VALENTINE'S DAY 2013

Ken Regan: Equal Rights March on Washington, "Kiss-In", April, 1993

 

 

 

Related: Happy Valentine's Day 2011

 

Stanley Forman talks about bearing witness to the news, being the first on the scene, and the importance of photography

Credit Stanley Forman

The flag turns into a weapon in fight outside City Hall during the busing riots in 1976. Forman won a Pulitzer Prize for for this photograph

Via WGBH

Photojournalist Stanley Forman has been at the scene of most of Boston’s news events for the past 40 years, capturing iconic images that define the people and places in those stories. His work has earned him three Pulitzer Prizes, and he’s now working on a book entitled “Before Yellow Tape: A Pulitzer Prize Winner’s Fire Images.”

Forman sat down with Emily Rooney to talk about bearing witness to the news, being the first on the scene, and the importance of photography.



On becoming a photojournalist…

As a kid, I [followed] the sirens, the blue lights, the red lights. And finally, when I was around eighteen, my father said, “You go to all these things — why don’t you take a camera?” I thought I was going to be a firefighter. But he gave me a camera, and I got interested in photography, and I was very lucky.

On covering fires today…

You don’t have the access. I get to a fire, forget yellow tape — no matter what it is — you just don’t have the access that we had in the ‘60s, the ‘70s, the ‘80s. Everything has changed. I blame [changes in access] on O.J. Simpson, because everything changed after the mistakes they made at the scene.

On technology turning everyone into a photographer…

I’m self publishing — I know nothing about publishing … Anything you want to do in this digital age, you can become it. Do I like everyone taking pictures? I’m beat before I get there. No, I don’t like it … I’d like to think my framing is better than the guy with the iPhone, or the woman with the iPhone, but they have the image. Everything gets used.

On moving from the Boston Herald to Channel 5 in the ‘80s…

You cover news … with a still camera or a video camera. You use a Phillips screwdriver or a standard screwdriver. I’m still covering news, and that’s the most important thing to me.

Credit Stanley Forman

Fireman rescue Tammi Brownlee from a burning building in South Boston, 1977

 

 

 

 

Credit Stanley Forman

Evacuating horses from a burning stable at Suffolk Downs

 

 

Slideshow here

 

 

Today in History: Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man after 27 years

 

 

Jürgen Schadeberg: Nelson Mandela in his cell during a re-visit, Robben Island, 1994

On Feb 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist walked out of prison a free man after 27 years behind bars.

49 Years Ago: February 7, The Beatles Arrive in America

Bill Eppridge: The Beatles Arrive, February 7, 1964, New York

 

 

"One morning my boss said, 'Look, we've got a bunch of British musicians coming into town. They're called the Beatles.'"

Eppridge was at John F. Kennedy airport on February 7, 1964 for the arrival of The Beatles. He continued to photograph The Beatles that day, and over the next several days. He was invited to come up to their room at the Plaza Hotel and "stick with them."

"These were four very fine young gentlemen, and great fun to be around," Eppridge recalls. After he introduced himself to Ringo, who consulted with John, the group asked what he wanted them to do while being photographed for Life. "I'm not going to ask you to do a thing," was Eppridge's reply. "I just want to be here."

Traveling with the Beatles, forced by a snowstorm to take the train to Washington, Eppridge captured some wonderfully fun and memorable pictures. He was with them in Central Park and at the Ed Sullivan Show for both the rehearsal and the historic performance, and photographed their Carnegie Hall performance on February 12, 1964.



Newseum opens exhibit featuring Martin Luther King Birmingham, Alabama jail cell door

A casting of the original jail cell door behind which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was confined after his April 1963 arrest for leading non-violent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, is seen at the Newseum in Washington on February 1, 2013. To celebrate the beginning of Black History Month, the Newseum opened "Jailed in Birmingham," a new exhibit featuring the casting of the original jail cell door. It was in this cell that the civil rights leader penned his historic letter defending civil disobedience. The "Letter From Birmingham Jail," written in response to a statement by a group of eight white Alabama clergymen, includes the now famous quote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM

 

Via artdaily.org

WASHINGTON, DC.- To celebrate the beginning of Black History Month, today the Newseum opens "Jailed in Birmingham," a new exhibit featuring a casting of the original jail cell door behind which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was confined after his April 1963 arrest for leading nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Ala. It was in this cell that the civil rights leader penned his historic letter defending civil disobedience. The "Letter From Birmingham Jail," written in response to a statement by a group of eight white Alabama clergymen, includes the now-famous quote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The door on display is a bronze casting made from the original door to King's cell in the Birmingham city jail. The exhibit also features one of the first publications of the letter, a 1963 pamphlet published by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group. The exhibit is on display in the Newseum's News Corporation News History Gallery.

