Monroe Gallery of Photography

Monday, January 12, 2015

World War II in Photographs at the McNay Art Museum

Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division Raise the American Flag Atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945

World War II in Photographs

January 13, 2015 to May 10, 2015

Via The McNay Art Museum

World War II in Photographs: Looking Back commemorates the 70th anniversary of the war’s end and honors San Antonio’s great military heritage with an exhibition of iconic images by some of the great photojournalists of the time. It also documents the war effort on the home front in San Antonio. A special feature is a group of photographs of the Monuments and Fine Arts Officers, or “Monuments Men,” who rescued art stolen by the Nazis.

The exhibition is especially fitting for the McNay, as Marion Koogler McNay was a strong supporter of the war effort on the home front. Don Denton McNay, her first husband, died at an Army camp in Florida during World War I. During World War II, she purchased and furnished many residences across San Antonio to provide housing for young officers and their families, going so far as to move houses to the grounds of her estate that became the McNay Art Museum.

World War II in Photographs includes images by such luminaries as Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstadt, and Carl Mydans that express the heroism, sacrifices, and hard work that brought victory. These photographs are sure to fascinate a younger generation unfamiliar with them, as well as an older generation of Americans that remembers them well.

Images have been provided by a variety of sources including the Fort Sam Houston Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Library of Congress, Washington D.C; Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, Dallas, Texas; National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas; and The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.

Link for tickets.

This exhibition is organized by the McNay Art Museum. The Elizabeth Huth Coates Exhibition Endowment and the Arthur and Jane Stieren Fund for Exhibitions are lead sponsors. Susan and John Kerr, the Director’s Circle, and the Host Committee are providing additional support.

Image: Joe Rosenthal, Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division Raise the American Flag Atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945. © Associated Press
Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Bill Ray: My LIFE in Photography exhibit extended to February 8

Bill Ray: Hells Angels, Blackboard Cafe, 1965 ©Time Inc.

The wonderful The Eye of Photography, a daily magazine of photography, has today published a feature on the Bill Ray exhibition My LIFE in Photography. The full feature may be seen here.

We've had a tremendous response to the exhibit and as a result are pleased to announce the exhibit has been extended through February 8, 2015. We will also feature several of Bill Ray's photographs during the photo la fair in Los Angeles, January 15 - 18, in booth #203, Monroe Gallery of Photography.

View the exhibit on-line here.

Related articles: Those were the days: Bill Ray's photos capture the spirit of an age
LIFE’s Moments: Monroe Gallery celebrates the work of Bill Ray

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Iconic photographer Joe McNally presented with the 2015 Professional Photographer Award.

Woodbury, NY—

The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA) announced that Go Miyazaki , president and CEO of Fujifilm North America Corporation, will be receiving the 2014 Person of the Year Award at PMDA’s annual dinner on January 5, 2015 in Las Vegas. The distinguished award is being given to Miyazaki in recognition of his leadership of Fujifilm’s success in North America in both the output and capture sides of the imaging business.

Four additional awards will be accorded at the 4th Annual Imaging Night: Wataru Otani , head of New Business Development at Ricoh Imaging, will receive the Herbert Keppler Technical Achievement Award; John Clouse , former senior vice president of Sales for Nikon Inc., will be given the Norman C. Lipton Lifetime Achievement Award; Gabrielle Mullinax , president of Fullerton Photographics and a leader in creative photo printing and archiving, will receive the Visionary Award; and iconic photographer Joe McNally will be presented with the 2015 Professional Photographer Award.

"We’re pleased to be able to recognize these individuals for their accomplishments in the field of digital imaging,” said Dan Unger , president of PMDA. “Our event will once again shine the light on the many accomplishments and innovations that have kept the digital imaging business in the forefront of the consumer electronics revolution. And this year, we are celebrating both the capture and output sides of our business, which are both showing resurgences among consumers. It will certainly be a must-attend night.”

The awards will be presented at the 49th Annual PMDA Awards Dinner, which will take place on Monday, January 5, 2015 at XS Nightclub at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, on the eve of the International CES. The evening will include musical entertainment and a gallery of Joe McNally’s award-winning photography. PMDA has been recognizing individual contributions to the imaging industry since 1965. pmda.com Opens in a new window

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Joe McNally's photographs will be on exhibit during Photo LA 2015 January 15 - 18 at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Booth #203.

Related exhibition: Joe McNally, Photojournalist

Thursday, January 1, 2015

PHOTO LA 2015

Winter has set in to Santa Fe, and we are looking forward to heading west and exhibiting again at this year's edition of photo la, January 15 - 19, 2015. Monroe Gallery of Photography will be in Booth #203, just to the right of the main entrance to the fair.

