Monroe Gallery of Photojournalism brings art and history together

Michelle and Sidney Monroe, owners of Monroe Gallery, celebrate 10 years in Santa Fe of showcasing some of the 20th-century’s most notable news photographers and their works. 

- Natalie Guillén/The New Mexican

Via The Santa Fe New Mexican



Dennis Carroll | For The New Mexican
Posted: Tuesday, January 10, 2012-



'It was just one of those lightbulb-pops-on-in-your-head moments," recalled Sidney Monroe of Monroe Gallery of Photography. "You're sitting across from a genius ... and every single picture he showed us was like, 'I know that, I know that, I know that.' "

Monroe, who with his wife, Michelle, is celebrating his 10th year in Santa Fe, was talking about the couple's first meeting in 1985 with famed Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, then in his '80s.

It was at that encounter with the great photographer in the Time-Life Building in New York, Sidney remembers, that "art and history crashed together" for the couple and their venture into photojournalism-as-art began.

Sidney had been working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Michelle, for the Smithsonian Institution offices in New York. The two were engaged.

"We both had separate paths that merged when we met Alfred Eisenstaedt," Michelle said.

Sidney was assembling a collection of Eisenstaedt's works for a gallery he was managing in Manhattan, which even then was considered a risky venture for an art gallery.

Eisenstaedt introduced the Monroes to other news photographers and soon the two had their own gallery. But challenges lay ahead, not only with collectors and dealers dubious about investing in news photos, but with photographers as well.

"Our concept was completely new for them as well," Michelle said. "As photojournalists, they'd never been asked to exhibit."

"It was exhilarating and a struggle at the same time," she said of their start-up gallery in New York. "There were a handful of established photography galleries, but nobody was showing photojournalism."

However, added Sidney, in the long run "we were lucky that we had found something that everybody had ignored."

After Sept. 11, 2001, the Monroes found the going tough at their Grand Street location just a few blocks from ground zero, and other locations seemed unsuitable. So it was off to New Mexico, home of Sidney's parents, whom the Monroes had frequently visited.

The Monroe Gallery of Photography at 112 Don Gaspar St. features the photos of more than 50 renowned news photographers, most in black and white — photographically the predominant shades of the early and mid-20th century.

The photos go back to the Great Depression, through World War II and past the eras of Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King Jr., the Beatles, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and into the present with Nina Berman's photos of America's "Purple Heart" warriors of Afghanistan and Iraq.

You may well not recognize, or only vaguely be familiar with, many of the photographers' names — Charles Moore, Eddie Adams, Bill Eppridge or Jeff Widener, for example — but it's likely their photos are part of your or your parents' consciousness:

Moore's photo of King being arrested in Montgomery, Ala., Adams' wrenching shot of the Saigon police chief executing a Viet Cong prisoner, Eppridge's gripping picture of Robert F. Kennedy lying near death on the kitchen floor in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and Widener's picture of the Chinese man defying a squadron of tanks in Tiananmen Square.

The Monroes' black-and-white chronicle of the 20th century's iconic news photos is coming to an end in the sense that many of the photographers have died and their prints are no longer available.

"We see the end of an image constantly," Michelle said. "That was the last one that was signed. It's over."

As an example, the Monroes cited many of Eisenstaedt's photos — his famous picture of a menacing Joseph Goebbels, or Winston Churchill in top hat and coat gesturing the V-for-victory sign.

But as the mid-20th century photojournalists fade away, new faces and the faces they shoot emerge.

The Monroes cited Joe McNally, Nina Berman, Stephen Wilkes, and Eric Smith.

"As long as humans make history," [news photo galleries] will be here," Michelle said.

ON THE WEB

* http://www.monroegallery.com/

Bill Eppridge:

Busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort Presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy after assassination attempt, June 5, 1968  ©Time Inc.

Happy Birthday, Daguerreotype

A daguerreotype created by Daguerre

Via Wired

Jan. 9, 1839: Say 'Cheese'

Tony Long 01.09.07

1839: Daguerreotype, an early photographic process, is announced to the world by the French Academy of Sciences.

