August 1, 2022
Most likely readers have seen some or all of the photographs hanging on the wall of the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Gallery co-owner, Sid Monroe will explain, though, that matting, framing, and gallery display transforms these images to something beyond their original use to document a current event. When viewed away from the newspaper or magazine page, multiple levels of meaning are conveyed through these photographs. They provide us with insight into a historical period in today’s world.
The exhibit currently displayed, Imagine A World Without Photojournalism, coincides with the 20-year celebration of Monroe Gallery’s presence in Santa Fe. Michelle and Sid Monroe opened their gallery in New York City but moved to Santa Fe in the aftermath of the terrorist events of 9/11. Their focus has always been on photojournalism. To that end, they have had the advice and support of some of the most noteworthy members of that community, the likes of Alfred Eisenstaedt and Carl Mydans. Some of the earliest advice was the suggestion that such a gallery could not succeed.
The gallery has survived. The current exhibit serves as a retrospective of the shows that have been hung in their transplant location in New Mexico. Viewers will find iconic photos such as Robert Capa’s images from Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Eddie Adams’s Saigon Execution, and numerous photos originally seen in Life magazine to photos from the present day Australian photojournalist, Ashley Gilbertson’s depiction of Officer Eugene Goodman holding back January 6th insurrectionists. The broad range of material serves to communicate the importance of photojournalism in our lives and for the several generations before us. The exhibit is important at a time when journalism is under attack (along with journalists) and lacking in funding.
This exhibit runs through September 18, 2022. For those who cannot make it to Santa Fe during the run of the exhibition, Monroe Gallery has produced a video sampler of many of the images on display. The presentation Threats to Photojournalism with photographers Nina Berman and David Butow took place in the gallery on Friday, July 22 but can be accessed on YouTube. Details on the presentation and the exhibit can be found at the Monroe Gallery website.
Link to article and photos here.
July 28, 2022
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, at times, still looks a little stunned when recounting what happened to him in May of 2020 while covering a protest over the killing of George Floyd. All of a sudden, despite the press badge hanging prominently near his waist — to say nothing of the crew that was clearly filming him — Jimenez went from reporting a story to staring blankly at the still-rolling camera as police put him in handcuffs.
The cops in riot gear, standing in the background brandishing batons during Jimenez’ live shot, wanted the street cleared. And this reporter from CNN was another body standing in the way.
“As a reporter, it’s the last thing you’d expect would happen in the United States,” Jimenez says, by way of recounting his arrest during a conversation with investigative journalist Ronan Farrow. “I was in this professional mode of being a reporter at first … then trying to figure out, wait, what the hell is going on right now?”
That conversation is part of new footage HBO Max is releasing today in support of “Endangered,” an HBO Original documentary film that debuted in June about journalism in its current state of global crisis.
Directed by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, with Farrow as executive producer, that documentary presents vignettes of reporters from around the world. From places as disparate as Mexico City, Miami, and Sao Paulo, where reporters like photojournalist Sáshenka Gutiérrez grapple with recalcitrant public officials, death threats, an indifferent public, an uncertain business model, and other hazards to their livelihood and lives.
“I hope that the documentary can change the mentality of some people a little — make them understand that without journalists, there is no democracy,” Gutiérrez told me. “(And) show them the different forms of violence that we face.”
In all, “The Endangered Tapes” includes six new pieces of content featuring Farrow interviewing journalists like Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post opinion writer arrested in Iran and held in the country’s notorious Evin prison for 544 days. As well as Selene San Felice, formerly of The Capital Gazette and a survivor of the newsroom shooting there.
"While we were producing ‘Endangered,’” Farrow told me, “I was guided by conversations with fellow journalists about their experiences and views on the state of the free press. I’m happy to share some of those behind-the-scenes exchanges with the world. These are bite-sized, informative glimpses into the lives of different kinds of journalists, facing different challenges. I learned a lot from them, and I’m so glad that the HBO Documentaries team — and the journalists I spoke with — are allowing others to see them too."
The documentary and supplemental content encourages viewers to not take for granted that the profession of bearing witness undertaken by reporters will always exist in its current form. That existential threats are ever-present. And that there is a man or a woman behind every byline, as well as a home and a family that the correspondent you see on TV will return to at the end of the day.