To mark the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the Selma March, the gallery will showcase a very special selection of photographs from the 1965 March, alongside other iconic images from the civil rights era. We will be also exhibiting a wide variety of important photojournalism; including Stephen Wilkes iconic photograph of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Aditionally, we will show several of Wilkes acclaimed Day To Night collection; alongside many other classic photographs.

Be sure to attend the Photojournalism and Its Role in the Fine Art World panel discussion Sunday, Jan. 19, 11:30 - 1.

About photo la: The international photographic art exposition photo la returns for its 24th year at The REEF, located in the historic LA Mart building in downtown Los Angeles, January 15 - 18, 2015. Downtown LA has become an international destination for art patrons and enthusiasts. In addition to photo la and the LA Art Show, downtown LA will also welcome the highly anticipated opening of the new Broad Museum in 2015, along with the ongoing arrival of new cutting-edge and blue-chip galleries, such as Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. Inspired by downtown's growing vitality and creative energy, photo la relocated to The REEF for its 2014 edition, attracting an unprecedented attendance of 16,000 guests.

The 2015 edition of photo la will expand its uniquely diverse and far-reaching showcase of photographic art, ranging from 19th Century works to contemporary and innovative photography-based art. Alongside galleries, dealers, museums, and nonprofit organizations, photo la will also expand its acclaimed programming to include more lectures, roundtable discussions, special installations, and docent tours with distinguished members of the photographic/arts community. This year, photo la is pleased to honor Catherine Opie, and the fair's exclusive VIP opening gala will celebrate her lifelong contributions to the arts. Additionally, all proceeds from the opening gala will go towards photo la's 2015 beneficiary “ The United Way of Greater Los Angeles and The Painted Brain.

Buy Tickets

Concurrent events

Classic Photographs Los Angeles

The LA Art Show

Related: "I’m also glad Monroe Gallery of Photography (Booth #203) is returning this year."

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

IT BEGINS: THE "BEST OF" PHOTOGRAPHY LISTS FOR 2014

The Independant: Landscape Photographer of the Year 2014

Weather Channel: Travel Photographer of the Year 2014 (PHOTOS)

National Geographic: Stunning Pictures: The Year's Best Wildlife Photographs

i09: Nature's Candids: The Best Wildlife Camera-Trap Photography Of 2014

TIME: Matt Black Is TIME’s Pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year 2014

2014 Winners - iPhone Photography Awards

Radio.com: 14 Best Instagram Photos Of 2014

POP Photo: See the Most Instagrammed Places of 2014

PerezHilton.com: The Numbers Are In — The Top 3 Most Liked Photos On Instagram Of 2014 Are…

Daily Mail: Most popular Instagram image in 2014 was Kim Kardashian’s wedding

Wall Street Journal: The 5 Biggest Social Media Movements of 2014

NJ.com: Best N.J. prom photos of 2014

British Journal of Photography: The Cool and Noteworthy issue: showcase of the people and projects that caught our attention this year

Photography Books

FlakPhoto Books of the Year 2014

Mother Jones: The 19 Best Photobooks of 2014

The Telegraph: Cheryl Newman on the photography books that caught her eye

Conscientious: My favourite photobooks in 2014

Elizabeth Avedon: BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS of 2014....and Some Honorable Mentions

The Independent: Books of the year 2014: The best photography books

FlakPhoto Books of the Year 2014

Blake Andrews: The Year in Photo Books

EMAHO Picks The Most Interesting Photobooks of 2014

Mother Nature Network: Best books of 2014 in conservation photography

L'Oeil de la Photographie: Special Books

PhotoEye: The Best Books of 2014

American Photo: Best Photobooks of the Year 2014

pdn: Notable Photo Books of 2014: Part I

The Guardian: The best photography books of 2014

a-n: Top ten: the best photo books of 2014

jmcolberg on Ello: Listmas: those final four to six weeks of the year, where it's all about being bombarded with "best of" lists

TIME selects the best photobooks of 2014

Wall Street Journal: The Six Best Photography Books

The Telegraph: Christmas Books 2014: best photography and art books to read

Huffington Post: 15 Great Photography Books For Under $15

Cameras, etc

Google: Year in Search

USA Today: The Best Photo Apps of 2014

The Phoblographer's Best Useful Photography Tips for 2014

American Photo: Editors' Choice: Gear of the Year 2014

POP Photo: Camera of the Year: Nikon D750

Imaging Resource: The best camera under 1,000 dollars: Best compact camera

C-Net: Best digital cameras of 2014

The Phoblographer’s Editor’s Choice Awards list for 2014. Here you’ll find the best cameras, the best lenses, the best lights, the best camera bags and a whole lot more

PDN's 30 2014 : New and Emerging Photographers to Watch

And a truly tragic list:

Committee To Protect Journalists: Slideshow: Journalists killed in 2014

Remember when? Recap: 2013 Year in Pictures and the..."Best of " Everything Photographic 2013

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Steve Schapiro: "The Long Road"

On the road, Selma March, 1965

The New Yorker has a portfolio of unpublished photographs from the 1965 Selma March by Steve Schapiro.

