MEMORIAL DAY 2012

©Eric Smith: Funeral for Iraq War Soldier, Lake Orion, Michigan,2006

A link for reflection on this Memorial Day:


BEDROOMS OF THE FALLEN

"These bedrooms once belonged to men and women who died fighting in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These fallen men and women were blown up by IEDs, RPGs, hand grenades and suicide bombers. They were shot down in ambushes and by snipers. They died in helicopters, in humvees, and in tanks. It all took place thousands of miles away from home, and the country they fought to defend.

The purpose of this project is to honor these fallen – not simply as soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen, but as sons, daughters, sisters and brothers – and to remind us that before they fought, they lived, and they slept, just like us, at home." Click to view


See Also:

  "As Memorial Day Nears, a Single Image That Continues to Haunt"

                 Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

                Monroe Gallery of Photography: Memorial Day, 2011
         
                                                                      Memorial Day, 2010

MINE: Jonathan Blaustein Exhibit

Icicles-photograph by Jonathan Blaustein

New Mexico Arts:
CENTENNIAL PROJECT SPACE
PRESENTS

 
MINE
JONATHAN BLAUSTEIN

OPENING: FRIDAY MAY 25 5-7PM
Closing: July 6, 2012

54 1/2 East San Francisco Street, Suite #2 (Above Haagen Dazs)

Jonathan Blaustein, the Taos-based artist, will be debuting his new conceptual project "MINE" at the NM Arts Centennial Project Space on Friday, May 25th , 2012.

For "MINE," Jonathan spent four seasons mining natural resources on his property in Northern New Mexico, and then brought the harvested objects and animals into his studio to photograph as temporary sculptures. The goal was to objectify Nature and present it as a commodified good in the 21st Century. In the Centennial Project Space, Mr. Blaustein will be exhibiting the photographs, along with a new sculpture, as a site-specific installation.

Contact: Eileen Braziel 505-699-4914
http://eileenbraziel.com/pages/projects.html

 braziel2@mindspring.com

The state of the world's human rights

Amnesty International has just released the 2012 report The State of the World's Human Rights.

A watershed year for activism

"2011 was a truly tumultuous year. Millions of people took to the streets to demand freedom, justice and dignity – some of them securing memorable victories.
Successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt early in the year ignited protests across the region and then the world, stretching from Moscow, London and Athens in Europe, to  Dakar and Kampala in Africa, to New York, La Paz and Cuernavaca in the Americas, to Phnom Penh and Tokyo in Asia.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the pent up grievances and demands of a rising generation exploded onto the streets, sweeping aside or threatening the survival of autocratic regimes that had ruled with iron fists for decades and had seemed invincible.
Inspired by these events, people elsewhere in Africa also risked reprisals by protesting against their desperate social and economic conditions and expressing their desire for political freedoms.
In Europe and Central Asia, as well as the Asia-Pacific region, people repeatedly challenged injustice and violations of their rights. In some cases, governments responded by stepping up already stifling levels of repression. The autocratic regimes in several of the successor states to the Soviet Union, for example, strengthened their grip on power by crushing protests, arresting opposition leaders and silencing dissenting voices.
The demand for human rights also resounded across the Americas – on the streets, in national courts, and in the Inter-American system. The calls for justice from individuals, civil society organizations and Indigenous Peoples gained strength, frequently bringing people into direct confrontation with powerful economic and political interests.
At the heart of many of these conflicts were economic development policies that left many, particularly those living in poverty and marginalized communities, at increased risk of abuse. Many forms of discrimination also continued to engender a sense of injustice that sparked and were reflected in protests around the globe.
All these events and trends are reflected in the Amnesty International Report 2012, which documents the state of human rights in 155 countries and territories in 2011 – the year that Amnesty International celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The report highlights the endemic failure of leadership at a local and international level to protect human rights. It shows that the response of the international community to human rights crises was often marked by fear, prevarication, opportunism and hypocrisy. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the Middle East and North Africa, with markedly different responses to government crackdowns on mass protests across the region.
The failure in leadership was also apparent as governments continued to exploit legitimate concerns over security or high crime rates to justify or to ignore abuses by their own security forces, and failed to hold business corporations to account for their impact on human rights.
As Amnesty International moves into its sixth decade, this report bears witness not only to the plight of those living in the shadow of human rights violations, but also to those who are inspired to take action, often at great personal risk, to secure human rights and dignity for all."

--Amnesty International

Related Exhibition - "People Get Ready" The Struggle For Human Rights"
Monroe Gallery of Photography
July 6 - September 23, 2012

Anatomy of an iconic photograph

(Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / May 20, 2012 )

A Chicago police officer throws a punch at a protester who broke a stick over another officer's head.

