Life of Marital Bliss (Segregation Laws Aside)

Grey Villet: Mildred and Richard Loving, King and Queen County,

Virginia in April 1965

We have been covering the forthcoming documentary film about Mildren and Richard Loving, an inter-racial couple who made civil-rights history. "The Loving Story" film will premiere on HBO on Valentine's day, February 14. An exhibition of Grey Villet's vintage photographs is currently on exhibition at the International Center of Photography.

Today's New York Times has a review of the exhibit:

"Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple from Virginia whose marriage prompted a benchmark 1967 Supreme Court ruling overturning state miscegenation laws, are portrayed in “The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet” as heroes who fell into history by accident.

 Grey Villet,  a South African photographer who worked for Life magazine, entered the story in 1965 when he traveled to Virginia to photograph the family, by then living together under an unofficial amnesty with their three children. Mr. Villet shot 73 rolls of film, but Life published only 9 images. The photographer then sent 70 prints to the Lovings. The vintage prints in this show are from that collection, as well as from Mr. Villet’s estate.

The images represent the heyday of social documentary, but also the photo-essay format established by magazines like Life and Look. There is the whiff of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and other 1930s documentarians, but also of W. Eugene Smith, a revered midcentury photo essayist, and David Goldblatt, a South African chronicler of apartheid"  Full post and photographs here.

Concurrently, Monroe Gallery of Photography is opening the exhibition "Grey Villet: The Lovings" on February 3, concurrent with the exhibition "Vivian Maier: Discovered". The exhibition continues through March 18, and Grey Villet's photographs of the Lovings will be on exhibit during the AIPAD Photography Show March 29 - April 1 at Monroe Gallery, Booth #419. Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to represent the Estate of Grey Villet.

Related: Director's Interview: The Loving Story

"LIFE Photographers: What They Saw": masterpieces of the magazine's photographers

La Lettre de la Photographie:

"John Loengard was born in New York City in 1934. He began working as a professional photographer for Life magazine while still a senior at Harvard University. He spent much of his career photographing for Life in its various incarnations, also acting as picture editor of the monthly Life magazine relaunch from 1978-1987. He is the author of eight books on photography including Celebrating The Negative ( Arcade Publishing, 1994), and As I See It ( Vendome Press, 2005 ).

In 1998, John published a book called: "LIFE Photographers: What They Saw" on some of the masterpieces of the magazine's photographers with their commentaries. 
Each week, we are going to share with you the pictures that John talks about. Today we start with two of them."

Life: Loomis Dean
The Andrea Doria

S.S. United States sailing in New York harbor © Andreas Feininger / Time Life

Life: Andreas Feininger
SS United States

Director's Interview: The Loving Story

Grey Villet: Mildred and Richard Loving,

King and Queen County, Virginia in April 1965

This is a compelling, riveting, promotional clip from the HBO documentary "The Loving Story":

Via HBO:  "The Loving Story", Director Nancy Buirski interview

"Almighty God created the races....The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mate"

WEEK IN REVIEW: Selected Photography Stories

Supermarket Pickets, New Jersey, 1963 © Steve Schapiro,

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe

La Lettre de la Photographie has a wrap-up of the 2012 edition of Photo LA, reported by Jeff Dunus with a slide show of highlights here.

Vivian Maier: September 28, 1959, 108th St. East, New York

©Maloof Collection, Ltd.

 

Art Critic Roberta Smith of The New York Times writes a review of 2 concurrent Vivian Maier exhibitions in New York. The exhibition "Vivian Maier: Discovered" opens at Monroe Gallery of Photography on February 3, and continues through April 22.

Grey Villet: Mildred and Richard Loving

The International Center of Photography opened the exhibition "The Lovings Story: Photographs by Grey Villet".  The Amsterman News has the most recent article about this remarkable collection of photographs, taken by Life magazine photographer Grey Villet:

"Brown v. Board of Education. Plessy v. Ferguson. The list of notable court cases that blazed the trail for civil rights in our nation is long, but there is one case that many have forgotten but is no less important: Loving v. Virginia."

