March 31, 2022
"March 15, 2022. Two of the millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, this woman and her son leave for Poland and a completely unpredictable future. Lviv is one of the funnel points for people trying to get out of the country. I just finished several days photographing these refugees, tracing their steps to the border and beyond.
The escape from Ukraine has become increasingly desperate. More than 2.6 million people have fled the country as Russian troops move closer to major metro areas, shelling civilian infrastructure at random and forcing people to find last-minute transportation to take them to safety.
Train stations are constantly crowded. Aid groups are meeting civilians with food, water and donated clothes. Polish families are taking in Ukrainian refugees, offering up their homes as temporary shelters. The U.S. so far has donated over $100M to help Ukrainians by providing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene supplies as well as surgical kit"s. --David Butow
The Rye Arts Center is proud to present its second exhibition of works by world renowned photographer Tony Vaccaro, following its 1992 exhibit “The Vision of Tony Vaccaro – a Fifty Year Retrospective.” Curated by Patrick Cicalo and Gail Harrison Roman, the exhibition demonstrates how Tony’s visually eloquent photographs provide a cultural history of his time, providing a record of figures in arts and letters and in public life, and scenes of war and death.
As a combat photographer in the Second World War, Tony captured on film wartime images that evoke the determination and camaraderie of soldiers in combat, the pathos of defeat and death, and the joy of liberation, all represented in the exhibit.
Upon his return to the United States, Tony took up fashion and celebrity photography working for major magazines of the postwar era: Harper’s Bazaar, Flair, Life, Look, Newsweek, Time, Vogue, and other popular news and fashion magazines. He amassed a treasure trove of celebrity images from the worlds of television and film, art and architecture, politics, and fashion. Included in this exhibition are portraits of Irving Berlin, Leonard Cohen, Givenchy, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and others.
Much of what is creative in photography today has its birth behind Tony’s lens. His pioneering work in visual interpretation and artistic presentation was a catalyst in the advancement of magazine photojournalism and celebrity portraiture. A selection of Tony’s cameras and memorabilia will be on view as well.
A special section of Tony’s cameras and personal memorabilia, curated by Sarah Mackay, will be on view in the Gallery.
Photographs in the exhibition appear courtesy of Tony Vaccaro Studio and the Monroe Gallery of Photography.
Tony will speak about his work at the Opening Reception, free and open to the public, on Thursday, April 7th from 5:30-7:30pm. Reservations are suggested but not required.
The exhibition will be on view at The Rye Arts Center from April 7th – May 13th.
Gallery hours are Mondays, 9am-3pm; Tuesdays – Fridays, 9am-7pm; Saturdays, 9am-3pm; closed on Sundays.
For more information, go to www.ryeartscenter.org
Via The Briscoe Center for American History
March 25, 2022
Dirck Halstead, award-winning photojournalist, freelance photographer, and digital journalism innovator, died on March 25, 2022.
Halstead was a pioneering photojournalist, best known for his work for Time magazine, UPI, and Life magazine. He covered major world events throughout the late twentieth century including the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon in 1975, five presidential administrations, President Richard Nixon’s trip to China, and the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. He was the publisher and editor of the online magazine the Digital Journalist. Halstead donated his archive to the Briscoe Center in 1995.
.jpg "Defend The Sacred by © Ryan Vizzions")
March 24, 2022
The Figge Art Museum has an extensive photography collection that continues to grow. Beginning Saturday, visitors are invited to step into the Figge’s second-floor Lewis Gallery to view a small selection of the museum’s most recent photographic additions.
Important works by some of the most significant photographers of our time provide us with a brief survey of the collection’s recent growth and the varying impulses that guide contemporary photography, according to a Thursday museum release.
The New Photography exhibition series allows the Figge to share with the QC community some of the museum’s newly acquired works featuring objects, landscapes and figures, including photos that will adorn the Figge’s walls for years to come.
“Despite the proliferation of images made with our smart phones and circulated through social media, dedicated photographers continue to create iconic images that stand above the rest,” said Director of Collections and Exhibitions Andrew Wallace. “From the frontlines of conflict to the frontlines of daily life, photographers reward us with pictures that encourage us to look more closely at the world around us and so that we may better see ourselves.”
Acclaimed 20th-century masters including Lynn Davis and Douglas Prince — as well as recent works by Cara Romero, Victoria Sambunaris, Rebecca Norris Webb, and Ryan Vizzions — will be on view.
From the real to the surreal, the exhibition will highlight photography’s continued ability to engage, inform, and amaze. New Photography will be on view (at 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport) through July 3, 2022.
225 West Second Street
Davenport, Iowa
March, 2022
By Greer McNally
The Real Deal: Joe McNally’s New Book Bares the Soul of a 40-Year Photo Career
Joe McNally is up at the crack of dawn. In two days, he’ll be off to photograph the Amazon. This trip took two years to plan and has already been moved three times. Before he leaves though, he has to squeeze in a COVID-19 test—just one of many—finish programming the three Nikon Z 9 cameras that are going with him to South America, and chat with Rangefinder about his new book, The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer.
