not end there. Fifteen years ago she learned she had two half siblings who had been given up for adoption before she was born.

"I had searched for years on adoption registry websites, hoping that they had put on there that they were looking for their birth mother or birth father," Tammi said. "When I started investigating the fire, everything fell into place."

Last month with help from the state, Brownlee found her sister Eleanor Doherty and just this week her brother David.

"It's a happy ending. It is what I have been waiting for, for a long time. It is family," Tammi said.

Along with her two children, Tammi brought her boyfriend of 10 years to the interview. Chad King is a Cape Cod firefighter.

I guess firefighters are my protectors,” Tammi said.

Copyright 2010 by TheBostonChannel.com

See more photographs from the fire here.

REMEMBERING CARL MYDANS

On the occasion the exhibition "Carl Mydans: The Early Years", we look back and share this article
published  at the time of Carl's death in 2004.

Carl Mydans

©The Digital Journalist
September 2004
by Dirck Halstead


Modern photojournalism has had a relatively short life. If you start with the premise that the profession that came with the big picture magazines really is only about eight decades old, it is not surprising that the giants who emerged during this period are beginning to die.

In the past month, two of the greatest have left us. First, it was Henri Cartier-Bresson, who more than any photographer defined "the decisive moment," then in August, Carl Mydans, who was without doubt one of the greatest of the original Life photographers.

It was interesting that both photographers received huge obits on the pages of The New York Times. The sheer scope of these obituaries was generally reserved for great writers, poets, designers and heads of state.

Carl Mydans was often overlooked when compared with some of his more colorful colleagues, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks. Some critics called his work ordinary. But for those who knew better, Carl was without doubt the best photojournalist of them all.

Carl Mydans: Senator John F. Kennedy Campaigning with his Wife in Boston (©Time, Inc.)

What made his work so special was that Carl was first and always a journalist. He viewed his job as being a witness to history. To Carl, the written word was as important as the photography. In a closet in his Larchmont N.Y., home, which he shared with his wife Shelley until she died several years ago, were thousands of reporter's notebooks. He made a lifetime habit of sitting down at the end of every day and meticulously recording what he saw and heard. These notebooks are a huge legacy to historians.

He was the consummate journalist. Time-Life recognized this when they made him bureau chief in Tokyo following World War II. He is the only photographer in that company's history to be accorded this recognition.

On th

On The 6:25 fromGrand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963 :

A decade ago, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, turned over its walls to a major retrospective of Carl's work. When the full extent of his remarkable career could be seen in one place, the result was breathtaking.

Like his colleague and friend, Alfred Eisenstaedt, into his '90s, Carl remained engaged in the world. He still had the curiosity of a child. Even though he could barely hear, he made the trek to his office on the 28th floor of the Time-Life building until the mid-'90s.

In 1945, General George McArthur sent a plane to pick up Carl, who was then busy covering the defeat of Nazi Germany, to return him to the Pacific theatre so that Carl could accompany him on his return to the Philippines. The general knew that Carl had remained behind with the defenders of Corregidor when they were overrun by the Japanese, and the Japanese had imprisoned him and his wife for over two years.

This resulted in one of Carl's most memorable photos, of McArthur wading ashore.

 General Douglas MacArthur Landing at Landing at Luzon, The Philippines, 1945

Over four decades later, Time magazine sent Carl back to the Philippines to cover the elections that resulted in Corazon Aquino defeating President Ferdinand Marcos.

Carl's son, Seth Mydans, remembers:

What I recall is that my father wangled his way onto Ferdinand Marcos's small plane up to Ilocos Norte on voting day. Everyone else had had to make the long drive and had taken their places around the ballot box at dawn, everyone with their elbows firmly in their neighbors' ribs. My father (he may have been secretly grinning) walked in with the Marcos crowd and simply took his place in front of everybody, causing the usual cries of complaint. But I'm told everyone was very polite to the old war-horse. That image is coupled in my mind with a wonderful photo of Carl, in his funny sunhat, clambering up onto a wooden scaffold in the middle of Luneta Park during a Corazon Aquino rally, with all the other photographers reaching out to hold a hand, an arm, an elbow, a foot and help him up.

As for the Marcoses, we all know about their vivid imaginations. When I first met Imelda at a press conference in Malacanang in 1981, she announced in front of everybody, "Yes, my husband rescued your father from prison camp." I then had my first audience with Marcos, who promptly told me, "Yes, your father is the only photographer who ever got a picture of me during the war wearing my helmet." (These, of course, are the people who said they grew wealthy by "investing wisely," among other things.)

I'd like to mention also that Shelley hadn't lost her touch either. She volunteered to visit a polling place for The New York Times and produced one of the most vivid accounts of the day when a bunch of goons rushed the place and hammered with their pistol butts to get the nuns and schoolteachers to loosen their grips on the ballot boxes.