The process, perfected by French artist and chemist Louis Daguerre in collaboration with Joseph Niépce, exposed an image directly onto a sheet of copper coated with photosensitive silver halide. Heat was used to bring up a latent image, then the image was permanently "fixed" to the plate by dipping it in a hyposulphite of soda.

Although daguerreotype was not the only photographic method available, it cut production time dramatically, making commercial photography a viable business. A conspicuous drawback to the process was that once fixed, the photograph could not be reproduced.

Daguerreotype enjoyed a relatively short vogue; by 1860 it had been largely supplanted by the albumen print, the first commercial process that produced photographic prints on paper.

(Source: Various)

Based on an anonymous tip that the Lovings were illegally living as a married couple in Caroline County, sheriff Garnett Brooks and two deputies burst into the Lovings’ bedroom on July 11, 1958 at 2 a.m. When Richard explained that the woman in bed with him was his wife, Brooks replied, “Not here she’s not.”

HBO and the Museum of Tolerance invite you and a guest to a special screening of

THE LOVING STORY

An exclusive screening for Museum of Tolerance members only
 Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7:00pm

A racially-charged criminal trial and a heart-rending love story converge in this documentary about Mildred and Richard Loving, a part-black, part-Indian woman married to a white man in Jim Crow era Virginia. Thrown into rat-infested jails and exiled from their hometown for 25 years, the Lovings fought back and changed history. They were paired with two young and ambitious lawyers who were driven to pave the way for social justice and equal rights through a historic Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia. THE LOVING STORY takes us on a journey into the heart of race relations in America. But, in the end, it is a poignant love story of two people who simply wanted to live in the place they called home.

This film, with its contemporary parallels, will live on as record of monumental change, not just in civil rights then, but in the human right to pursue happiness regardless of color, gender or creed.
Q & A with Director Nancy Buirski and Producer Elisabeth Haviland James.
Dessert reception to follow.

There is no charge for the screening but pre-registration is required.
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Download a flyer here

More about The Loving Story movie here

View Grey Villet's photographs of the Lovings in Los Angeles during photo la, January 12 - 16, at Monroe Gallery of Photography Booth B-500.

Related: New York Times feature: Grey Villet's photographs of the Lovings; International Center of Photography exhibit

John Edwin Mason: Grey Villet, Interracial Love, and Drag Racing, 1965

Tyler Hicks Photos of rescue of Iranian fishermen by US Navy in Gulf of Oman

Just in case you thought there was no more "great" photojournalism, check out this from Tyler Hicks of the NY Times:

"In a naval action that mixed diplomacy, drama and Middle Eastern politics, the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis broke up a high-seas pirate attack on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, then sailors from an American destroyer boarded the pirates’ mother ship and freed 13 Iranian hostages who had been held captive there for more than a month."

Slide show here.

Article here.

Eve Arnold: Born 21 April 1912; Died 4 January 2012

Eve Arnold: Marilyn Monroe rehearsing lines on the set of "The Misfits", 1960

"Her intimate, sensitive and compassionate ten year collaboration with Marilyn Monroe has cemented her as one of the most iconic portrait photographers of our time, but it is the long term reportage stories that drove Arnold's curiosity and passion."--Magnum Photos agency



The Guardian: The big picture: Bar Girl in a Brothel in the Red Light District, Havana, 1954



The Independant:  All about Eve: photographer blazed a bold, beautiful trail with pictures


La Lettre de la Photographie: The death of Eve Arnold, by former Director of Magnum, Jimmy Fox



Financial Times: American photographer Eve Arnold dies aged 99

BBC: Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies aged 99

BBC Slideshow: In pictures: The work of photographer Eve Arnold


Los Angeles Times: Eve Arnold dies at 99; pioneering photojournalist

NPR The Picture Show: Photojournalist Eve Arnold Dies At 99

TIME Light Box: Eve Arnold: April 12, 1912—January 4, 2012


New York Times: Photojournalist Eve Arnold Dies at 99


NY Times Lens Blog: Parting Glance: Eve Arnold


The Guardian: Eve Arnold Celebrated Magnum photographer who documented the stars, 'the poor, the old and the underdog'


The Telegraph: American photographer Eve Arnold dies aged 99

Associated Press: Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies at 99 (with video interview)


British Journal of Photography: Magnum photographer Eve Arnold dies

                                                   Magnum photographer Eve Arnold dies [update]

Photo District News: Photographer Eve Arnold Dies


Magnum: selection of UK press clippings, obits and  tributes to Eve Arnold

Magnum Slideshow


Bookmark this page for updates and more tributes.

