Save The Date - March 30, 2023: Nate Gowdy: The Insurrection in Photos

 

Via Town Hall Seattle

February 18, 2023

Nate Gowdy – Town Hall Seattle

Nate Gowdy had previously photographed 30 Donald Trump rallies. He thought he was fully prepared for what should have been the grand finale, but the events that unfolded on January 6th, 2021, were more than anyone could have expected. 

As the event transformed from protest to outright insurrection, Gowdy never stopped photographing. The result is his first monograph, Insurrection — a comprehensive yet intimate account of the events of that fateful day. The 150-page book moves readers through the day in timestamped, chronological order, bringing them a firsthand account of not just the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but what it was like to be a journalist on the front lines.

Juxtaposed are scenes of domestic terrorists kneeling and praying, posing for group photos, eating hotdogs, rampaging against the Capitol’s sworn protectors, and defiling the Inauguration Day stand, historically reserved for the stately pomp and circumstance of our representative government. On assignment for Rolling Stone, Gowdy was deemed “fake news” and assaulted twice for having professional cameras.

Gowdy joins us in the Wyncote NW Forum to share more about that historic day in January.

Nate Gowdy captures the complexities of American politics with striking clarity. Since chronicling Washington state’s fight for marriage equality in 2012, he has traveled the US to photograph pivotal events, figures, and movements across the political divide. His images have been featured in Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, PBS NewsHour, Thom Hartmann, CNN, and TIME, where his Bernie Sanders portrait graced the cover in 2016. As a co-founder of The American Superhero Project and co-author of Our Students, Their Stories, a book celebrating Seattle Public Schools’ LGBTQIA+ students, families, and staff, Gowdy is committed to elevating underrepresented voices. He serves as the official photographer for Seattle Pride, and his documentary fine art is represented at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 7:30PM

The Wyncote NW Forum

1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)

Seattle, Washington 98101

Get tickets here

Harwood Museum of Art announces Centennial Celebration in 2023; Monroe Gallery loans Margaret Bourke-White photograph

 

Via The Taos News

February 13, 2023

Harwood Museum of Art announces Centennial Celebration in 2023

Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico announces the celebration of its one-hundred-year anniversary in 2023. 

To mark the museum’s role as a steward of Western history and American art, Harwood’s Centennial celebration will take place from June 3, 2023 to January 28, 2024 and will include a major exhibition, publication and a full calendar of educational and community programs.  

Burt and Lucy Harwood made art and education the soul of Harwood when they purchased the property on historic Ledoux Street in 1916. The Harwood Foundation was founded in 1923; Originally a library born from the lending library Lucy Harwood began in her then-home, the museum has since become an international destination for tens-of-thousands of visitors each year. 

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and the second-oldest museum in New Mexico, Harwood celebrates Taos’ artistic legacy, cultivates connections through art and inspires a creative future. 

“This is a great milestone for Harwood, which has been a cultural anchor in Taos,” said Juniper Leherissey, executive director. “As the museum has evolved and changed, what endures is the strength in art and creativity that we hope to continue to inspire long into the future.”

The kick-off for the Centennial will take place with opening events at the museum on Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3. This will be followed by the Harwood 100 Birthday Bash on Saturday, June 17 at the Sagebrush Events Center from 5:30-10 pm. The Harwood 100 Birthday Bash will include Taos Pueblo’s Hail Creek Singers, mariachis, and dance music by Big Swing Theory. Tickets will go on sale in March.

From June 2023 to January 2024, the Centennial exhibition will fill all nine galleries and will take visitors on a journey through the museum’s rich history, including 200 works of art from Harwood’s collection and 200 books from the former Harwood Public Library, along with significant works on loan by artists Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Margaret Bourke-White, Elaine de Kooning and Georgia O’Keeffe. Continue to full article here.

For more information, visit  https://harwoodmuseum.org/centennial/.

Save The Date: February 23, In Conversation Series With Ryan Vizzions

 Via River Cities Reader

February 9, 2023

Thursday, February 23, 6:30 p.m.

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

A lauded painter, a noted art therapist, and an award-winning photojournalist will share their histories and thoughts at the Figge Art Museum on February 23 when the Davenport venue hosts In Conversation: Zaiga Minka Thorson, Dana Keeton, & Ryan Vizzions, an informal and enriching conversation about how artists address personal trauma through their artistic practices.

Michigan native Thorson is a Black Hawk College Professor Emerita, having taught at the Moline institution since 1999. She holds a BFA in Painting from Western Michigan University and an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University, and is represented by Iowa Artisans Gallery in Iowa City. Having received numerous awards for her graphic design and artwork, which she exhibits both regionally and nationally, Thorson has served on the education committee for the Figge Art Museum, as well as on the Rock Island Preservation Commission and the Visual Arts Committee of Rock Island's Quad City Arts. She has stated that her reverence for nature is rooted in her Latvian heritage and growing up in Michigan, and her interests include research and travel to America's National Parks and UNESCO World Heritage sites, her points of interest particularly focused on sacred sites.