On Saturday, Feb. 2, at 2:30 p.m., Chris Jenkins, editor of The RootDC, and award-winning video journalist Garrett Hubbard will discuss King's legacy during a special Inside Media program. The two collaborated on a Washington Post video series, "BrotherSpeak," which explores the experiences of black men in America. Inside Media programs are free with paid admission to the Newseum, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

This year will mark a number of milestone anniversaries of key events in U.S. history, and the Newseum will debut new exhibits to highlight them. From March 1 to 14, a special, free exhibit will illustrate the landmark 1913 women's suffrage parade on Pennsylvania Avenue through newspaper front pages and photos of the historic event. "Marching for Women's Rights" will be on view to the public in front of the Newseum in the museum's Today's Front Pages cases.

Later this year, the Newseum will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with two new exhibits and an original documentary chronicling the presidency, family life and death of America's 35th president. The Newseum will host public programs and special events about the Kennedys throughout 2013 to enhance the visitor experience. The JFK exhibits and film will be on display April 12, 2013, through Jan. 5, 2014.

 

 

Related: "1963" exhibition at Monroe Gallery of Photography, April 12 - June 23, 2013

STAR GLOW: Sid Avery Captured Young Hollywood Shining with Health and Success

 

 

Steve McQueen in his 1957 Jaguar XKSS  ©mptv

Via The Albuquerque Journal
By Kate McGraw / For the Journal on Fri, Feb 1, 2013

 

 

There is a wistful melancholy about viewing the photographs that Sid Avery took during Hollywood’s most recent golden age, the 1940s to 1960s. Audrey Hepburn has bicycled up to the camera to show off her rather smug Cairn terrier. Steve McQueen is admiring his new pistol, as well as his new Jaguar. Marlon Brando has stopped playing his bongo drums long enough to give the photographer a pensive pose. Elizabeth Taylor is stretching her shoulders into the sun on the set of “Giant.” Rock Hudson has stepped out of the shower and gleefully grabbed a ringing phone – he looks very gay, in every sense of that overused word.

Marlon Brando, At Home With Bongos, 1955

©mptv

Dean Martin, like his contemporaries, is happy and self-satisfied as he readies a song for recording. All of them are shining with health and youth and success, with not a thought for any disease or age that might lie ahead. Only Frank Sinatra looks slightly wary, as if he sensed perhaps, on the edge of the frame, some intimation of mortality.

Frank Sinatra with camera, Capitol Records

©mptv

These and other photographs by the late Hollywood photographer Sid Avery, fill a major exhibition opening today at Monroe Gallery of Photography on Don Gaspar. The exhibition, which will be up through March 24, is being opened concurrent with the publication of a new book: “The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot.” Avery’s son Ron, curator and archivist of his father’s work, will attend the public reception.

Elizabeth Taylor Sunning Herself on the Marfa, Texas Set of "Giant"

©mptv

Monroe Gallery of Photography, owned by Sidney and Michelle Monroe, specializes in classic black and white photography with an emphasis on humanist and photojournalist imagery. The gallery features work by more than 50 renowned photographers and also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers. The Avery show, of which all prints are for sale, is a major coup, Sidney Monroe said. “He was one of the greatest names in Hollywood photography in the 1950s and ’60s,” Monroe said.
The book, he added, “is a sumptuous, long-overdue tribute to Avery’s prolific talent.” The text of the book was written by Ron Avery. It was edited by Tony Nourmand and additional text was written by Alison Elangasinghe and Bruce McBroom. The design is by Graham Marsh.


Avery (1918 – 2002) was born in Akron, Ohio, and introduced to photography when he was 7 years old. By the time he was 20, he had begun to photograph celebrities in nightclubs for fan magazines. In 1939, at 21, he opened his own Hollywood studio for portraiture and publicity photographs.   From 1941 to 1945, Avery was assigned to the Pictorial Service in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in London and Paris. In London, the young man supervised the Army’s official photographic history of the war.


In 1946, Avery re-established his studio in Hollywood, where he got celebrity portrait assignments from Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. He also became the photography editor of Photoplay, the movie magazine of the time. In 1947, while he was continuing to contribute to numerous magazines, he formed Avery and Associates to photograph commercial accounts. Avery directed television commercials and developed innovative special effects.