More about the Lovings photographs here.


Raw File Blog covers Tim Mantoani's  new book Behind Photographs: Archiving Photographic Legends. "The Tank Man of Tienanmen Square. Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in victory. The portrait of the Afghan Girl on the cover of National Geographic. Many of us can automatically recall these photos in our heads, but far fewer can name the photographers who took them. Even fewer know what those photographers look like." We are very proud that several of Monroe gallery's photographers are featured.

WINTER FIESTA, VIVIAN MAIER, AND SKIING!

Vivian Maier: March 18, 1955, New York, NY

© 2012 Maloof Collection, Ltd

Santa Fe Winter Fiesta : January 27th - February 5th: The Second Annual, 10-day Santa Fe Winter Fiesta is presented by SantaFe.com and the City of Santa Fe and offers an exciting array of exhibits, concerts, parties, culinary experiences, comedy, dining, shopping, hotel and ski discounts and more to help you beat the winter blues! Full details here.

As part of the Fiesta, Monroe Gallery of Photography invites you to join us for the opening reception celebrating the exhibition "Vivian Maier: Discovered" on Friday, February 3, from 5 - 7 PM. The exhibit continues through April 27.

The name Vivian Maier was unfamiliar until recently, because the prolific street photographer was essentially unknown throughout her lifetime. Now, Maier is posthumously being recognized as one of the greatest American street photographers of the 20th Century. The recent discovery of Maier’s pictures has resounded through the photography world and her story has been sweeping the international press, including The New York Times, American Photo, NPR, La Republica, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, CBS News, Smithsonian, and more. Please join us to view this remarkable discovery.

Additionally, the New Mexico Tourism Department has kicked off a year-long Centennial Promotion called "Get the Picture". Figure it out, photograph it, and file it online. Get out there and "Get the Picture" for a chance at the $10,000 prize.

 And, in case you didn't know, New Mexico ski resorts are off to the best start in years! Many of the best skiing conditions in the entire United States are right here!

GREY VILLET: THE LOVINGS

Grey Villet: Richard and Mildred Loving in the spring of 1965

UPDATED: La Lettre de la Photographie:
ICP: Grey Villet and the Loving Story


A must-see post on Wednesday's New York Times Lens Blog:

The Heart of the Matter: Love



Related:

New York Times Sunday Magazine: The Case of Loving v. Bigotry

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

International Center of Photography Exhibit: The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet

The Loving Story Movie Website

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY: MUHAMMAD ALI

Steve Schapiro: Cassius Clay, Lexington, Kentucky, 1963

Via Life.com:
Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Pictures
Via TIME Light Box:
Happy Birthday, Muhammad Ali: 70 Iconic Images for 70 Years
Via ArtDaily.org:
Muhammad Ali is coming home to Louisville to celebrate another milestone — his 70th birthday:
Muhammad Ali returning to Kentucky for 70th birthday- fundraiser for center and museum organized

Via MSNBC:
Muhammad Ali soaked in familiar cheers and chants along with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" on Saturday night as friends and admirers celebrated the boxing champ's coming 70th birthday at a party in his Kentucky hometown.

As party-goers mingled in a lobby of the Muhammad Ali Center before the party, Ali walked slowly to a second-floor balcony overlooking them. The crowd immediately began to clap, then broke into chants of "Ali! Ali!" followed by singing as Ali watched for about two minutes.

Neil Leifer:

But my favorite subject, no matter what the sport, was and still is Muhammad Ali.

I took my most famous picture on May 25, 1965, when Ali stopped Sonny Liston with one punch in the first round of their heavyweight championship fight in Lewiston, Maine. When Sports Illustrated published its special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos," my picture of Ali standing over Liston was the cover, and I was honored and thrilled by SI's choice. "It is a great picture of a key moment, filled with emotion and destined to remain etched in the minds of its viewers," says Steve Fine, SI's director of photography. "You can describe this picture to someone, without showing it to them, and they know exactly what you're talking about. It's a true icon of sports photojournalism." This image represents the way people want to remember Ali: strength, confidence and braggadocio. A two-minute fight might be a major disappointment for the fans, but for a photographer, it doesn't matter whether it goes 15 rounds or 15 seconds. All any editor ever expected from me was a great knockout picture. In Lewiston, the knockout happened exactly where I wanted it to, and my only thought was, "Stay right there, Sonny! Please don't get up!"