Based in Iowa City, Keeton is a registered, board-certified art therapist and a licensed mental health counselor whose trauma-informed psychotherapy work incorporates art therapy, EMDR, mindfulness, and breath work, as well as cognitive behavioral, client-centered, and strength-based approaches. She is also trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a therapeutic technique that assists in reducing the intensity of emotions associated with disturbing life experiences; YogaCalm, an integrated wellness approach utilizing yoga movement, meditation and mindfulness; and a certified Victim Service Provider with the Iowa Organization for Victim Assistance.

Vizzions has been named Creative Loafing's 2014 "Best Fine Art Photographer" (readers choice) and 2015 "Best Cityscape Photographer" (critics pick); worked alongside international brands such as Adidas and artists such as Pharrell Williams; collaborated with local companies including #WeLoveATL, The Atlanta Opera, and Van Michael Salon; and covered many music festivals, among them Outkast's long awaited reunion series "Outkast ATLast." In hosting his own annual photo exhibition Wander Never Wonder, Vizzions connects local photographers and helps provide a platform for local artists to make money off of their craft. The artist and photojournalist is also deeply involved with the community of Atlanta, Georgia, often donating portions of his art sales to various local charities and foundations.

In Conversation: Zaiga Minka Thorson, Dana Keeton, & Ryan Vizzions will take place on February 23, the 6:30 p.m. program will be preceded by a 5 p.m. cash bar, and participation in the evening discussion is free. For more information, call (563)326-7804 and visit FiggeArtMuseum.org.

Photojournalist Nate Gowdy Releases Intense Images from the Jan 6 Riot

Via Peta Pixel

January 31, 2023

Nate Gowdy: 5:07:45 PM, January 6, 2021, US Capitol, Washington, DC

Two years on from the Jan. 6 riots, an attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, a photojournalist has released his photos from that fateful day.

For his new book Insurrection, Nate Gowdy tells PetaPixel that he was mistaken by some members of the mob as their “fellow patriot,” others assaulted him for being part of the “fake news.”

“Brave photojournalists had to endure hell to navigate that day better than I did,” Gowdy says.

“Many risked endless aggressions to document the battlefront and gore from up close. Not me. Lacking the necessary gear and armor for a combat zone, I captured the wider view. Instead of zooming in with my feet, I often took a step back.”

Gowdy says he was attacked by a group of Proud Boys in the morning and a second time in the afternoon after the perimeter barricades to the Capitol grounds were breached.

“A few insurgents mistook me as a fellow ‘patriot,’ offering water for my burning eyes, confiding in me, and even lending a hand,” he explains.

“The rest of them monitored me with suspicious glares. Because I wasn’t repping my press badge, they couldn’t be 100 percent sure I wasn’t on their team. If I could do it over, I’d cover my N95 with an American flag bandana.

“All afternoon, I worked discreetly, often facing the opposite direction as my lens was pointed, shooting with outstretched arms or from the hip. I religiously avoided eye contact, lest these people take notice of the fear in my eyes. It helped that my lens was wide enough that I didn’t have to point directly at someone in order to include them in my frames.”

Gowdy traveled to D.C. from Seattle to cover what was supposed to be a political rally for Rolling Stone magazine, no different from the many assignments he had been on previously.

But he soon realized that this would be much different and because of the holiday season, Gowdy didn’t have all of his usual gear and was forced to borrow some from a colleague.

“I struggled to adapt to my friend’s custom presets. For the life of me, I couldn’t get used to his ‘back-button AF,’ which separated AF activation from the shutter release,” explains Gowdy

“In no position to troubleshoot, I reset the camera, which made matters worse by somehow removing the AF function altogether! I can laugh at it now, but in my ten years as a photographer, I had never once used manual focus. I’m here to tell you that at a violent insurrection, it’s a difficult thing to learn.”

Virtually all of the photos were taken on Gowdy’s Lecia Q’s fixed 28mm lens and a flash that his friend had lent him.

3:19:18 PM, January 6, 2021, Washington, DC

“Locked between thousands of rioters at the Inauguration Day stand, I was immobile for long periods. The camera’s focal length forced me to focus on and prioritize the subjects and scenes right before me,” he adds.

The Pictures Almost Never Existed

After escaping without serious injury, Gowdy then had the utter devastation of his Leica Q, hard drives, laptop, and all of his pictures being stolen from Washington’s Union Station as he was traveling back to Seattle.

“It was one of the lowest points of my career, and I would’ve given anything to recover these photographs,” he says.

