Happy Birthday Steve McQueen

John Domins: Steve McQueen aims a pistol

Steve McQueen would be 82 today.

"Racing is life....everything before and after is just waiting."

La Lettre de la Photographie: Steve McQueen by John Dominis


See John Dominis' photographs of Steve McQueen at the AIPAD Photography Show, Monroe gallery of Photography, booth #419.

Heading East

Margaret Bourke-White: A DC-4 flying over New York, 1939

Looking forward to seeing everyone at The AIPAD Photography Show next week!

Two journalists were handcuffed and detained by Chicago police outside a hospital over the weekend as they waited to speak with the family of a 6-year-old girl who was murdered

“Your First Amendment rights can be terminated if you create a scene. Your First Amendment rights have limitations.” The journalists asked how they were creating a scene, and the arresting officer responded, “Your presence is creating a scene.”

Full article with video here via Reporters Committee For Freedom of The Press

Related: Photojournalist Under Attack

Why This Photograph is Worth $578,500

The art world acknowledges this unique significance and reflects it in the monetary value placed on the works. So is a $4.3 million too much to pay for the world’s most expensive photograph? Considering that it less than two percent of what was paid for the most expensive painting, I’d say it’s a bargain.

Why This Photograph is Worth $578,500

Photo: Photojournalist Under Attack

©Thomson Reuters/Yannis Behrakis



Via Photo District News

A Sign of Restive Times: Policeman Punches Photojournalist

Although this image of a Greek police officer punching a news photographer at an Athens street protest was shot last fall, it didn’t come to our attention until yesterday. But the passage of several months makes it no less dramatic or shocking. And it remains timely for what it represents: the tensions between police and media all over the world, including the US, where Occupy protests show signs of stirring once again. In this image, shot by Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis, a police officer punches veteran photojournalist Tatiana Bolari, co-owner of the Greek photo agency Eurokinisi. The incident occurred at an anti-austerity protest on October 5 when police moved against a group of photographers and journalists covering the event, Behrakis told PDN.

Related: Freedon of the Press?

First Look: The AIPAD Photography Show

<><>   Stephen Wilkes, Coney Island, Day To Night, 2011 Monroe Gallery of Photography Booth #419

Via Gotham Magazine

Whether you’re seeking that perfect print by Diane Arbus (you know the one, the identical twin girls in pinafores) or something new from a contemporary photographer, such as a multimedia wall relief made of LED lights by Jim Campbell, you’ll likely find what you’re looking for at the annual photography fair organized by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, better known as AIPAD. Now in its 32nd year, AIPAD will be held at the Park Avenue Armory from March 29 through April 1, with offerings ranging from rare 19th-century material to the latest works by today’s digital artists.

“AIPAD is definitely worth two or three visits, not one drive-through,” says William Hunt, a top collector in the field.

THE PHOTO LEAGUE: VIVIAN CHERRY

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Vivian Cherry: "Ocu-Lav", Hell's Kitchen, c. 1950's.

Today's New York Times Lens Blog has another wonderful article about The New York Photo League.  Photographer Vivian Cherry is quoted in the article:

"Ms. Cherry was drawn to the Photo League because the work of its members tended to avoid the soft-focused, painterly style of the day. “I was in a fantasy world when I was a dancer,” she said. “And this was reality. And so much was going on in that period. And I wanted to be part of it.”
She was interested New York’s poorer neighborhoods. “Maybe I identified with them more,” she said. And she wanted to tell a story. She recalls the shock she felt when she came upon the scene of her 1947 photograph “Playing Lynched” (Slide 8). “The interesting thing about it was that this was in East Harlem,” she said. “And it wasn’t only black kids. They interchanged parts.”

Vivian Cherry: Game of Lynching, Harlem, 1947

Vivian Cherry was born in New York City. While performing as a dancer on Broadway and nightclubs in the early 1940s, she began working as a photographic printer in the darkroom for Underwood & Underwood, a prominent photo service to news organizations. It was here that Cherry became a talented printer. Wanting to further her interest in photography Cherry joined the Photo League, an organization formed by professional photographers in the 1930s to teach and support the art of photography. She studied with Sid Grossman. Soon Cherry was selling her photographic essays to such publications as Life, Look, Popular Photography, Sports Illustrated and Redbook. Then later, she was given assignments by Colliers, Pageant, This Week, Jubilee, Scope, and other magazines. Cherry was one of a handful of women at the time to be given assignments by such major publications. Cherry also made several short films and worked with the photographer Arnold Eagle as a still photographer on a film about Lee Strasberg and the historic drama school, the Actor’s Studio.

Over the years Cherry has traveled and photographed extensively in New York City, West Virginia, Georgia, England and Mexico. Although her photographs cover a wide range of cities, the images are universal. Through her lens she captures everyday life of the children, men and women on the streets of the world. One is hard pressed to distinguish between the old stodgy men on the sidewalks of London and the ones sitting on a bench in Washington Square park. Or to see any differences in the somber and sullied faces of the children in Hell’s Kitchen and the ones in the alleyways of England.

Likewise, the sense of weariness and forlorn gazes are not lost on the viewer when comparing the two images of the elderly woman from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia and the older women riding the Third Avenue El in New York City. It seems that no matter what street corner she is on, Vivian Cherry has the innate ability to look through her camera and produce a portrait that reflects a sense of life that is both timeless and ageless. 

In 2000 The Brooklyn Museum of Art presented a major exhibition of Vivian Cherry’s photographs. Vivian Cherry is still actively photographing, and the book “HELLUVA TOWN: Vivian Cherry's New York of the 1940s-1950s”will be published in 2007.