For journalists like Jimenez, there is also an everlasting tension between functioning as an objective reporter — and as someone with a life outside of that work, someone who’s not dispassionate about the people and things they encounter.
“A lot of times, being reporters, I think we fall into this pattern of — I have to be so objective that I am removed from the story,” Jimenez tells Farrow. “The story is over here, but I am back here.”
“This,” Jimenez continues, about his arrest, “was a situation where I couldn’t escape it.”
Related: Photojournalists Nina Berman and David Butow discuss threats to photojournalism.
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Via Charlotte Journalism Collaborate
Censorship Is a Missing Picture: Photojournalist Grant Baldwin discusses what we don't see
What is censorship? How do we recognize when it is happening, and how do we address it? Please join local photojournalist Grant Baldwin to discuss his photographs, their impact, and his experience with censorship.
The Gaston County Manager ordered the removal of a photograph on display as part of an exhibit titled Into the Darkroom at the Gaston County Museum of Art and History. According to the Charlotte Observer, "LGBTQ equality advocates are demanding officials in Gaston County reverse their decision to remove a photo showing two men recently engaged, kissing, from a museum exhibit. The photograph, taken by Charlotte freelance photojournalist Grant Baldwin, shows Justin Colasacco and his husband Bren Hipp kissing after Colasacco dropped to one knee and proposed in front of the crowd at the 2019 Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade. They married Oct. 4, 2020." According to the Gaston Gazette, the Gaston County Manager claimed that the photograph was political advocacy and wanted Mr. Baldwin to replace it with something else. The photojournalist chose instead to leave the display spot on the wall empty to demonstrate that something was missing.
Grant Baldwin is an award-winning freelance photojournalist based in Charlotte NC who focuses on visual story telling. His work has appeared in multiple local and national news outlets. He recently won the North Carolina Press Association's 2020 Best Multimedia Project for Black Lives Matter Coverage.
Please join the Charlotte Journalism Collaborate to discuss what censorship means in our community.
Grant Baldwin's photograph is featured in the current exhibit "Imagine A World Without Photojournalism", on view through September 18. Monroe Gallery hosted Nina Berman and David Butow for a discussion on July 22: Threats to Photojournalism".
Dallas Center for Photography Welcomes Back Renowned Photojournalist Ed Kashi with an Exhibition, Artist Talk & Book Signing Celebrating Work from his Newly Released Monograph
Abandoned Moments Exhibition
DCP’s Community Gallery
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4, 6-8pm
Exhibition on View: August 4 – August 27
For more information go here.
Artist Talk and Book Signing (DCP Speaker Series):
Friday, August 5, 7-9pm
For more information, go here.
For forty years, celebrated photojournalist Ed Kashi has delivered the world's stories through images that both imply, as well as directly show, humanistic challenges and joys. Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography (Kehrer Verlag) is a window into Kashi's unique voice and craft, and presents glimpses of ordinary life, as well as extraordinary events, struggles, and triumphs – the chaos of everyday life.
The images selected for Kashi’s book and exhibition span the decades of his work and were taken around the world. Shot entirely from the hip, Kashi flips standard photography conventions by snapping these "abandoned moments" without looking through the viewfinder, seeking to capture moments shaped by serendipity and instinct, rather than objectivity and intellect. “They are free to be less controlled but for that very reason they may be more certain and more certainly true,” Kashi explains about the evolution of his style and methodology.
Ed Kashi's photographs are included in the current exhibition "Imagine A World Without Photojournalism" on view through September 18, 2022.
Hans Runesson: A woman hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag, Växjö, Sweden, 1985
From The Santa Fe New Mexican Letters to the Editor, July 20, 2022
"A most satisfying photo
The reprint of a 1985 photo by Hans Runesson in a recent Pasatiempo of an elderly Swedish woman slugging a neo-Nazi in the back of the head with her handbag during a rally, is quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen. It provoked in me the most extravagant hilarity and happiness. Look at her! She puts her entire body into it. Her face is contorted in a grimace of pure rage. She looks like she is of the generation that actually experienced the real Nazis and knows what these silly, idle, testosterone-laden young boneheads do not know or will not recognize: that all of it was pure hell.
Slugging that young man must have been immensely satisfying. I will admit with only the smallest trace of shame that I wish I could have similarly slugged one of these boneheaded, malevolent and violent Jan. 6 rioters in the back of the head with my handbag. The photo is now on my fridge, to be enjoyed for weeks to come as a sort of counterweight against the hopelessness that befalls me at times these days."
