Through the lens 2023: Gabriela Campos

 Via The Santa Fe New Mexican

December 28, 2023

Gallery Photographer Gabriela Campos shares some of her favorite images from 2023.

Kelly Ludeking, a Minnesota ironmonger, spins molten iron while fellow artists throw liquid iron onto a plywood wall behind him during the biennial Iron Tribe gathering March 2 in Las Vegas, N.M. The gathering, started by Highlands University fine arts professor David Lobdell in 2001, has become a can’t-miss event, particularly for professors and students in the West and Great Plains.

Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican

Full gallery here.

TIME's Best Photos of 2023 Includes Gallery Photographer David Butow's Image From The Maui Willdfire

 

Via TIME

December 21, 2023

A girl who, unable to get an abortion, becomes a mother before starting 7th grade; a mass of twisted metal and ash, all that remains of a home in the wake of the Maui wildfires; Bad Bunny, one of the year’s most engaging entertainers, stepping out in a pink mohair coat adorned with a bow: These photographs, all featured in TIME during 2023, constitute a map of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, connecting us with the greater world. Sometimes we may feel we live and work in isolation, but it’s never true: there are always those facing challenges as formidable as our own, or even more so, and there are joys to be had, too. These are just a few of the gifts great photographs can bring us, a collapsing of the distance between others and ourselves.

We’re reminded how our world is changing around us when we see a flutter of birds over Delhi, a city cloaked with smog that puts both animal health and that of humans at risk. A 14-year-old Georgia teenager named Malayah faces the camera resolutely, a reminder that paying attention to the mental health of young people will make for happier, more well-adjusted grownups tomorrow—the world will be in their hands someday. And a group of citizens light candles for Tyre Nichols, beaten and killed by Memphis police in January, at the community skate park he used to frequent as a youth in Sacramento, Calif. We need to remember our dead, especially those whose deaths fill us with anger—but it’s also important to recall the things that brought joy to their lives, because even for those whose lives aren’t cut down prematurely, time is fleeting.

David Butow: Ruins of a home in the small hillside town of Kula. "What Remains After the Flames: Scenes From the Ash-Colored Streets of Maui," September 4 issue.

David Butow's photograph "The landscape of destruction, Lahaina, Maui, seen on August 24, 2023" is featured in the current exhibition "This Fragile Earth", on view through January 21, 2024

Report Warns of Attempt to 'Criminalize' Newsgathering in the US

 Via VOA

December 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — At least a dozen journalists faced arrest or charges related to their newsgathering across the U.S. in 2023, with most working for local media outlets.

The incidents and their impact on the ability of journalists to cover the news are detailed in a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Based in New York, the Tracker has documented what it sees as press freedom violations inside the U.S. since 2017.

According to the Tracker, many of the cases this year involved attempts to prevent journalists from engaging in regular reporting practices — from asking questions to investigating public officials. It cited around 30 cases of journalists or media outlets being summoned and asked to identify a source or hand over reporting materials.

“What was interesting this year was an apparent criminalization of general newsgathering,” said Stephanie Sugars, the report’s author.

The number of cases of journalists arrested is lower than previous years, when the Tracker documented dozens of cases as media covered unrest and large-scale protests. Still, the findings are a concern, the nonpartisan group said.

In one case from October, police arrested a small-town Alabama newspaper publisher and a reporter for publishing an article that authorities said contained confidential grand jury evidence.

While leaking information may be illegal, it is not a crime for news outlets to publish that information, so long as the reporters are not involved in illegally obtaining the materials, press experts say.

In another case, a reporter at an Illinois newspaper was cited for asking city officials too many questions about flooding in October.

“That is normal newsgathering,” Sugars told VOA from New York.

In the Illinois case, the charges were dropped.

In a separate incident in Ohio, NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert was ordered to stop a live broadcast while Governor Mike DeWine was giving a press briefing in February. Officers then forced Lambert to the ground and arrested him.

The governor expressed concern and said he was not aware of the incident at the time it occurred.

Lambert filed a lawsuit in November over the incident.

Meanwhile, an Arizona judge in April granted a restraining order against a local reporter after the journalist looked into a state senator’s residency claims. Another judge later rejected the restraining order. And in July, two California reporters were accused by a local police union of stalking for trying to contact a police officer at her home.

“Attempts to criminalize routine journalistic activities, such as contacting public officials or the subjects of stories, send a chill through the heart of newsgathering,” Sugars wrote in the report.

It’s unclear whether police and officials in these incidents were unaware of what constitutes normal newsgathering or whether they just didn’t care, Sugars said.

But, she added, that distinction also misses the point.

“Whether they know that it is general, basic newsgathering or not is less important than the fact that they just don’t like it and are using the tools at their disposal to retaliate,” Sugars said.

Another factor that links many of the cases in the Press Freedom Tracker’s report is that most incidents took place at the local level, affecting smaller or regional publications.

That’s likely a byproduct of the decline of local news coverage, according to Sugars.

The U.S. has lost more than one fourth of its newspapers since 2005 and is set to lose one third of all its roughly 6,000 remaining print newspapers — mostly weeklies — by 2025, according to a report by Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative.

“That lack of constant scrutiny has created an atmosphere where local officials feel like they are no longer responsible for answering questions,” Sugars said.

First Amendment experts say such violations make it harder for journalists to do their jobs.

“If you’ve got these instances of law enforcement overreach, again, it impairs the press’s watchdog role," said Gabe Rottman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, or RCFP.

Rottman, who is director of the RCFP’s Technology and Press Freedom Project, said that it is important for government officials to understand the role journalists play in their community.

Fewer journalists were arrested or charged in the United States in 2023 than in the past few years, the Tracker report found.

