Monday, November 2, 2015

Stephen Wilkes in National Geographic: Laos to National Parks

Bomb Craters, Laos, 2015
Stephen Wilkes: Bomb Craters, Laos, 2015

Stephen Wilkes' photographs in National Geographic: Laos Finds New Life After the Bombs

Slideshow

The January 2016 issue of National Geographic will feature Stephen Wilkes' photographs as part of a special tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service.

Stephen Wilkes: "Remnants" continues through November 22 at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Book Signing: Bliss: Tranformational Festivals and the neo Hippie




Bliss

Bliss

Images from Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie; courtesy powerHouse Books

Via PASATIEMPO
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Friday, October 30, 2015           

The famous counterculture of the 1960s always had two lifestyles, one urban and the other more oriented to quiet, country living — including in pioneering communes in New Mexico and elsewhere. Half a century later, a contemporary hippie movement flourishes in hundreds of eco-villages, and its members come together for the annual Rainbow Gathering and other summer festivals.

Photographer Steve Schapiro offers a revelation of modern hippie humanity in his new book, Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie (powerHouse Books, 2015). At gatherings in California, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota, and Hawaii, he captured people dancing, meditating, chanting, hugging, and blissing out on the sky and earth and one another.                                                                                               
The journalistic photographer’s portfolio includes covers for Vanity Fair, Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, Look, Paris Match, and People. His books include American Edge, Taxi Driver, and Then and Now. Over the years, Schapiro has documented cultural milestones, such as the civil rights movement, Chuck Berry playing on the Hullabaloo TV show, and outtakes of actors on the set of The Godfather. He photographed Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedys, ballplayer Satchel Paige, and Andy Warhol.

He also took pictures of the original hippies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and throughout America. The new photos are strikingly similar. Some commonalities are lots of hair and clothes — either multicolored or absent. There is a focus in the new series on the “bliss ninnies” subculture, whose participants chase ecstasy with meditation and dancing. Rather than experimentation with psychedelic drugs, the emphasis is on yoga, prayer, movement, and a vegan diet. “There are more communes in America now than there ever were in the ’60s,” Wavy Gravy declares in the book’s afterword. “Check out Communities magazine for a listing near you! Just follow your bliss and kiss the ground.”

Monroe Gallery (112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800) hangs a selection of the Bliss prints, opening on Friday, Oct. 30. Schapiro will be at the gallery for a book signing that day from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Oblique Views: Archaeology, Photography and Time



Via the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

Oblique Views Exhibition OPENING!

Lecture, Dancers, Booksigning, and Hands-on Activities

October 25, 2015 1:00 pm through 5:00 pm
Sunday, October 25 -- it’s the day to be on Museum Hill for the long-anticipated opening of Oblique Views: Archaeology, Photography and Time.

You’ll see historic images by Charles and Anne Lindbergh side by side with those of contemporary aerial photographer Adriel Heisey -- some of the changes in the landscape (Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, Galisteo) are profound, others are more subtle.

Photographer Adriel Heisey speaks at 1pm and again at 3pm. The Red Turtle Dancers of Pojoaque and Santa Clara Pueblos will display a butterfly dance, buffalo dance, and rain dance. Dance times are scheduled for 2pm and 4pm.

Of course we’ll have the beautiful hardcover Oblique Views catalog available for purchase, with the contributers all present to sign.

A hands-on photography activity will be offered from 1 - 4pm.

Admission is free on Sundays for New Mexico residents.

See the full color postcard here!


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Steve Schapiro will be signing copies of his new book "BLISS" October 30 in Santa Fe



 


Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, will host a book signing by Steve Schapiro of his newest book, BLISS. The book signing will take place on Friday, October 30, from 5 – 7 PM. One of the most respected American documentary photographers, Steve Schapiro has photographed American history over the last six decades.

In “BLISS: An Exploration of the Current Hippie Counterculture & Transformational Festivals”, Steve Schapiro, famous for his photographs of the 60s–including Haight-Ashbury and the hippies of that era–documents the hippies of today and their lives in and out of transformational festivals. With a specific focus on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as “Bliss Ninnies,” these individuals are focused on meditation and dancing as a way to reach ecstatic states of joy. The book features images from festivals across the country and provides an overview of a new contemporary hippie life within America. The 60s are still here. You just have to find where. Published by powerHouse Books, October, 2015, 256 pages.

Steve Schapiro is a distinguished journalistic photographer whose pictures have graced the covers of Vanity Fair, Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, Look, Paris Match, and People, and are found in many museum collections. He has published five books of his work, American Edge, Schapiro’s Heroes, The Godfather Family Album, Taxi Driver, and Then and Now In Hollywood. Steve Schapiro has photographed major stories for most of the world’s most prominent magazines, including Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, People, and Paris Match.