Via The Chicago Tribune

James Janega interviews the Tribune's Brian Cassella, who is the photographer behind the photo of a Chicago police officer punching a protester during the NATO summit.

NPPA WORKING TO RELEASE PHOTOGRAPHER ARRESTED AT NATO SUMMIT

 

 Via National Press Photographers Association

CHICAGO, IL (May 21, 2012) – At least one photographer was arrested and another struck over the head with a police baton late Sunday while covering anti-war protesters marching in opposition to the NATO summit in Chicago.

Details are sparse, but photographs posted on Twitter and other Web sites show Getty Images freelance photographer Joshua Lott being arrested on Sunday night,while another photograph shows Getty's Scott Olson with blood streaming down his face after being hit with a Chicago police baton.

Sixty heads of state gathered in Chicago for a two-day NATO meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other global defense issues. Reports say more than 2,500 journalists are there to cover the thousands of protesters who converged on the NATO meeting. Chicago's police responded to the influx of protesters and reporters by deploying thousands of police clad in riot gear, not only Chicago officers but also police pulled in from departments outside of the city.

NPPA's lawyer Mickey H. Osterreicher joined forces with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to support a hotline for journalists arrested or assaulted while covering NATO protesters.

NPPA's lawyer was allowed to meet with Lott in an attorney interview room to let the photojournalist know that NPPA was there and working on his release, and Osterreicher then waited outside a Chicago police station for Lott until he was released shortly before 4 a.m. Monday morning.

Osterreicher said that for the most part, outside of Sunday night's late clash that included Lott, the Chicago police had been "very restrained" in dealing with photographers.

Calls and emails to Getty Images at the editorial picture desk in New York asking for more information have not been answered. Unconfirmed reports say that Lott's cameras were smashed by police, and that while he had been originally arrested on a more serious charge it had been reduced to a lesser charge before he was released on a personal bond.

The photograph posted on Twitter by The Toronto Star of Lott being arrested was credited to Spencer Platt.

There will be more NATO protests in Chicago on Monday.

Related: Department of Justice Warns Police Against Violating Photographers' Rights

Department of Justice Warns Police Against Violating Photographers' Rights

Via PDN
Photo District News


The Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice doesn't mince words in a May 14 letter to the Baltimore Police Department. Citizens have a constitutional right to record police carrying out their public duties, and it is illegal for police to seize and delete the recordings, the letter says. The DOJ goes on to give the BPD a blueprint for re-writing its policies regarding journalists or citizens recording police activities.

The letter, posted on the DOJ web site, could be a powerful tool for photographers (or citizens) who are harassed or arrested anywhere in the country for photographing police activities. It says exactly what National Press Photographers Associations, the ACLU, and others have long argued--one painstaking case at a time-- about citizens' right to record police activities.

"Private individuals have a First Amendment right to record police officers in the public discharge of their duties," the DOJ writes to the Baltimore police. The letter continues, "[O]fficers violate individuals’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when they seize and destroy such recordings without a warrant or due process."

The letter re-iterated the arguments that the DOJ made to a federal court in Maryland earlier this year in a civil rights case involving the Baltimore Police Department. Christopher Sharp sued the BPD in 2011, alleging that police officers had seized, searched, and deleted the contents of his cell phone after he used it to record the officers arresting his friend. The incident took place at the 2010 Preakness Stakes horse race.

BPD said the claim was groundless and asked the court to throw it out. But the DOJ urged the court to rule that private citizens have a First Amendment right to record police carrying out their duties, as well as Fourth and Fourteenth amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure and deprivation of property without due process.

The court agreed, and has allowed the case to proceed. Among Sharp's allegations is that the BPD has a policy of advising its officers to to detain citizens who record police activities and to seize, search, and delete individuals’ recordings. He is seeking an injunction to force the BPD to change its policies.

In an effort to pre-empt that part of Sharp's claim, the BPD made public in February a general order titled "Video Recording of Police Activity" directing its police officers how to handle the recording of their activities. The order says citizens have the "absolute right to photograph and/or video record the enforcement actions of any Police Officer" as long as they don't "interfere."

The DOJ has reviewed that BPD order, and concluded that it doesn't adequately protect citizen's First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In support of Sharp, the DOJ is now urging the court to order the BPD to amend the general order as part of the resolution of Sharp's lawsuit.

For instance, the DOJ says, the policy does not explicitly state that citizens have a First Amendment right to record police activity. "Given the numerous publicized reports over the past several years alleging that BPD officers violated individuals’ First Amendment rights, BPD should include a specific recitation of the First Amendment rights at issue," the DOJ says.