The book isn’t what you might first expect from the internationally acclaimed photographer. It isn’t littered with how-to’s and lighting setups, though they are there. It is a beautifully written, witty snapshot of the changing life of a photographer who’s been in the business for 40 years.
It is a business. And McNally (who has no relation to the author of this article) admits that it has changed dramatically in recent times—advancing camera technology, a shift in social attitudes and the global pandemic have all seen to that. So, why write The Real Deal now? Well, like his Amazonian adventure, it’s actually taken a while to reach fruition.
When McNally, who is also a Nikon Ambassador, signed the contract with his publisher Rocky Nook five years ago, there was no deadline. “They told me to write it when I felt it,” he explains. “To write it when I could.” Today, he is grateful for his editor, Ted Waitt, and Rocky Nook’s patience. The time has allowed him to create something that he hopes is different from other how-to books.
“There is an overwhelming amount of information out there about photography and a lot of it is technique-based,” McNally says. “It’s wonderfully instructive. But what I wanted to get across was the feeling of being a photographer—the journey.”
McNally’s own 40-year creative journey leading up to The Real Deal book has seen him ascend from copy boy at New York’s Daily News, a job he almost turned down (“I wanted the title of photographer,” he says) to wire services, magazines, advertising, corporate, marketing, internet, social and, of course, digital. Thinking back to that first job, and reflecting on where he is today, he realizes how lucky he was. “As crude and humble as those beginnings were, they formed a good bedrock to jump off from,” he says. It also taught him to take risks as a photographer.
His approach is simple: “If I show up and think ‘Wow, that’s amazing, I’ve never seen anything like that before,’ then that’s what I shoot.”
On one occasion, he remembers climbing the Queensboro Bridge in New York without a safety harness or credentials to get a shot. “I vaguely said I was with the paper,” he recalls. It wouldn’t be the last time he scaled a great height to find an eye-catching viewpoint. Years later, when sent to chronicle the new docklands springing up in the East End of London, he was challenged with capturing the changes in a way different to his contemporaries. He befriended a construction worker and ended up inched out along a crane arm to photograph a bird’s eye view of the city from above.
Today, both shots would either be taken by drone or need permits and a pile of paperwork to be done in person. He seems to miss the freedom of just putting it all out there to get an exposure, and it was definitely a prompt for writing The Real Deal book. “I wanted to provide an overview of how drastically things have changed over time, while retaining the core mission of being a good storyteller,” he says.
Some of those changes have been good, but others not so much, he feels. “We live in a golden age of photography. The equipment we have is phenomenal, but the hard part is monetization. How do you make a living? How do you get someone to fund your projects?”
This is where McNally’s 40 years of industry knowledge kick in within the pages of The Real Deal book. He advises on career paths: “Drive yourself to the point of finding out what you’re really good at, what you’re happy shooting, and what you will still be happy shooting in ten years. Then follow that track,” he advises. He also emphasizes the importance of writing a coherent creative proposal, among other things. And it is all done in a compelling narrative voice.
McNally was studying to be a writer before he caught the photography bug. That connection between the written and the visual makes his memories big, bold and colorful, much like his pictures. You need only look at his portrait of a smiling Hillary Clinton or a dancer flying through the air to see the clear signatures in his work.
And there’s more to come. This year, he’s teaching a number of workshops, and he is tempted by the idea of writing again. A novel is already underway—he has, as he puts it, “some bones down on a sheet of paper.” He’s got another huge project that’s in the production stage, which is still very hush hush. But with shooting set for the first week of April, we’re bound to see some signs of it soon.
The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer
"The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. And with the original film celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Paramount Pictures is releasing a special anniversary edition of the entire trilogy on 4K Ultra HD on March 22. Ahead of the release, Collider has gotten an exclusive look at some of the bonus content available with the 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition and the re-released trilogy. You can now take a look inside the film and behind the scenes with the late, legendary photographer Steve Schapiro who captured several stunning and intimate moments on the set of The Godfather in 1971.
Schapiro passed away earlier this year, but his legacy continues on through the photos he took. He captured many incredible images during his lifetime, including several iconic shots from the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. In the 1970s, he was hired by Paramount Pictures as their on-set photographer. He would go on to immortalize scenes within movies like The Godfather, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, as well as exclusive off-camera moments of actors and crew members at work. In the behind-the-scenes featurette, which you can watch below, Schapiro discusses some of his favorite shots from his work on The Godfather." --Collider
Today marks the start of the new exhibit "Ed Kashi: Abandoned Moments", now on view through April 24. Please join us live in the Gallery or on-line via Zoom for a special discussion with Ed Kashi on April 1 at 5:30 (MDST).
WIDEWALLS
Monroe Gallery of Photography Announced Exclusive Representation of Ed Kashi
ART DAILY
Monroe Gallery of Photography announces representation of photojournalist Ed Kashi