"You got that credential you’re wearing from us, and we can take it away from you.”

This is not a good story to start 2012 with: "The Rules on News Coverage Are Clear, but the Police Keep Pushing". See related with new update at end of scroll.

Via The New York Times:
January 2, 2012

In late November, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, ordered every precinct in his domain to read a statement. Officers, the commissioner said, must “respect the public’s right to know about these events and the media’s right of access to report.”

Any officer who “unreasonably interferes” with reporters or blocks photographers will be subject to disciplinary actions.

These are fine words. Of course, his words followed on the heels of a few days in mid-November when the police arrested, punched, kicked and used metal barriers to ram reporters and photographers covering the Occupy Wall Street protests.

And recent events suggest that the commissioner should speak more loudly. Ryan Devereaux, a reporter, serves as Exhibit 1A that all is not well.

On Dec. 17, Mr. Devereaux covered a demonstration at Duarte Square on Canal Street for “Democracy Now!,” a news program carried on 1,000 stations. Ragamuffin demonstrators surged and the police pushed back. A linebacker-size officer grabbed the collar of Mr. Devereaux, who wore an ID identifying him as a reporter. The cop jammed a fist into his throat, turning Mr. Devereaux into a de facto battering ram to push back protesters.

“I yelled, ‘I’m a journalist!’ and he kept shoving his fist and yelling to his men, ‘Push, boys!’ ”

Eventually, with curses and threats to arrest Mr. Devereaux, the officer relaxed his grip.

You don’t have to take his word. An Associated Press photograph shows this uniformed fellow grinding a meat-hook fist into the larynx of Mr. Devereaux, who is about 5 feet 5 inches. A video, easily found online, shows an officer blocking a photographer for The New York Times at the World Financial Center, jumping to put his face in front of the camera as demonstrators are arrested in the background.

And three nights ago, at a New Year’s Eve demonstration at Zuccotti Park, a captain began pushing Colin Moynihan, a reporter covering the protest for The Times. After the reporter asked the captain to stop, another officer threatened to yank away his police press pass. “That’s a boss; you do what a boss tells you,” the officer said, adding a little later, “You got that credential you’re wearing from us, and we can take it away from you.”

Reporting and policing can be high-adrenaline jobs. . But the decade-long trajectory in New York is toward expanded police power. Officers routinely infiltrate groups engaged in lawful dissent, spy on churches and mosques, and often toss demonstrators and reporters around with impunity.

When this is challenged, the police commissioner and the mayor often shrug it off and fight court orders. The mayor even argued that to let the press watch the police retake Zuccotti Park would be to violate the privacy of protesters. “It wouldn’t be fair,” he said.

As arguments go, this is perversely counterintuitive. But the mayor’s words reflect, as State Senator Eric Adams, the civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel and two others wrote in a recent letter to the commissioner, a misunderstanding of long-established patrol guide procedures. The regulations are clear:

“The media will be given access as close to the activity as possible, with a clear line of sight and within hearing range of the incident.”

Precisely the opposite occurred on Nov. 15, when police officers herded reporters into a pen out of sight and sound of Zuccotti Park.

The next day, the protesters moved north and briefly occupied a lot owned by Trinity Church. As the police closed in on demonstrators, they also handcuffed and arrested Associated Press and Daily News reporters. Mayoral press representatives stoutly insisted that the police acted properly. “It is impossible to say the reporters were not breaking the law,” a spokesman wrote to me.
Let me venture into the world of the impossible then. The police patrolmen’s guide is explicit. “Members of the media,” it states, “will not be arrested for criminal trespass unless an owner expressly indicates ... that the press is not to be permitted.”

I checked with the landlord, Trinity Church. They’d made no such call. Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner, agreed. That is why, he noted in an e-mail, “The reporter arrests at Duarte were voided.”