In 1985, Avery retired from directing and producing TV commercials to begin assembling the Motion Picture and Television Photographic Archive, which many regard as his greatest legacy. The foundation’s purpose was to preserve, document and exhibit the work of notable photographers.


His own archive, called mptvimages, now has more than a million historic Hollywood images on file and is recognized as one of the great archives of Hollywood imagery. Ron Avery runs the archive today. The new book was created entirely from its depths and includes never-before-seen pictures, contact sheets and other materials.


Avery was best known for capturing the private moments of legendary Hollywood celebrities like Taylor, Hudson, James Dean, Brando, Humphrey Bogart and Hepburn, who were showcased in his book, “Hollywood at Home.” He was the only photographer to shoot both the original 1960 cast of “Ocean’s Eleven” and the cast of the 2001 remake, recreating his iconic group shot around a pool table. He believed in capturing moments.


Avery taught at the University of California at Los Angeles and lectured at several other institutions and at museums. His own works are included in numerous museums and private collections.


Sid Avery died in 2002 at age 84. His work, however, lives on – and in that way, so do his subjects.

If you go WHAT: Sid Avery: “The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot”
WHEN: Today through March 24; opening reception 5-7 p.m. today.
Coincides with the publication of the new book, “The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot”
(The exhibition contunues through March 28, 2013)
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar
CONTACT: (505) 992-08

To Do Friday: Sid Avery Exhibit

 

One of Sid's iconic shots c. mptv

Via The Santa Fe Reporter

Oh, Snap!
New photographic exhibit is as smooth as fine Corinthian leather
Enrique Limón

Popular culture can thank the late Sid Avery for some of the most candid and intimate shots of Golden Age Hollywood celebrities.

His were slice-of-life photographs that revealed a different side to the icons of the day: real, non-posed images of Dean Martin hamming it up inside a hotel room; Rock Hudson taking a phone call wearing nothing but a bath towel; Marlon Brando playing an impromptu bongos set; Elizabeth Taylor basking in the Marfa, Texas sun on the set of Giant.

“He had an innate ability to get people to relax and be themselves in front of the camera,” Avery’s son Ron tells SFR. “He was also a naturally intuitive, bright guy—not necessarily school smart, but street smart, I think, is what you would call it.”

Based in Los Angeles, Ron continues his father’s legacy at the helm of the Motion Picture and Television Photographic Archive, which handles his dad’s and other celebrated photographers’ bodies of work. He’s also personally overseeing Monroe Gallery’s upcoming The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot exhibit, concurrent with the publication of an eponymous book.

Legendary as he was, Avery doesn’t think his father would fare too well in today’s tabloid-driven, crotch-shot-hungry insta-market.

“He wouldn’t print or let a picture be published if the celebrity had an unflattering look on their face, or [if] it just wasn’t showing them in a good light,” Avery says. “I don’t think he ever really pissed anybody off, either. Today, people are published picking their nose or doing whatever in public…or not even in public.”

Sid’s approach was such, his son recalls, that he managed to win over even the toughest subjects like Humphrey Bogart, who at first was apprehensive, and eventually invited the photog on sailing excursions.

Avery also developed an affinity with other giants of the time, such as Ernest Borgnine and Audrey Hepburn. He was one of the select few outside Frank Sinatra’s circle, his son points out, allowed to refer to the crooner simply by his first name.

“You’ve just got a feeling that, ‘Wow, this is what it really would have been like to just sit in these people’s houses, or ride with them in the car or be with them,’” Avery says of his progenitor’s style.

The imagemaker—who at one point served in the Army Pictorial Service during WWII—would later delve into the world of advertising and directing, and was the man responsible for the notorious Ricardo Montalbán Chrysler Cordoba campaign.

Along with a slew of memorable pictures, the show also includes “fresh and different” never-before-seen outtakes and contact sheets, Ron adds, allowing attendees to take in the full grasp of Avery’s career.

“I think this is a real good compilation of where Dad started, where he wound up and everything in between,” Ron says. “Because we pretty much cover him from before the war until [his passing in] 2001.”

Sid Avery: The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot

5-7 pm Friday, Feb. 1. Free.
Monroe Gallery of Photography


112 Don Gaspar Ave., 992-0800

The AIPAD Photography Show To Be Held in New York on April 4-7 at the Park Avenue Armory

Frieke Janssens, Ringlings, 2011. Digital chromogenic dye print mounted to plexi, 35 x 35 inches. Courtesy Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago

Via artdaily.org

January 27, 2013

NEW YORK, NY.- The AIPAD Photography Show New York, one of the world’s most important annual photography events, will be held April 4-7, 2013, at the Park Avenue Armory. Presented by The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), the fair is the longest-running and foremost exhibition of fine art photography.