Luckily, one of his friends spotted the camera listed on an online marketplace and Gowdy messaged the seller who claimed to have “found” his backpack that contained all of his stuff. The crook then demanded $2,000.

“Very fortunately, the thief agreed to return to the scene of the crime and to make an exchange the following day at Union Station with a friend of mine,” explains Gowdy.

“Amtrak Police went above and beyond to work with my friend to coordinate a safe and successful sting operation. Everything was returned in time for me to photograph Biden’s inauguration day.”

The 150-page hardcover edition of Insurrection by Nate Gowdy is available via his website.

“If you’re curious to read the only available book of photojournalism about what it was like to be in the middle of the mob on January 6, I encourage you to pick it up,” he adds.

Bill Eppridge's Photograph in the NY Times Obituary for Bobby Hull

 Via The New York Times

January 30, 2023

Hull’s slap shot over the years was measured at between 97 and 120 miles per hour.

Credit...Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection

View more of Bill Epprdge's photography here

Short biographical video:  The Legacy of Bill Eppridge

David Butow Photographs Star Ballroom Shooting Memorials and Resilience for CNN

 Via CNN

January 29, 2023

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN. Photographs by David Butow

After tragedy struck Monterey Park’s vibrant dance community, residents insist they will return to their beloved ballroom --click for full article.

People gather at the Monterey Park City Hall for a candlelight vigil honoring 11 victims of a mass shooting in the city on Lunar New Year's Eve.

The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.

The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.

Kevin Leung stands outside of the dance studio where he rented space for years to teach Kung Fu and traditional lion dancing. He knew two of those killed in the shooting.

A show celebrating acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar) can be viewed for five more days—through Jan. 29

 Via The Santa Fe Reporter

January 25, 2023

Honoring Vaccaro

Speaking of countdowns, a show celebrating acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar) can be viewed for five more days—through Jan. 29. Monroe mounted two exhibitions—here and a New York pop-up last month—to honor Vaccaro’s 100th birthday; the photographer died on Dec. 28, just eight days after his centennial, which he celebrated in New York with friends at a surprise birthday dinner. 

A New York Times obituary recounts how Vaccaro became a war photographer in World War II—also the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary. After the war, he transitioned and began to make fashion, travel and celebrity photographs for the country’s leading magazines. 

Those celebrities included Georgia O’Keeffe, whom Life magazine assigned Vaccaro to photograph in 1960. O’Keeffe expected a more famous photographer and at first refused to pose: “To win her over, Mr. Vaccaro cooked a meal and made a picnic lunch. When the weather turned too windy for the picnic, he gave her a plate of Swiss cheese as she sat in the back of his car. And when she playfully peered through a hole in a piece of the cheese, Mr. Vaccaro went into action,” the obituary reads. His other famous subjects included John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso and Sophie Loren, to name a few. 

This quote from Vaccaro accompanies Monroe’s information on the exhibition: “We call each other German, French, Italian. There is no Italian blood. There is no French blood. It’s human blood. On this Earth there is one humanity. Let’s do something about it. Let’s live! In a way, photography was my way of telling the world, ‘We have better things to do than to kill ourselves.’”

Ashley Gilbertson Photographs in January 15, 2023 NY Times

 Via The New York Times

January 14, 2023

How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism

What happened to a state known for its political independence?

Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

“If you want to live here,” a chapter president of the Montana Federation of Republican Women said, “be a Christian.” 

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

A flag near Red Lodge, Montana

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

The party convention in Billings last summer. Montana was one of the most politically independent states, but Republicans have recently managed to secure an ironclad grip over state politics.

Credit. Ashley Gilbertson

A sign advertising the Republican Party near Red Lodge, a city in southern Montana. In 2021, the Legislature passed a bill banning transgender athletes on sports teams at public schools and universities, an increased tax credit benefiting private Christian schools and numerous anti-abortion laws.

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York. His photograph from the Jan. 6 attack was part of the Times entry that was a finalist in the breaking-news-reporting category of the Pulitzer Prizes in 2022.

Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States; Artist's talk with Nina Berman January 12

 

January 13 – March 4, 2023

University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum

Nina Berman: John Bonner and Richard Huntly, from the series The Black Boys of Dozier, 2013 

Thousands of boys, mainly black, passed through Dozier since it opened in 1901 as a reform school for wayward boys. But allegations over the years suggest it functioned more like a slave labor camp, with verified reports of children being hog tied and shackled. The name of the institution changed as each successive administration installed its own brand of punishment and forced labor, finally closing in 2011, not because of allegations, but according to the State, because of budget issues.