The letter goes on to provide what amounts to a prescription for a new policy that protects citizens rights. Among the recommendations:

• BPD should clarify that the right to record public officials is not limited to streets and sidewalks – it includes areas where individuals have a legal right to be present, including an individual’s home or business, and common areas of public and private facilities and buildings.
• [P]olicies should instruct officers that, except under limited circumstances, officers must not search or seize a camera or recording device without a warrant.
• Officers should be advised not to threaten, intimidate, or otherwise discourage an individual from recording police officer enforcement activities or intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices.
• Policies should prohibit officers from destroying recording devices or cameras and deleting recordings or photographs under any circumstances.
• If a general order permits individuals to record the police unless their actions interfere with police activity, the order should define what it means for an individual to interfere with police activity and, when possible, provide specific examples.

(With regard to the issue of interference, The DOJ also notes, "an individual’s recording of police activity from a safe distance without any attendant action intended to obstruct the activity or threaten the safety of others does not amount to interference. Nor does an individual’s conduct amount to interference if he or she expresses criticism of the police or the police activity being observed.")

• [The order] must set forth with specificity the narrow circumstances in which a recording individual’s interference with police activity could subject the individual to arrest.
• [The order] should encourage officers to provide ways in which individuals can continue to exercise their First Amendment rights as officers perform their duties, rather than encourage officers to look for potential violations of the law in order to restrict the individual’s recording.
• A supervisor’s presence at the scene should be required before an officer takes any significant action involving cameras or recording devices, including a warrantless search or seizure.
• A general order should provide officers with guidance on how to lawfully seek an individual’s consent to review photographs or recordings...[and] [p]olicies should include language to ensure that consent is not coerced, implicitly or explicitly.

The case of Sharp v. Baltimore City Police Department is currently in the discovery phase. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 30.

50 YEARS AGO: The Night Marilyn Sang to JFK

 

Marilyn Monroe Singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy,

Madison Square Garden, NY, 1962

©Bill Ray

On May 19, 1962 - half-century ago, on a spring night in New York City, 35 year-old screen goddess Marilyn Monroe — literally sewn into a sparkling, jaw-droppingly sheer dress — sauntered onto the stage of New York's Madison Square Garden and, with one breathless performance, forever linked sex and politics in the American consciousness. For the 15,000 spectators there that night, including LIFE photographer Bill Ray, Marilyn's "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy amplified the buzz about an affair between the two. But beyond the titillation, the moment Ray captured in this, his most iconic shot, went on to play a major role in both Marilyn's and JFK's biographies, coming as it did near the end of their short lives. As the 48th anniversary of that legendary birthday party approaches, Ray sits down with LIFE.com to share his photos from that night, most of which have never been seen, and to tell the story of how he overcame countless obstacles — the cavernous setting, tricky lighting, and security "goons" eager to keep the press at bay — to get The Shot. --- Life.com

Watch: Bill Ray's memories

Madison Square Garden Memories

"On the evening of May 19th, 1962, the brightest stars in the Hollywood galaxy joined Hollywood’s heaviest hitters and New York’s power elite at the old Madison Square Garden to celebrate with President John F. Kennedy his 45th birthday.


It was a good time to be young. The country was “moving” again. Our fathers had voted for Eisenhower; we voted for JFK. We had the Peace Corps, were going to the moon, and the New Frontier was here. It was High Tide in America.

With Jack Benny as host, and a long list of stars that featured Maria Callas, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Durante and Peggy Lee, the evening was going to be great. But the moment every one of the 17,000 guests was waiting for, was for the Queen of Hollywood, the reigning Sex Goddess, Marilyn Monroe to serenade the dashing young President.

Venus was singing to Zeus, or maybe Apollo. Their stars would cross, their worlds would collide.

I was on assignment for Life Magazine, and one of many photographers down in front of the stage.

As the show was about to start, the New York police, with directions from the Secret Service, were forcing the Press into a tight group behind a rope. I knew that all the “rope-a-dopes” would get the same shot, and that would not work for LIFE, the great American picture magazine. I squeezed between the cops and took off looking for a better place.

In addition to 2 Leicas with 35mm and 28mm lenses, and 2 Nikons with 105mm and 180mm, I brought along a new 300mm 4.5 Kilfit just for the Hell of it. I started to work my way up, one level at a time, looking for a place where I could get a shot of both MM and JFK in the same frame. An impossibility behind the rope, the 300mm telephoto was looking better and better.

It seemed that I climbed forever, feeling like Lawrence Harvey in “The Manchurian Candidate” up among the girders. When I found a pipe railing to rest the lens on, (exposure was by guess), I could see JFK through the telephoto, but the range of light level was too great. I worked with feverish intensity every second MM was on stage, but only one moment was truly magical, and perfectly exposed!

When the moment came, the Garden went black. Then all sound stopped. All that low buzz/roar that a crowd gives off stopped; total silence.