More than 70 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of museum-quality work including contemporary, modern, and 19th-century photographs, as well as photo-based art, video, and new media. The 33rd edition of the show will commence with an opening night gala on April 3, 2013, to benefit inMotion, which provides free legal services to low-income women.

“AIPAD continues to be at the forefront of the photography market,” noted Catherine Edelman, President AIPAD, and Director, Catherine Edelman Gallery. “Known for their scholarship and expertise, AIPAD galleries are shining light on extraordinary photographs by modern masters and emerging artists, images made in the last year by some of the most important artists working today, as well as relatively unknown work that is ripe for public exhibition. New and established photography collectors are anticipating another extraordinary exhibition.”

EXHIBITORS
Exhibitors will include galleries from across the U.S. and around the world, including Europe, Asia, and South America. Six galleries will exhibit at AIPAD for the first time: Brancolini Grimaldi, London; Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp; Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn; M97 Gallery, Shanghai; P.P.O.W., New York; and Sage Paris. An exhibitor list is available at aipad.com/photoshow.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
A solo exhibition of work by James Welling will be exhibited by David Zwirner, New York. Welling has been questioning the norms of representation since the 1970s, exploring and experimenting with the elemental components of the photographic medium. His work is held in major museum collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all in New York.

Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, will offer a one-person exhibition of work by British photographer Damion Berger, who was once as an assistant to Helmut Newton. Berger’s recent series, Black Powder, documents firework celebrations from around the world. He uses glass plate negatives, multiple exposures, and unusual combinations of focus and aperture for the results, which are as dramatic as the pyrotechnic explosions.

A number of riveting portraits at AIPAD will be on view, including a series by Belgian artist Frieke Janssens entitled Smoking Kids. The digital chromogenic dye prints of children smoking were inspired by a YouTube video of a chain-smoking Indonesian toddler. As the artist notes, “I felt that children smoking would have a surreal impact upon the viewer and compel them to truly see the acts of smoking, rather than making assumptions about the person doing the act.” The work will be exhibited by Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago. No real cigarettes were used to make the images. Instead, chalk and sticks of cheese were used as props, while candles and incense provided the wisps of smoke.

P.P.O.W., New York, will offer portraits and work by Martha Wilson, Carolee Schneemann, and David Wojnarowicz, all of it inspired by the human body. M97 Gallery, Shanghai, will show portraits by Luo Dan, who uses the collodion wet plate photographic process invented in 1850. Spending several months traveling with a portable darkroom in remote and mountainous regions of China’s southern Yunnan Province, Luo Dan depicts people living in China’s undeveloped regions, where the way of life has remained largely intact for hundreds of years. Yu Xiao’s surreal images of children from the 2012 Nursery Rhymes series will be shown at 798 Photo Gallery, Beijing.

Extraordinary landscapes from around the globe will on view at AIPAD, including work showing the effects of Hurricane Sandy. An image by Stephen Wilkes, of a roller coaster standing in the ocean at Seaside Heights, New Jersey, will be exhibited by Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe. Work by Matthew Brandt from his recent Lakes and Reservoirs series can be seen at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York. The L.A.-based artist photographs lakes and reservoirs around the western United States, then submerges each resulting C-print in water collected from the subject of the photograph. Matthew Brandt’s images are included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Edward Burtynsky’s life’s work is to document humanity’s impact on the planet, so when he shoots a photograph, it is often from an airplane or helicopter. His new riveting geometric aerial landscapes from the Texas Panhandle showing irrigation systems in the high plains will be exhibited by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

Since 2005, Robert Burley has traveled across North America and Europe documenting the exteriors and interiors of the buildings that manufactured traditional film products such as Kodak and Polaroid. Burley’s mastery of large-format photography is a fitting tribute to a once thriving industry laid quickly to waste by digital technology. The work will be on view at Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, and can be seen in a new book, The Disappearance of Darkness, published by Ryerson Image Centre and Princeton Architectural Press.

A portrait by Mariana Cook of one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be exhibited by Lee Marks Fine Art, Shelbyvile, IN. Cook traveled to Burma in 2011 shortly after the Nobel Peace Prize winner was freed from house arrest. The portrait will be included in the upcoming book Justice: Faces of the Human Rights Revolution by Cook, which captures pioneers of the human rights movement from around the globe.