One other quite extraordinary moment: During the January-February 1986 campaign, my competition may have wondered how I was getting so much access to Marcos. More than once, my father asked me to "carry his camera bags" when he was invited in to shoot a portrait. On one of these occasions he autographed a copy of his new book, "Carl Mydans, Photojournalist," just as he did for other major figures (major like Doy Laurel): "With respect, at this historic moment." Two weeks after Edsa , I flew to Hawaii to interview Marcos in exile. He had not yet moved to Makiki Heights but was in a sad, barren seaside villa. The jewels and pesos and other goodies he had grabbed as he fled were already in some vault somewhere. But my father's book, autographed "at this historic moment," was out on a coffee table for me to see. One could say it was one of his valuable treasures, but I think that even as he fled his palace, Marcos still thought Time magazine and The New York Times could help him get back there again. After all, the cover photograph shows MacArthur's return.

Robin Moyer, who was then the Time contract photographer in Southeast Asia, remembers:

Carl and Shelley arrived in Manila in early January, checked into the Manila Hotel and immediately set about work. His special assignment was to cover the Marcos campaign.

Despite the fact he was 79 years old at the time, his boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired our shooters like James Nachtwey, Peter Charlesworth and Susan Meiselas. The Filipino photographers adopted

Carl as one of their own, reserving the best vantage places for him in the photo melees.

Even Imelda Marcos got into the act, proclaiming Carl an old-time friend of the family. "We've known Carl for years. He is world-famous and much taller than his son."

Carl's response was simple. "I met Imelda for the first time last week and Seth is much taller than I am."

Carl's tireless work in the sweltering heat of Manila produced some outstanding images, including one of the several covers during the campaign and a singularly stunning image that showed not only his skill as a photographer, but his sense of history.

At the final rally of the Marcos campaign, having worked his way through a crowd estimated at over a million people, past several layers of photographers and around the security teams surrounding Marcos and his wife, Carl mounted the stage and made what may be the best image of our months of coverage. Reminiscent of the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" photo, Carl snapped a picture of Marcos smugly holding up a banner headline proclaiming "MARCOS WINS!"

Photographer Peter Charlesworth picked up the story:

As the press jostled for positions at a press conference to be given by President Marcos, I believe it was Robin Moyer who somehow instilled some discipline into the rabble of cameramen and photographers, setting them into tiered, orderly ranks. Carl was waiting, kneeling quietly in the front row.

Marcos arrived out of a side door and sat in front of a desk, whereupon Carl leapt up, leaned over the desk and started to make close-up portraits of the ailing dictator. Had this been anyone else, the verbal abuse from the massed press, whose views had been blocked, would have been deafening. A camera to the back of the head would have been more likely.

Nothing. There was a stunned silence as Marcos's security guards wondered what to do. Such was the awe in which Carl was held by the Filipino press corps - indeed, by all those present - that nobody moved. After a while, there were a few murmurs from those in the front row, "Er,  excuse me, Mr. Mydans, ..." as Carl continued to snap away, "er, Mr. Mydans "

At which point Carl turned around and cast a glance back at the gob-smacked photographers. With a mischievous grin he muttered, "Oh, I am so sorry," as if he had completely forgotten that anyone else was there, then shuffled back to his position in the front row.

In his last years, his friends continually visited Carl. These visits were a source of great joy.

We shall all miss him. We will not see his kind again.

© Dirck Halstead
Editor and Publisher of the Digital Journalist

Carl Mydans: The Early  Years October 1 - November 21

A Child Protects Her Brother from a Stranger with a Camera, Tsingtao, China



SAVE THE DATE - A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN WILKES: SAVE ELLIS ISLAND

Stephen Wilkes: Curved Corridor, Island 2, Ellis Island

On Sunday, November 7, join the Save Ellis Island Foundation for a very special tour and talk with Stephen Wilkes.

Included will be an illustrated presentation by renowned photographer Stephen Wilkes, who will discuss his work and the personal project that involved photographing the south side of Ellis Island...the inspiration for his poignant book "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom".

For the very first time, since the book was published, Stephen Wilkes visits Ellis Island to present his work, taking us on a journey to our collective past. The event begins at 10:00 am, starting with a fabulous brunch followed by Stephen's presentation and finally a emotional and inspirational walking tour of the unrestored south side Hospital Buildings.

-Each guest will be presented with an autographed copy of Stephen's book, "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" and a few additional surprises in a gift bag provided by your host, Save Ellis Island

-Seats are limited for this one-time fundraising event

-Donations: Individual $1,000 - Order tickets on line. For corporate reservations, please call 973-347-8400

-Complimentary transportation provided from Battery park, New York City and Liberty State Park, New Jersey

-To lean more, visit http://www.saveellisisland.org/

Ticket information here.