"A half century ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, spoke of the “creative battle” that twenty-two million black men and women in the United States were waging against “the starless midnight of racism.” A few months later, in March, 1965, that battle came to Selma, Alabama, the birthplace of the White Citizens’ Council. The issue was voting rights. As King pointed out, there were more blacks in jail in the city than there were on the voting rolls. James Baldwin, who was among the marchers, had written, “I could not suppress the thought that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.” The series of marches there––the first was Bloody Sunday, a bloody encounter with a racist police force armed with bullwhips and cattle prods; the last, the fifty-four-mile procession from Selma to the State House, in Montgomery––pushed Lyndon Johnson to send voting-rights legislation to Congress. The nonviolent discipline of the marchers, the subject of a new film by Ava DuVernay, and portrayed here in Steve Schapiro’s photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, became such a resonant chapter in the black freedom struggle that Barack Obama, in 2007, went to Selma to speak, at Brown Chapel, just weeks after declaring for the Presidency. Almost eight years later, as Selma is being commemorated, demonstrators against racial injustice are employing as a despairing slogan the last words of Eric Garner, an African-American man on Staten Island in the grip of a police choke hold: “I can’t breathe.”"

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

December 10: Human Rights Day

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950, to bring to the attention ‘of the peoples of the world’ the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.

Via The Guardian:
Today is Human Rights Day and the press freedom watchdog, the International Press Institute (IPI), is marking it with a message and a short film, called My Voice.
It features the award-winning humanitarian photojournalist Giles Duley who explains his work in documenting post-conflict communities, to portray what he calls “the legacy of war.”

Related Exhibition: People Get Ready: The Struggle for Human Rights

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

RALPH MORSE 1917 - 2014

"If LIFE could only afford one photographer, it would have to be Ralph Morse." -- LIFE's long-time managing editor George Hunt

The New York Times: Ralph Morse, Life Photographer, Is Dead at 97

pdn: Obituary: LIFE Photographer Ralph Morse, 97

Vanity Fair: Ralph Morse, Iconic Photojournalist, Dies at 97

F Stoppers: Notable LIFE Magazine Photographer, Ralph Morse, Dies at 97

TIME: Ralph Morse: Photographer Spotlight

Ralph Morse was there when Jackie Robinson stole home base in Game One, The 1955 World Series, NY Yankees vs Brooklyn Dodgers, and also made this classic photograph of Robinson in a later game.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Those were the days: Bill Ray's photos capture the spirit of an age

Via Pasatiempo
The Santa Fe New Mixican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment, & Culture
by Paul Weideman

Bill Ray: Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, May, 1962

The scene was President Kennedy’s forty-fifth birthday bash at Madison Square Garden, and Life photographer Bill Ray wanted to find a unique angle. He surreptitiously broke away from the police-cordoned press pod and climbed up above the stage. When Marilyn Monroe walked into the spotlight to sing her now-famous rendition of “Happy Birthday,” Ray had a perspective nobody else got, above and behind the sparkly dressed star. It was just one of hundreds of singular images made by the photographer, a sampling of which opens in a newly curated exhibit at Monroe Gallery of Photography on Friday, Nov. 28.

Ray was born in Shelby, Nebraska, in 1936, a few months before the first copy of Life magazine hit the stands. He started as a staff photographer at the Lincoln Journal Star the day after graduating from high school. At seventeen, he photographed President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon, who were visiting Nebraska. During that time, he had the opportunity to meet Gen. Curtis LeMay. It was a foreshadowing of a career full of celebrity encounters.

He went on to work for United Press International in Chicago and for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.Then, in 1957, he turned down a job with National Geographic to begin freelancing for Life. He was soon a staffer working out of the magazine’s New York, Beverly Hills, and Paris bureaus. In his 2007 photo-filled biography, My Life in Photography, Ray says it could also have been titled “My Life With Marlys,” after the woman he met in 1956 and married in 1958. She has been an invaluable assistant — and his agent, ever since Life folded in 1972.

The many subjects in Ray’s portfolio include a newly enlisted Elvis Presley about to board a troopship bound for Germany; John and Jackie Kennedy in the early 1960s, and Jackie and Aristotle Onassis later that decade; a stunning close-up of actress Natalie Wood; a fierce Muhammad Ali in the ring; George Harrison and Bob Dylan singing at the Concert for Bangladesh; baseball star Roger Maris at bat; Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate strolling along a London street; a series on Ronald Reagan and his family; and candids of artist Isamu Noguchi and cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Ray also did two Army tours as a photographer in Vietnam.