Panel discussion Thursday, January 12 with artists featured in Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States, including Nina Berman, Rico Gatson, and Jason Lazarus. Curator Christian Viveros-Fauné will lead the conversation exploring issues and topics addressed in the exhibition. This event is free and open to the public, Facebook live link here.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for his “I Have a Dream” speech, yet much less emphasis is placed on his campaign to seek justice for America’s poor, “The Poor People’s Campaign.” This was a multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-racial movement aimed at uniting poor people and their allies to demand an end to poverty and inequality. Fifty-three years after Dr. King’s death, the Reverend William Barber II launched a contemporary push to fulfill MLK’s ambitious brief — one that calls for a “revolution of values” that unites poor and impacted communities across the country. The exhibition Poor People’s Art: A (Short) Visual History of Poverty in the United States represents a visual response to Dr. King’s “last great dream” as well as Reverend Barber’s recent “National Call for Moral Revival.”

With artworks spanning more than 50 years, the exhibition is divided into two parts: Resurrection (1968-1994) and Revival (1995-2022). Resurrection includes photographs, paintings, prints, videos, sculptures, books, and ephemera made by a radically inclusive company of American artists, from Jill Freedman's photographs of Resurrection City, the tent enclave that King's followers erected on the National Mall in 1968, to John Ahearns' plaster cast sculpture Luis Fuentes, South Bronx (1979). Revival offers contemporary engagement across a range of approaches, materials, and points of view. Conceived in a declared opposition to poverty, racism, militarism, environmental destruction, health inequities, and other interlocking injustices, this exhibition shows how artists in the US have visualized poverty and its myriad knock-on effects since 1968. Participating artists include John Ahearn, Nina Berman, Martha De la Cruz, Jill Freedman, Rico Gatson, Mark Thomas Gibson, Corita Kent, Jason Lazarus, Miguel Luciano, Hiram Maristany, Narsiso Martinez, Adrian Piper, Robert Rauschenberg, Rodrigo Valenzuela, William Villalongo & Shraddha Ramani.

Poor People’s Art is curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné, CAM Curator-at-Large and organized by the USF Contemporary Art Museum.   Exhibition Press Release

War-scarred land: Nina Berman and Ashley Gilbertson featured in award-winning book depicting collateral damage of U.S. military at home

Via The Harvard Gazette

In her recent book and accompanying exhibition, “Devour the Land” — honored at the 2022 PhotoBook Awards — curator Makeda Best considers how photographers have responded to the U.S. military’s impact on the environment since the 1970s.

Below, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums walks us through a few of the images she selected. (Full post here)

A Housing Development Bordering the Starmet Superfund Site, Concord, Mass., USA” (July 3, 2016) by Nina Berman, American (b. New York, N.Y. 1960). © Nina Berman; image courtesy of Nina Berman

Just outside Walden Pond, a toxic dump

Nina Berman’s photograph was made in nearby Concord. Made at sites across the country, Berman’s series “Acknowledgment of Danger” takes its title from a waiver visitors must sign before entering the toxic grounds of a former military facility. In Concord, she photographed a new housing development in early morning light. Concord is known for its connections to the Revolutionary War and to the U.S. environmental movement. (The pictured site is six miles from Walden Pond, made famous by Henry David Thoreau’s 19th-century nature writing.) Here, Berman draws out this site’s link to modern warfare: Starmet Corp. (formerly Nuclear Metals Inc.) manufactured products from depleted uranium, primarily for armor-piercing ammunition, among other things. The company discharged toxic waste into an unlined holding basin for nearly 30 years, contaminating the soil and groundwater. In 2001, the facility was placed on the National Priorities List, an EPA registry of the nation’s most hazardous sites.

 “A Resident Talks to Workers in the Hunter’s Point Neighborhood of San Francisco, Calif., on May 5, 2017.” From the series “Bombs in Our Backyard” by Ashley Gilbertson, Australian (b. Melbourne 1978). © Ashley Gilbertson/VII; image courtesy of the artist

Story of environmental racism

It was important to me that the exhibition speak to the fact that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by this pollution and toxicity. Ashley Gilbertson made this photograph in a neighborhood in my hometown of San Francisco, called Hunter’s Point. The neighborhood was largely built on a former naval base, today a Superfund site. Growing up, I knew kids who lived here — heard them talk about their eczema and asthma. In 2017-18, Gilbertson, a contributor to the catalog, acclaimed for his photographs of conflict in the Middle East, turned his attention to the U.S., documenting pollution caused by the military for the investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica. Gilbertson collaborated with journalist Abrahm Lustgarten (another contributor to the catalog) to produce a series of in-depth reports on the pollution from former chemical weapons test sites and the harmful ways the military has chosen to dispose of chemicals and munitions. In his larger series, Gilbertson shows how people and toxins intersect — from illness to activism to labor and daily life in a poisonous environment.

 

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