"In the southern shadows of Ellis Island’s Great Hall, forgotten by history and ill-equipped in its battle with nature, I came upon the ruins of a vast hospital: the contagious-disease wards and isolation rooms for the people whose spirits carried them across oceans but whose bodies failed them, just inches from Paradise. What I was obsessed to do, almost as if I was chosen to do it, was document the light and the energy and living spirit of this place. I added no light of my own, nor any artifice of the photographic craft. I wasn’t simply interested in graphics born from the patina of ruin. I just wanted to record the place as I found it."

--Stephen Wilkes


View Stephen Wilkes' Ellis Island Collection here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

Bill Eppridge: John Lennon, The Plaza, New York City, February, 1964

Previous: Brian Hamill Remembers John Lennon

Happy 70th Birthday John Lennon (With LENNONNYC film information)

BRIAN HAMILL REMEMBERS JOHN LENNON

John Lennon: The Dakota Rooftop, February 24, 1975

In our previous post, we wrote about what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday October 9, and the new film, LENNONNYC.

Photographer Brian Hamill photographed John Lennon on three occasions. Like many of his generation, Brian has profound memories of John's influence on his life and the times. Here, he shares some of his thoughts on the anniversary of John's 70th birthday.

 JOHN LENNON

There are three crucially important events that happened in my life where I can remember clearly who I was with and what I was doing when they happened. The whole world was a witness to all three of them. They were all defining moments in our global history. Unfortunately, they all involved the death of good people.

The assassination of JFK on 11/22/1963.
The assassination of John Lennon on 12/8/1980.
The assassination of more than 2,752 people at the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11/2001.

If you were alive with a working memory during all three you will probably feel as I do and remember most of the sad details. I can also throw in, with the same importance and feeling of “coming together” in our grief afterward, the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy too. It is very sad to have to remember and celebrate great people in this way, but because of this unique time in our troubled history, a big part of me does exactly that--that’s just the way it goes.

I am not going to give you any new perspective or cultural insight into John Lennon, although I will say that for my generation, for many generations, he was a major musical force and a phenomenal creative icon of the 20th century who influenced the world. No doubt about that. Everybody knows.


But I will always remember John Lennon as a quick-witted, vulnerable, stand-up, soft-spoken but unafraid guy. In my short time hanging with him, he spoke only the truth. I only spent time with him twice. I photographed him three times. They were all as memorable in my brain and in my heart as the awful day when he got murdered by a two-bit swine.  On  the night of 12/8/80, I was sitting in a rocking chair of my living room at my country house in Rhinecliff, NY, holding my three week old infant daughter Cara in my arms, just the two of us were there, listening to music together on the radio, me with the goofy faces and smiles and the baby talk, when suddenly the music was interrupted by a bulletin stating that John Lennon had been murdered. Projectile tears instantly shot out of my eyes onto my beautiful daughter. I had never cried like that. They were such immediate, forceful tears. I will never forget the combination, a one-two punch on the chin, of celebrating the wonderful joy of fatherhood one moment that was completely shattered in a split second moment by that painful, horrible news bulletin. John Lennon, dead!? Nooooooooooo!

John Lennon never got to fully mature as a man. The dude was only forty years old! He never really got to bring his full genius to all of us. Although, he certainly brought us some real genius. He never got to share more of that fun and laughter and wackiness with Yoko that we all were lucky enough to glimpse in a small way, and you certainly know a lot more of that was on their horizon. He never got to spend a lot of quality time with his nice sons. Yet he gave us all so much. Those John Lennon tears of mine will never fully dry.

He will be missed forever.

IMAGINE?

John Lennon: Madison Square Garden, New York, August 30, 1972

More photographs by Brian Hamill here.

Join us Friday, October 22 5 - 7 as we welcome Brian with a reception in conjuction with the Santa Fe Film Festival

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

October 9, 2010 would have been John Lennon's 70th Birthday.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, New York

Across the world, special events will recognize what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, October 9th, 2010. In New York's Central Park, home of the John Lennon "Imagine" memorial, a free, public screening of the American Masters film “LENNONYC” will be held on October 9th, 2010.

The screening, which will be first-come, first served, will take place at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (best reached by entering the park at 69th Street and Fifth Avenue). The screening, which will take place rain or shine, will include picnic style seating so viewers are encouraged to bring blankets. People interested in attending should visit www.thirteen.org/lennon for more information. The screening will start at 7:00 p.m. and doors open at 6:00 p.m. People are encouraged to line up early given there will be limited seating.