Senator Adams retired as a police captain. He loved the blue and all it implied, and acknowledges he was not above cursing the laws that restrained him.

“Who wouldn’t like unlimited power?” he said.

That is precisely why the past decade worries him so. “If the police and the mayor won’t follow their own rules, whose rules will they follow?” he says. “And very few people ask any questions.”
New York, Mr. Adams says, “is leading the way in not wanting to know where it’s going.”

E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com
Twitter: @powellnyt

Related:


NEW: Police have raided the Brooklyn studio of Globalrevolution.tv and taken some of the project's key volunteers into custody

The New York Times Sends Angry Letter to NYPD Over Blocked Photographer

 NYPD orders officers not to interfere with press

 "We are alarmed at the arrests of working news professionals..."

 Video Shows Oakland Police Shooting Photographer

JEFF WIDENER: Tiananmen Square Tank Man

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to be representing photojournalist Jeff Widener.

 
Jeff Widener (born August 11, 1956 in Long Beach, California) is an American photographer, best known for his image of the "Tank Man" confronting a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Beijing riots which made him a nominated finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer. Prior to the picture, Widener was injured during the night event of June 3rd, 1989 after a stray rock hit him in the head during a mob scene on the Chang-An Boulevard. His Nikon F3 titanium camera absorbed the blow, sparing his life. The "Tank Picture," repeatedly circulated around the globe, (except in China where it is banned) and is now widely held to be one of the most recognized photos ever taken. America On Line selected it as one of the top ten most famous images of all time.

Jeff grew up in Southern California where he attended Los Angeles Pierce College and Moorpark College majoring in photojournalism. In 1974 he received the Kodak Scholastic National Photography Scholarship beating out 8,000 students from across the United States. The prize included a study tour of East Africa.

 In 1978, Widener started as a newspaper photographer in California and later in Nevada and Indiana. At age 25, he accepted a position in Brussels, Belgium as a staff photographer with United Press International. His first foreign assignment was the Solidarity riots in Poland.

Through the years, he has covered assignments in over 100 countries involving civil unrest and wars to social issues. He was the first photojournalist to file digital images from the South Pole. In 1987, he was hired as Associated Press Picture Editor for Southeast Asia where he covered major stories in the region from the Gulf War to the Olympics. Other beats included East Timor, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma, Syria, Jordan, India, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan and many more.

Widener is now based in Hamburg, Germany. The iconic Tiananmen Square photograph will be on exhibit in Booth B-500 during Photo LA, January 13 - 16, 2012.

More
Read: Eyewitness at Tiananmen Square, 1989
Interview with Jeff Widener, "Tank Man" Photographer

Great read by John Edwin Mason: Grey Villet, Interracial Love, and Drag Racing, 1965

Grey Villet: Richard and Mildred Loving watching drag races from the pit area, Sumerduck dragway, Sumerduck, Va., 1965



More about the story of Richard and Mildred Loving.

NEW MEXICO AT 100



New Mexico Centennial

On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47th State in the U.S.

Continuing throughout 2012, communities statewide will commemorate one hundred years of New Mexico statehood: telling stories of the past, while envisioning the state’s next hundred years.

At 11:35 on Friday, January 6, 2012, New Mexicans are being encouraged to honk their car horns for 30 seconds to wish the state Happy Birthday. That's the approximate time President William Howard Taft signed New Mexico into statehood a century earlier.


The history of photography in New Mexico is as old as the history of photography itself. Itinerant daguerreotypists were active here as early as the 1840’s. Later, well-equipped photographic expeditions led by men like Alexander Gardner and Timothy O’Sullivan came through New Mexico making documentary surveys for the railroads and government, and helping to feed the appetites of Easterners, eager for pictorial information about the newly opened continent. Read the full article in the Collector's Guide.

More: New Mexico: Photographer's Eden

2012

As we say good-bye to 2011 and hello to 2012, a few thanks are in order.

Thank you to all the extraordinary photographers we have been so fortunate to know, with special heartfelt gratitude to all photojournalists across the world.

Thank you to our friends, clients, and collectors for your support and encouragement.

Thank you to our blog readers, followers, and "social connections". May 2012 bring us all that we need.


"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