“These photographs are of work done over a half a century by a gifted artist who represents the countless photographers who turned us into a nation of observers who still get most of their information from imagery. This is the personal statement of the impersonal world as viewed by a "Working Street Photographer". -Barbara Head Millstein, Curator of Photographs, Brooklyn Museum of Art

Mohammed Ali ©Steve Schapiro

“As a photographer you are looking for the same emotional moments 
and design elements that might lead to an iconic image. The only 
différence is that in the ‘so called’ real world, you usually do not know what might happen next, but on a film set, if you have read the script you have a good idea what the next moments will bring“.--Steve Schapiro

View Steve Schapiros photography during the AIPAD Photography Show at Monroe Gallery, Booth #419

AIPAD Photography Show Panel Discussions

Via AIPAD

AIPAD Panel Discussions
Saturday, March 31
SPONSORED BY RYERSON IMAGE CENTRE

Top curators, collectors, artists, critics, and gallerists will take part in AIPAD Panel Discussions during the run of The AIPAD Photography Show New York on Saturday, March 31. Please note the new location at Hunter College (one block from the Park Avenue Armory on the corner of East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue).

Tickets are $10 per person, per session, and will be available for purchase at the Park Avenue Armory during Show hours (Thursday through Saturday, as available). Tickets are limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. See detailed information below.

10 AM

A Conversation with Rineke Dijkstra Contemporary women photographers are being feted in a number of solo exhibitions at top museums across the country this year. This interview with the internationally recognized Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra will offer a rare opportunity to hear about her inspirations and thoughts before her upcoming retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in June 2012. The interview will be conducted by Jennifer Blessing, curator of photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

12 PM

Curator’s Choice: Emerging Artists in PhotographyTwo major exhibitions in New York City during the run of The AIPAD Photography Show New York are of note—the Whitney Biennial 2012 at the Whitney Museum and Perspectives 2012 at the International Center for Photography. This panel will feature top curators discussing trends in photography and video. Panelists will include: Sarah Meister, curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Christopher Phillips, curator, International Center for Photography, New York; and Joshua Chuang, assistant curator, photography, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

2 PM

How to Collect Photographs: What Collectors Need to Know NowWhat important artists are being talked about right now? What do collectors need to know? What art fairs should be on your calendar? How has the photography market changed in recent years? Seasoned collectors will offer tips for both first-time and experienced buyers. Speakers will include: Kenneth Montague, director, Wedge Curatorial Projects, Toronto; and Joseph Baio, collector, New York. The moderator will be Steven Kasher, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York.

4 PM

A Celebration of Francesca WoodmanTo commemorate the traveling retrospective of Francesca Woodman (organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), experts will talk about the importance of this groundbreaking artist and her enduring legacy. Panelists will include: Julia Bryan-Wilson, associate professor, art history, University of California, Berkeley; Sloan Keck, designer, and friend of Francesca Woodman; and Elisabeth Subrin, artist and assistant professor, department of film and video, Temple University, Philadelphia.

6 PM

Italian Contemporary PhotographyDuring the run of The AIPAD Photography Show New York, an important exhibition will be on view at Hunter Art Gallery, New York. Peripheral Visions: Italian Photography, 1950s – Present will showcase the work of major Italian photographers who have explored unconventional images of Italy. The moderator will be Sandra Phillips, senior curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Speakers will include: Maria Antonella Pelizzari, exhibition curator and professor, history of photography, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY; Yancey Richardson, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York; Julie Saul, Julie Saul Gallery; and Olivo Barbieri, artist.

Ticket InformationTickets are $10 per person, per session, and will be available for purchase at the Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue at East 67th Street) during Show hours (Thursday, March 29 through Saturday, March 31, as available). Tickets are limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tickets will not be sold on-site at Hunter College. We encourage you to purchase tickets at the Park Avenue Armory before Saturday, March 31.

Panel Discussions Location

This year, due to the high level of interest, AIPAD Panel Discussions will be held in the Hunter West Building at Hunter College. The entrance to the Hunter West Building is located on the corner of East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, just one block from the Park Avenue Armory. Enter through the West Lobby and proceed to the sixth floor, room HW 615. Photo ID may be required.

The 6 train stops directly under Hunter College at the 68th Street station. There is an entrance to the Hunter West Building in the subway station. Turn right upon exiting the turnstile and the entrance will be directly in front of you.

For detailed directions, visit the Hunter College website. For more information about The AIPAD Photography Show New York or the AIPAD Panel Discussions, call +1.202.367.1158 or email info@aipad.com.

Visit Monroe Gallery of Photography during the exhibition at Booth #419,

BRIAN HAMILL: "has contributed to some of the most memorable images taken during the 60’s and 70’s"

Brian Hamill: Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Brooklyn, 1979


Via The Impossible Cool


Ansel Adams was once quoted as saying “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” A man this could not ring truer for is photographer Brian Hamill. A New York City native that has seen it all,

The image above of De Niro and Pesci first caught my eye from Brian’s catalog of work, but as you start to dig, the faces that shaped our world in the 1960’s and 70’s begin to emerge from behind his lens.

Recently I sat down with him at my local coffee spot, Minerva Cafe, to hear a few stories and to provide a link between images on this site and the eye behind them. After the break is our conversation along with a few photos you might recognize. Enjoy. (Full post here)

Brian Hamill

Visit Monroe Gallery of Photography (Booth #419) during the AIPAD Photography Show March 28 - April 1 to view some of Brian Hamill's photographs.

Related: Brian Hamill Remembers John Lennon

John Lennon, Rooftop of The Dakota, 1975