"Imagine A World Without Photojournalism" continues through September 18, 2022
July 25, 2022
On July 22, photojournalists Nina Berman and David Butow spoke about threats photojournalists are facing. Both photographers covered January 6 at the US Capitol and talked about their experiences during the insurrection riot. View the discussion here on the Monroe Gallery YouTube page.
July/August 2022 Bulletin
"Throughout its history, our institution has collected and exhibited photographs and films that address timely and timeless topics. For example, we have recently acquired the powerful photograph (above) taken by Ashley Gilbertson, who bravely documented the events at the United States Capitol during the insurrection on January 6, 2021."
Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, was pleased to host photojournalists Nina Berman and David Butow for an engaging conversation on Friday, July 22,
Across America and throughout the world, photojournalists working to bring the world vital news have come under attack, often from authorities, governments, and groups using violence and repression as a form of censorship. Combined with deliberate misinformation creating public skepticism, the photojournalist’s mission of creating visual moments essential to understanding societal and political change is being threatened.
Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, author and educator. Her wide-ranging work looks at American politics, militarism, post violence trauma and resistance. Her photographs and videos have been exhibited at more than 100 venues from the security walls of the Za'atari refugee camp to the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is the author of Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, (2004) portraits and interviews with wounded American veterans, Homeland, (2008) an examination of the militarization of American life post September 11, and, An autobiography of Miss Wish (2017) a story told with a survivor of sexual violence which was shortlisted for both the Aperture and Arles book prizes. Additional fellowships, awards and grants include: the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Press Photo Foundation, Pictures of the Year International, the Open Society Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the Aftermath Project. She is a Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she directs the photography program. She lives in her hometown of New York City.
David Butow is a freelance photojournalist whose projects and assignments have taken him to over two dozen countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq, Peru, Yemen and Zimbabwe. His new book, BRINK, chronicles politics in the United States from the 2016 presidential election through the chaos of the Trump presidency, the turmoil of 2020 and concludes with the insurrection and its aftermath at the U.S, Capitol in January 2021.
Born in New York and raised in Dallas, he has a degree in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. After college he moved to Los Angeles and worked in newspapers before beginning a freelance career for magazines in the 1990's. From the mid-90's through the late-2000's he worked as a contract photographer for US News and World Report magazine covering social issues and news events such as post- 9/11 in New York, the Palestinian/Israeli Intifada, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the funeral of Nelson Mandela, and the death of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
Most recently, his photographs from Ukraine and Ulvalde, Texas have been published in Politico, Time, and The New York Times
David's photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions including the Asia Society NY, the United Nations NY and Visa Pour l'Image in Perpignan, France. His photographs have also appeared in books and magazines worldwide.
Photos by Nina Berman
July 5, 2022
Women who have abortions should get the death penalty,” Beatrice, a pro-life protester, told The Indypendent. She wore a T-shirt that read “Hope is here” and was one of several women protesting outside the downtown Manhattan Health Center on the Saturday morning before the Supreme Court toppled Roe v. Wade.
While the religious right’s quest for earthly dominion over women’s bodies proceeds undisturbed on this morning, that’s not always the case. On the first Saturday of each month, Witness for Life, an anti-choice group, returns to the same clinic, which is run by Planned Parenthood. They are met by counter-protests organized by NYC For Abortion Rights, a socialist-feminist collective that fights for full abortion and reproductive justice.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Mississippi will lead to the outright ban or severe restriction of abortion rights in 22 states that are home to 64 million women and girls, with several more states likely to enact similar laws. It won’t stop there. People who suffer miscarriages or stillbirths could face criminal investigations and those who cross state lines to procure an abortion will be targeted, as will all the people and organizations that help them. Digital surveillance technologies will further the aims of the abortion police in ways that weren’t possible when Roe was decided in 1973.
Meanwhile, New York’s state and local leaders have promised that ours will be a sanctuary state for women seeking abortions and won’t cooperate with out-of-state law enforcement. Mutual aid groups have also vowed to aid those in need. The prospect that anti-choicers, now further emboldened, will step up their protests and harassment outside New York City’s abortion clinics seems likely. If they do, how many of us will be there to greet them? For more, see abortionrights.nyc.