One very bright spotlight flashed on, and there was Marilyn Monroe, in the dress, the crystals sparkling and flashing. Marilyn was smiling, waiting several beats, with everyone on the edge of their seats, trying to hear the silence.

Then, in her breathy, sexy, unique voice, looking the entire time at JFK in the front row, she sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President”.

No one that night could imagine that in two and a half months, Marilyn would be dead of an overdose; in eighteen months JFK would be assassinated; Viet Nam would turn into our worst nightmare; Camelot would be gone.

Marilyn wore a dress designed by Jean Louis, that had no zippers, buttons, hooks, or snaps. The pieces were sewn together on her body. It was more or less flesh-colored, and decorated with thousands of Zwarovski crystals. Adlai Stevenson described it as “Skin and Beads”.

It was auctioned off at Christie’s in New York, October, 1999 for over 1.2 million dollars. The buyers later thought it was a steal, and said they were prepared to pay 3 million.

Though the evening was long and illustrious, and Marilyn’s song was short, the world, myself included, only remembers her, the song, the dress, and JFK’s 45th birthday.

The rest is history. " -- ©Bill Ray

President John F. Kennedy at his birthday party after Marilyn Monroe Sang "Happy Birthday", Madison Square Garden, NY, 1962 ©Bill Ray

Stephen Wilkes: Day To Night Exhibition Featured in La Lettre de la Photographie

Flatiron Building, Day To Night (2010) © Stephen Wilkes

  COURTESY MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Via La Lettre de la Photographie

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years, Wilkes has made an impression on the world of photography. His most recent series features vibrant photographs of Times Square, Park Avenue, Coney Island, and Central Park, among other iconic New York locations, and capture, in a single frame, the transition from “Day to Night”. Using digital composites of images of the same site taken over a period of up to 15 hours, the photographs have a time-traveling quality, with the hustle and bustle in the afternoon sun giving way to the glow of city lights in darkening, cloud-streaked skies.

"Anything one can imagine one can create. Over the last several years, photographic technology has evolved to a point where anything is possible. I imagined changing time in a single photograph. I began to explore this fascination with time in a new series of photographs called: “Day to Night”. Photographing from one camera angle continuously for up to 15 hours, capturing the fleeting moments throughout the day and night. A select group of these images are then digitally blended into one photograph, capturing the changing of time within a single frame."

"Day to Night embodies a combination of my favorite things to photograph; documentary street photography melded with epic cityscapes. The work is a personal reflection of my deep love for New York. As this series has evolved, I discovered that the photographs began to highlight a form of emergent behavior within the daily life of the city. Studying the communication between pedestrians on sidewalks, cars and cabs on the street, these individual elements become a complex life form as they flow together to create the chaotic harmony that is Manhattan."

Full post and slide show here.

NOTE: Exhibition has been extended through June 24, 2012

High Contrast: The Enduring Paradox of Native Photography

Via Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Stark comparisons of the traditional and the modern have informed the visualization of Native Americans from colonization to the present. Early contemporary Native photographer Horace Poolaw (1906–1984) created a dialogue with modernism through his adoption of composite narratives steeped in the cosmopolitan realism of the early 20th century. Lecture by Nancy Mithlo, Assistant Professor, Art History and American Indian Studies Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

LOCATION: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Education Annex, 123 Grant Avenue.
COST: $5; Members and Business Partners, FREE.

Reservations suggested: 505.946.1039 or online at www.okmuseum.org

Register here.

WORLD REMEMBERS PHOTOJOURNALIST HORST FAAS

 

Horst Faas/AP

In this March 1965 file photo by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas, hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into the tree line to cover South Vietnamese ground troops advancing on a Viet Cong camp northwest of Saigon. Faas' work in Vietnam won four major photo awards, including the first of his two Pulitzers. He was severely wounded there in 1967

 "Horst Faas was a giant in the world of photojournalism whose extraordinary commitment to telling difficult stories was unique and remarkable," said Santiago Lyon, AP's global head of photography

 "Under his direction, AP photographers captured images that quickly became synonymous with the long war: among the most notable were Eddie Adams' image of the execution of a Viet Cong suspect and Nick Ut's picture of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm attack." --BBC



 New York Times Lens: A Parting Glance: Horst Faas

The Telegraph: In Pictures, Horst Faas, Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War photographer

The Guardian: Photojournalist's work in uncovering the horrors of Vietnam war helped turn mainstream opinion against US offensive 

BBC: Vietnam War photographer Horst Faas dies

The Independant: Horst Faas, the photographer whose images defined the Vietnam War, dies aged 79


MSNBC Photoblog: Horst Faas, legendary Vietnam combat photographer, dies