Edward Weston’s The Marion Morgan Dancers, California, 1921, will be on view at Galerie Johannes Faber, Vienna. The elegant composition of the nude dancers was made in collaboration with Margrethe Mather – whom Weston called “the first important person in my life” – and reflects Weston’s early pictorialist style and Mather’s sensitive eye. A pensive Frida Kahlo is the subject of Manuel Alvarez Bravo’s gelatin silver print from the 1940s at Throckmorton Fine Art, New York. Seydou Keïta’s charming portrait Three Malian Women, 1957-60, will be offered by Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York. Keïta is considered to be the first generation of African photographers to cater to the needs of a populace that was transitioning from French-colonial governance to independence, experiencing population increases and economic growth.

Early work from the birth of photography will also be a highlight at AIPAD. James Hyman Photography, London, will focus on three great French photographers of the 19th century: Edouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, and Charles Negre. Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, New York, will show great masters of British and French 19th-century photography, including William Henry Fox Talbot, Linnaeus Tripe, and Gustave Le Gray.

Bill Eppridge in 2013 - so far!

L.A. City Council member Tom Le Bonge presents honary certificate

to Bill Eppridge at the gala opening of photo l.a. 2013 on January 17

Photo ©HollywoodToday

 

 

Bill Eppridge: “If It Moves, I’ll Shoot It”

FOTOFUSION: Fifty Years in Photojournalism by Bill Eppridge

Le Journal de la Photographie: "The hands-down shining moment of the event was a one and half hour lecture by the great Bill Eppridge: (photo la 2013)

photography legends inspire new focus at photo l.a. 2013

March 12 – June 2, 2013
Springfield Museums – Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
Bill Eppridge’s photographs of the Beatles will be exhibited in the long-traveling show, The Beatles! Backstage and Behind The Scenes (Springfield, Mass.)
Bill Eppridge will be lecturing at the museum on April 21, 2013

September 20 – 21, 2013
PSA – Photographic Society of America
Bill Eppridge is the 2013 “International Understanding Through Photography” Honoree
And will be a featured speaker (Portland, Maine)


Related: Bill Eppridge prints at Monroe Gallery of Photography

 

 

Photo LA 2013: Diary of Jeff Dunas

Bill Eppridge, Senator Robert F Kennedy Shot,

Ambassador Hotel Kitchen, Los Angeles, California, June 5, 1968

Via Le Journal de la Photographie

 Slide Show #1


Same venue. A generous group of galleries reconvened this past weekend, January 17 - 21 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for the 21st annual PhotoLA print fair.

Stephen Cohen, PhotoLA's founder, was in good form and seemed happy with the turnout and the exhibitions. The opening night was a wonderful social occasion for the photography community who turned up to benefit the Inner City Arts organization.

The hands-down shining moment of the event was a one and half hour lecture by the great Bill Eppridge. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for the moderately attended talk. Monroe gallery artist Eppridge discussed and showed work from his spectacular career as a photojournalist centering on his assignments from the 1960s including the Beatle's first US tour and the Robert Kennedy assassination If there is a photo-book publisher reading this - here is an incredible opportunity to publish a phenomenal monograph.

It's hard to say if there were detectible new currents on show this year - there was a surprising number of contemporary female nudes evident in many of the exhibitor's spaces but in terms of one emerging star of the program, none surfaced. Ben Nixon, a young photographer working with 19th century wet-plate technology, had a strong show of his forest work as well as his exquisite new title from 21st Editions. A lot of pigment printing on view, with an exceptional piece by Michael Lang at the Cohen Gallery booth. While many tend to pump the colors of modern ink-jet prints, Lang's images displayed a remarkable restraint and mastery of his craft. Less early 20th century masters on display than in prior years, a greater emphasis on the work of contemporary photographers - a good direction for mid-career image-makers. Most were American although a collective booth showing the work of Czech photography was wonderful. Daniel Miller of the Verge and Duncan Miller galleries hosted a booth for a group of women, all emerging photographers which was a good development.

This year an expanded series of seminars, some even tech seminars were added to bring in more photographers who were everywhere this year - a great chance to catch up with friends.

All in all, worthwhile, to be sure. Will I attend the 22nd PhotoLA?
Absolutely.


Jeff Dunas, Los Angeles

Slide Show #2

 Stephen Wilkes Day to Night Series

Stephen Wilkes, Sandy : Seaside Heights, New Jersey, November 4, 2012

Digital C-print, signed, limited edition #1/20 $10,000

Links

http://www.photola.com