After Life ceased publication, he freelanced for Newsweek, Archaeology, Smithsonian, and Fortune, and developed a portrait specialty. “One thing I’m still good at is people,” said Ray, whose recent work includes an official portrait of “a retiring big-time minister at St. Bart’s here in New York. His predecessors had all been painted in oil, and he wanted a photograph instead.”

Pasatiempo: Early on, your mother supported your desire to be a photographer, isn’t that right?

Bill Ray: She did. She was quite a character. Both my parents were just perfect. I had a terrific childhood. My mom was very busy with her art and loved the idea of my pursuing something like that. We were not by any means wealthy, but she always found money if I needed a camera.

Pasa: Your main role model was Alfred Eisenstaedt. Why him?

Ray: It was just from reading Life magazine and having a passion about photography. I loved growing up as a kid in a tiny little town, but as I got older it was clear that I wanted to get the hell out of there. My dad would have given me the lumberyard he owned, but I didn’t want to sell two-by-fours. I had a passion about going to New York and Life magazine. Fred Astaire was from Omaha, and when I saw him dance [in a movie] with Cyd Charisse in Central Park, that was it: I’m going.

Pasa: A lot of what you did were sort of Johnny-on-the-spot news assignments covering things like a Muhammad Ali fight or Nikita Khrushchev visiting a farm in Iowa.

Ray: That’s right, but I also originated a few ideas. For example, in 1959, there was a little story in the paper — every morning when I got up, I’d grab The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, the Daily News, the [Daily] Mirror, and whatever else I could get my hands on — and there was a little story about a bunch of people in Detroit who were going to Alaska to homestead. I rushed over and showed the picture editor the story, and he said, “Go ahead, go.” I was very enthusiastic and worked very hard on every assignment. You have to be intense and keep going. That’s the only way to keep the assignments coming.

Pasa: It was pretty competitive?

Ray: Oh, god, at Life magazine, yeah. Everybody in the world wanted to work there.

Pasa: You used many different kinds of cameras. To shoot Andy Warhol, you had a giant Polaroid camera, and on the other end of the spectrum there’s a picture in the book of you at age eleven, concentrating on the viewfinder of a Speed Graphic.

Ray: That’s when I belonged to the Omaha Camera Club. The tiny village I grew up in was 90 miles away, so we’d go into Omaha once a week. It’s there that I met my mentor, who was a brilliant commercial photographer. He really got me on the right road to how photography technically works. The Speed Graphic was the basic tool at the newspaper I started working at when I turned seventeen in May 1953. I had a Leica and a Rolleiflex and a Linhof, but you really had to use the 4 x 5 [medium-format camera] to make the deadlines.

Pasa: I would think the bigger camera with the film holders was slower than a 35-millimeter camera.

Ray: But for most assignments, you shoot just one or two holders [two shots in each holder], and you come rushing in and soup [develop] that, and you can print a 4 x 5 negative wet.

Pasa: I read that Marlys always traveled with you and loaded the cameras.

Ray: Yeah, and she was the fastest there was at loading a Hasselblad, and she always kept the film straight. You have to know which roll is which, because I would say, “We’re going to push this roll a half [in development time to increase contrast],” or whatever. Under pressure, you have the president or Moshe Dayan and only a limited amount of time, so you really shoot like hell. We traveled a lot. We spent months in Japan, and we traveled for about 10 months with Carl Sagan around the world.

Pasa: Sid Monroe at the gallery told me that Life never ran the photos you took of the Hells Angels.

Bill Ray: Hells Angels, Los Angeles, 1965

Ray: The story was killed by the managing editor. I heard that he said, “I don’t want these smelly bastards in my magazine.” And that was after I worked on it a month. The thing about the Hells Angels is that they are now very popular. Marlys and I found those negatives and got them online, and the emails from all over the world are astounding.

Pasa: Your abilities show up in composition, people’s expressions and body language, and lighting — and most of what you did for Life was shot in ambient light.

Ray: That’s right, although I did almost 50 covers for Newsweek, for example, of Luciano Pavarotti and Itzhak Perlman, and those were all strobe. Another thing about the technique is that in those days — it seems so long ago now — you had to focus and you had to have the right exposure. Even though this digital revolution is truly a revolution — it’s just so huge it’s hard to comprehend — the basics, lighting and composition, are so important.

Natalie Wood on the set of "Sex and the single girl", with hairdressers, 1963

One of the places I learned composition was going to museums and looking at paintings. You kind of develop an instinct about the composition. But you have to be really fast. That’s the fun part. ◀

Monroe Gallery of Photography