 

Thursday, October 8, 2015

OCTOBER NEWS

 

Dear Friends:

The New Yorker featured the new Stephen Wilkes “Remnants” exhibit this past Friday, you can see the feature here.

"I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding. There are moments in journalism when the media captures the visual details of a disaster, yet sometimes misses the true scale of devastation. It’s my hope that these images serve as a wakeup call — whether that call is about global warming, infrastructure, or just the recognition that the world is changing, it’s a reminder that we need to take special care of our fragile world."  -- Stephen Wilkes

Also included in the exhibit is Stephen’s newest Day To Night image, taken in the Serengeti, Tanzania, earlier this year.


Serengeti, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015
Stephen Wilkes: Serengeti, Day To Night, 2015
 

Recycled Cans
 
 
 Stephen Wilkes: Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1

The “Remnants” exhibit will continue through November 22.

Later this month, Steve Schapiro will be signing copies of his new book BLISS in the gallery on Friday, October 30, from 5 – 7 pm. In Bliss: An Exploration of the Current Hippie Counterculture & Transformational Festivals, Steve Schapiro, famous for his photographs of the 60s--including Haight-Ashbury and the hippies of that era--documents the hippies of today and their lives in and out of transformational festivals. With a specific focus on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as "Bliss Ninnies," these individuals are focused on meditation and dancing as a way to reach ecstatic states of joy. The book features images from festivals across the country and provides an overview of a new contemporary hippie life within America. “The 60s are still here. You just have to find where.

Recently, “BLISS” was featured on the TIME LightBox, and several of Steve Schapiro’s iconic civil rights photographs were in this summer’s acclaimed  “The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson” exhibition.

 

Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001
Steve Schapiro: Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001

 

Our best,
Sid and Michelle Monroe





 

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA
505.992.0800

www.monroegallery.com

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Announcing Stephen Wilkes: Remnants


Recycled Cans

Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1
 

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present "Remnants", an exhibition of large-scale color photographs of the environment and the environmental remnants left behind either by nature or man.

The exhibition opens with a public reception with photographer Stephen Wilkes from 5 - 7 PM on Friday, October 2. The exhibition continues through November 22.

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.

In the face of increasing global attention on climate change and rebuilding; and as society grapples with the byproducts of global human achievements such as urban development and mass production that have caused problems of scarcity and waste simultaneously, "Remnants" is a timely examination of the environmental issues facing society.
 
"I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding.

There are moments in journalism when the media captures the visual details of a disaster, yet sometimes misses the true scale of devastation. It’s my hope that these images serve as a wakeup call — whether that call is about global warming, infrastructure, or just the recognition that the world is changing, it’s a reminder that we need to take special care of our fragile world." --Stephen Wilkes

 Recycled Wire
Recycled Wire Study

Photography has been Stephen’s passion since age 12, when his fascination with science led him to take photographs through a microscope. He began working on his own at age 15, attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1982, Wilkes opened his own studio in Manhattan.

“Ever since I took my first pictures, photography has always been the joy of discovery for me,” says Wilkes. “The excitement not only lies with what I see and how I see it, but mostly when someone looks at the finished photograph and feels the same emotions I felt when I took the picture. There is something sacred about the right moment. The frame where all the energy comes together and, in one instant, a story is told.”

Wilkes' photographs are in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dow Jones & Company, New York City; The Jewish Museum, New York City; and in numerous important private collections throughout the world. His work has graced the covers of numerous international publications, including Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Life Magazine, and Time Magazine. Selected photographs in the "Remnants" exhibition were featured in the Annenberg Center for Photography exhibit "Sink or Swim: Designing For A Sea Change", Dec 13, 2014 - May 3, 2015.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Panel Discussion: Photojournalism and Civil Rights



Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to present a special panel discussion on the role of photojournalism in the civil rights movement up to the present day. Freelance photojournalist Whitney Curtis, veteran LIFE magazine reporter Richard Stolley and interim director of the UNM Art Museum and Dean of the College of Fine Arts Kymberly Pindar will share their experiences and views on Friday, September 18, starting promptly at 5:30. Seating is  very limited and will be on a first come basis. The discussion will take place in the gallery during the final week of the exhibition "The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson", which closes on September 27.
Many of the now iconic photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States were once front-page news. The year 2015 brought renewed attention to many of these historic images not only from the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's march and the acclaimed film "Selma" but also as Baltimore, Charleston, and Ferguson, Missouri, and other American cities grapple with conflicts across the racial divide and produce new images that have confronted American society anew with questions of equality.