 

Muhammad Ali Knocks Out Sonny Liston, Lewiston, Maine, May 25, 1965

“I think his message is the key to world peace, to peace here in this country. And I think Martin Luther King Jr. was so ahead of his time”

Steve Schapiro: Martin Luther King, Alabama, 1965

On this day, we remember Martin Luther King.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, it is the final day for Photo LA 2012:

Grey Villet, Steve Schapiro, and Paul Schutzer photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, at Photo LA (Booth 500).

Related: Throngs reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream

The Politics of Photographs

PROGRAMMING

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15

All general admission and programming tickets can be purchased at boxoffice.

9:30 - 11:00 AM

Docent Tour with Scarlet Cheng


The Politics of Photographs

What do photographs tell us about history, society, and culture, and how? Photojournalism is seen as "objective" -- an event is captured, showing the principals involved. Yet the photographer's selection of subject matter, framing, angle, and context -- Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" -- gives us a world of information and a distinct point of view. In fact, the more distinct and personal, the more memorable the image. Arts photography can do the same, although often with more subtlety and ambiguity. Examples of the politics of both photojournalism and arts photography will be examined in works on display at the fair.

Photo LA Features Work of Masters, Amateurs, the Avant-Garde and Everything in Between

Grey Villet and Paul Schutzer photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe. (Photo by Rebecca Joyce/special to LAist via Flickr)



Via LAist

By Rebecca Joyce/Special to LAist

You might think photography shows are for the collectors and connoisseurs. They’re for people who wear turtlenecks, and sport coats over t-shirts. For people with shiny shoes and who use words like “exquisite” when discussing an artist’s work. People who begin conversations by identifying the art school they attended and sound very important even when discussing lunch.

That’s what I thought, too.

Art buyers and collectors are very important—after all, patrons keep galleries open and make it possible for artists to keep working—but photography shows are for everyone.

In addition to a good collection of works by master photographers, such as Ansel Adams, Photo LA is the place to see what is new and fresh in the photography world, a world ever-growing and constantly changing. Photography is an accessible art, and Photo LA has done everything possible to make this show accessible as well. Anyone who is a lover of photography at any level can be inspired here. There are photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and other works from the 60s, 50s and even earlier.

But for those wanting to see more contemporary work, there is music photography by Jerome Brunet and Ingrid Herfelder, digital work by Catherine Nelson, photographs of urban decay by Thomas Jorion, and the very popular work of Jay Mark Johnson and Stephen Wilkes.

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe. On the right is one of the Stephen Wilkes "Day to Night" photographs. (Photo by Rebecca Joyce/special to LAist via Flickr)

 

There are great resources for photographers on hand. Lucie Foundation, which sponsors photography scholarships and Month of Photography, is currently accepting submissions from photographers at all levels. Women in Photography International accepts submissions for year-round photography contests for women of all levels and provides a way for new photographers to interact with established artists.

Check out the event schedule. In addition to guided tours, there are lectures and panels with photographers, collectors, and curators. For new photographers, the Emerging Focus learning series has educational lectures on topics such as travel photography and fine art printing. A Canon representative will be teaching a class on working with RAW files.

If you need further proof that this show is for everyone, The Emerging Focus installation, featuring finalists of a photography contest open to amateurs, seemed to be the most popular and drew the largest crowd while I was there.

So, collectors, curators, students, artists, professionals, enthusiasts, just-got-a-camera-for-Christmas people, whether you love it or don’t understand it, this photography show is for you.
Photo LA is on exhibit at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium until Monday. For more information about the event check out its website.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.