The Santa Fe Film Festival has announced a screening of LENNONNYC during the 11th edition of the film festival (October 22-24) at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Tickets for all Santa Fe Film Festival films go on sale October 8 here.  The film will air nationally on PBS on November 22 at 9pm.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, The Dakota, New York

In conjunction with the Santa Fe Film Festival, Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to welcome Brian Hamill to Santa Fe for a very special exhibition of his intimate photographs of John Lennon; as well as his photographs from the sets of classic movies. Brian Hamill will join us Friday, October 22, from 5-7 pm for a public reception. (The photographs are on exhibit now)

Brian Hamill was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the late 1960s, Hamill began a career as a photojournalist covering the Rock & Roll scene as well as the boxing world. He also worked as an assistant to several top fashion photographers.

In the early 1970s he traveled to Northern Ireland to photograph the troubles there, and widened his scope into unit still photographer jobs on movie sets. Since then he has worked as a unit still photographer on over seventy-five movies including twenty-six Woody Allen films, resulting in the much acclaimed coffee table photo book entitled “Woody Allen At Work: The Photographs of Brian Hamill” (Harry N. Abrams, 1995).

Hamill’s work has also appeared in numerous other books, publications and exhibitions including a one-man show at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1995.

See Brian Hamill's photographs here.

Related: Other John Lennon photographs here, and Beatles photographs here.



CARL MYDANS: WITNESS TO HISTORY

On the 6:25 from Grand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963

"All of us live in history, whether we are aware of it or not, and die in drama. The sense of history and of drama comes to a man not because of who he is or what he does, but flickeringly, as he is caught up in events, as his personality reacts, as he sees for a moment his place in the great flowing river of time and humanity. I cannot tell you where our history is leading us, or through what suffering, or into what era of war or peace. But wherever it is, I know men of good heart will be passing there". -- Carl Mydans

"Chain Gang" of New York Stock Exchange Officers Carries Traded Securities Each Day to Banks and Brokerage Houses, New York, 1937 

See the exhibit "Carl Mydans: The Early Years" here.

Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans: Amon Carter Museum Showcases a Special Documentary Photography Exhibition

Margaret Bourke-White: You Have Seen Their Faces: Little boy and hound dog, 1936 Gelatin silver print  ©Time Inc.

FORT WORTH, TX.- On October 2, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White. This special exhibition explores the work of three of the foremost photographers of the twentieth-century and the golden age of documentary photography in America. American Modern will be on view through January 2, 2011; admission is free.

Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Manhattan Bridge Looking Up, 1936. Gelatin silver print. The Art Institute of Chicago, Works Progress Administration Allocation, 1389.1943

Featuring more than 140 photographs by Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Margaret Bourke-White (1906–1971) and Walker Evans (1903–1975), American Modern was co-organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. The exhibition is the result of a unique partnership between three curators: Jessica May and Sharon Corwin of the Carter and Colby, respectively, and Terri Weissman, assistant professor of art history at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Together, the three curators present the works of these three artists as case studies of documentary photography during the Great Depression and demonstrate how three factors supported the development of documentary photography during this important period in American history: first, the expansion of mass media; second, a new attitude toward and acceptance of modern art in America; and third, government support for photography during the 1930s.

Walker Evans (1903–1975), People in Downtown Havana, 1933. Gelatin silver print © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“This exhibition considers the work of three of the best-loved American photographers in a new light, which is very exciting,” says curator Jessica May. “Abbott, Evans, and Bourke-White are undisputed masters of the medium of photography, but they have never been shown in relation to one another. This exhibition offers viewers an opportunity to see works together that have not been shown as such since the 1930s.”

In addition to vintage photographs from over 20 public and private collections, the exhibition also features rare first-edition copies of select books and periodicals from the 1930s. American Modern, May says, “reminds us that documentary photography was very much a public genre—this was the first generation of photographers that truly anticipated that their work would be seen by a vast audience through magazines and books.”

More from the Amon Carter Museum here.

©ArtDaily.com

55 YEARS AGO: JAMES DEAN DIED

Richard C. Miller: James Dean besides his car during the filming of "Giant"

En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955.

James Dean was a legendary hero with a legendary story; live fast and die young. For over half a century, he has captured the world with his casual style, unflinching look and rebel attitude. James Dean has defined the essence of cool and without-a-cause for generations. His star continues to shine brighter and brighter.


Never has there ever been, never will there ever be. The one, the only, James Dean. (See the official James Dean site here.)

James Dean was a photographer's dream subject, resulting in many now-iconic images.

Sid Avery: James Dean on the set of "Rebel Without A Cause", 1955

Richard C. Miller worked for This Week, Liberty, Family Circle, Parents, American Weekly, Colliers, Life, and Time; as well as documenting Hollywood. For seven decades, he made a living working for North American Aviation and later as stringer for Globe Photos, which kept him circulating in the universe of stars; and he covered more than seventy films.


His first on-location assignment was for Giant (1955), where his job was to shadow James Dean. When Dean died, many pictures of him were sold, becoming iconic images since he and Dean had developed a close relationship based on a mutual interest in Porsches and photography.
 
 

Richard C. Miller: James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor take a break from filming "Giant"