Richard Stolley already had a distinguished career in journalism when he joined TIME magazine in 1953. As a reporter for Time and LIFE he covered numerous civil rights stories during the 1960's, of which he has said "There would not have been a civil rights movement without journalism. I think LIFE magazine was the most influential publication in changing American attitudes toward race because other news magazines would tell you what was happening and LIFE magazine would show you. LIFE photographers captured images of people spitting on black kids. Those people landed in a great big photo in the magazine, their faces distorted with hate, and spit coming out of their mouths. That image is going to change peoples' attitude in a way that words never could. That is exactly what LIFE magazine did week after week after week."
After graduating with a degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Whitney Curtis worked as a staff photojournalist at The Kansas City Star, northern Utah’s Standard-Examiner, and the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. As an editorial photojournalist, Whitney’s work has been honored by The Associated Press, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, CPoY, and Women in Photojournalism. A resident of St. Louis, Whitney was not surprised by the outpouring of anger and emotion after a police officer killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. What she did not expect, however, was to be caught in the middle of it. She covered the 2014 protests extensively, often on assignment for The New York Times. Her image of image of Rashaad Davis from the Ferguson, Missouri protests was awarded 1st place Domestic News 2014 in NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Contest.

Kymberly Pindar is the interim director of the UNM Art Museum and dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts. Pindar is co-curator of the exhibition "Necessary Force: Art of the Police State which" will run from September 11 through December 12, 2015 at the UNM art museum. This exhibition interrogates law enforcement’s longstanding history of violence, and the systemic forces that continue to sanction and promote the violation of civil rights in this country. Dr. Pinder holds two master’s degree and a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University.

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than five decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in 20th and 21st photojournalist imagery. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers. Monroe Gallery was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 daily. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com.
 

Follow  @Monroegallery on Twitter for a Periscope livestream of the panel on Friday, September 18. 

Friday, September 11, 2015

Exhibit explores history of police use of force

Via The Albuquerque Journal
September 11, 201
 By Adrian Gomez / Asst. Arts Editor, Reel NM


Karen Fiss is one of the two curators of “Necessary Force: Art in the Police State.” She is standing in front of “Amelia Falling 2014” by Hank Willis Thomas. The exhibit is in the University of New Mexico Art Museum and will be on display until Dec. 12. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

An art exhibit opens tonight in Albuquerque that’s sure to generate discussion, and possibly controversy.

“Necessary Force: Art in the Police State” includes work from 31 artists, and covers such historical themes as the civil rights movement to more current events such as the James Boyd shooting here and the Ferguson, Mo., riots that started after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer.

“This exhibit is getting the dialog started about the problems our society is facing,” said co-curator Kymberly Pinder. “These are problems that have existed for a long time. The show balances what today’s society is dealing with in conjunction to what has happened in the past.”

Pinder, who also is dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts, and Karen Fiss, a professor at the California College of Arts, worked on pulling together the exhibit for the past year.

It is in the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and will be on display until Dec. 12.

“Art is not just to entertain; it can also be challenging and thought provoking,” the curators said in their exhibition statement. “The term ‘necessary force’ is the art created by artists who feel an urgent need to respond to contemporary events that reflect a society that is increasingly policed on many levels and how that affects us all. The words ‘police state’ are used because these artists address this increased policing and the many social conditions that contribute to the complex history of police violence in the United States.”

The majority of the works are responding to actual events. Documentary photographs from the 1960s and ’70s from the museum’s renowned collection stand alongside work by contemporary artists, which includes an installation of an overturned police car to a piece that points out items that were mistaken for guns.

“The juxtaposition of historic and recent imagery helps us assess the evolution of these pressing social issues over the 50 years since the Civil Rights movement,” Pinder said.

The exhibit comes after a Department of Justice investigation found that Albuquerque police used excessive force for years, and as the department tries to comply with a court order to overhaul its practices.

Pinder said the curators and artists hope to encourage critical thinking and dialogue around the complex history of law enforcement and violence in the United States.

The contemporary works in the exhibition address a range of issues, including surveillance, incarceration, drug abuse, inadequate mental health care, gun violence and racial profiling, as well as the power of collective protest and collective healing.

It also examines the role of photography in shaping public opinion, as well as the longer-term matter of how we come to know and remember history.

The goal for the exhibit falls in line with UNM’s mission to encourage critical thinking, dialogue and problem-solving around issues that are relevant today, Pinder said.

“The caliber of artists that are in the exhibit is profound,” Fiss said. “These were artists that showed interest in the show.”

Pinder always wanted to work with Fiss on a show. The pair have known each other since their graduate studies at Yale University.

A thematically related exhibition, “The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson,” is currently on display at The Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe until Sept. 27.