Dare to Dissent with Photojournalist Jeff Widener, best known for his image of "The Tank Man"

 Via NPR

December 14, 2023

Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends. As the United States heads into what will likely be another bitter and divided election year, there will be more and more pressure to stand with our in-groups rather than our consciences.

So a group of us here at Throughline decided to tell some of the stories of people who have stood up to that kind of pressure. Some are names we know; others we likely never will. On today's episode: what those people did, what it cost them, and why they did it anyway.

Guests:

Alexandra Lloyd, author of Defying Hitler: the White Rose Pamphlets and fellow by special election in German at the University of Oxford.

Johnathan Eig, author of the biography King: A Life.

Jeff Widener, a photojournalist best known for his image of the Tank Man.

Listen here:

Behind the Headlines: Victims of Newsroom Raids in Marion and Tampa Tell Their Stories

Via Freedom of the Press Foundation

December 11, 2023 

Freedom of the Press Foundation Director of Advocacy Seth Stern is joined by special guests Eric Meyer from the Marion County Record and independent journalist Tim Burke to discuss updates on these troubling incidents and what's next in the fight to defend and foster a courageous press.

Limited Offer: Free streaming of documentary film "Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro"

Underfire The Untold Story of Tony Vaccaro from Passion River Films on Vimeo.

 

On November 14. 2016 HBO Films premiered “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone.

We are pleased to offer for a limited number free streaming of this important documentary. Contact the Gallery for details. The film is also available from Amazon and Apple TV+.

Tony Vaccaro passed away peacefully on December 28, 2022, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Throughout the month of December, we will be posting tributes and memories of Tony Vaccaro on our Instagram feed. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona is currently featuring the exhibition American Icons: Wright and O'Keeffe, photographs by Tony Vaccaro; and his work is on display at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

View a selection of available fine art prints from Tony Vaccaro here.

Fund for Nuclear Waste Exposure Victims in Limbo as Congress Balks at Cost

 The New York Times, Dec. 8, 2023:  “The members that worked on this policy once upon a time, they left out states like New Mexico — and not just the entire state,” Mr. Luján, who has pushed to expand eligibility to individuals in most western states, said in an interview. “They left out the entire county where the first bomb was tested. That alone shows the people have been left out.”

Nina Berman: Residents from Navajo communities gather on Uranium Remembrance Day, Church Rock, NM July 16, 2016

The biggest nuclear catastrophe in US history occurred July 16, 1979 when the dam at the United Nuclear Corporation's Church Rock uranium mill tailings disposal pond broke sending over 1,000 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and 93 million gallons of acidic, radioactive tailings solution into the Puerco River and contaminating Navajo land. The clean up is still on going. Mining was stopped on Navajo land but there are now calls to revive it. For the past few years, residents of the Church rock community march to the site to honor all those who died and were sickened by uranium mining and to demand a thorough clean up and compensation. This year, residents acknowledged the significant of July 16 as not only the day of the uranium spill, but also the day of the Trinity test, July 16, 1945, and expressed solidarity – through a sharing and reading of letters, with New Mexico residents impacted by the first nuclear test.

Remembering Tony Vaccaro on the anniversary of his 100th birthday and subsequent passing

 

Tony Vaccaro with Michelle and Sid Monroe at his Pop Up exhibition in New York, 2016

Beginning in 2016, Monroe Gallery of Photography presented annual exhibitions of photographs by Tony Vaccaro to honor his birthday, December 20. He travelled to Santa Fe to attend 3 exhibits and meet hundreds of collectors and enthusiastic admirers.

To celebrate his 100th birthday in December, 2022, Monroe Gallery of Photography hosted two exhibitions, in New York City and Santa Fe. Despite recently having been hospitalized for emergency surgery for complications from an ulcer, Tony recovered and attended the pop-up Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibition of his photographs in New York City. The City of New York officially proclaimed December 20, 2022 “Tony Vaccaro Day”, and Vaccaro was feted by friends at a surprise birthday party at his favorite local Italian restaurant that evening.

Tony at his Centennial Pop Up exhibition in New York, December, 2022

Tony Vaccaro passed away peacefully on December 28, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday. 

 Throughout the month of December, we will be posting tributes and memories of Tony Vaccaro on our Instagram feed. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona is currently featuring the exhibition American Icons: Wright and O'Keeffe, photographs by Tony Vaccaro; and his work is on display at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

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Gallery photographer Sanjay Suchak reviews the new Sony a9 III for concerts as Dave Matthews Band’s Photographer

Via PetaPixel

Gallery photographer Sanjay Suchak reviews the new Sony a9 III for concerts as Dave Matthews Band’s Photographer

Like most photographers, I’ve never reviewed a piece of gear before. Also like most photographers, I tend to voraciously read reviews each time I consider upgrading. Many of these reviews parse through micro-level analysis of pixel detail, noise levels, and test charts but to me fail to answer the simple question: “will this help me get the shot?”  click for full article

Sanjay Suchak is an independent commercial and editorial photographer based in Virginia and Los Angeles. He serves as the photographer for the Dave Matthews Band and regularly works with a roster of national bands as well as music festivals around the country. 

When not on the road, he works with commercial and higher education clients to help tell their stories. He is also currently serving as a Fellow in Democracy at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia, where he is working on a long term documentary project and helping to educate students on photojournalism and the importance of media and the free press. He’s mostly interested though in finding the best place in each city to get tacos.

This Spring, AIPAD’s Photography Show Returns in Full Force

 Via Surface Magazine

Dec. 1, 2023

It goes without saying that one of the pandemic’s effects has been a lingering disruption of the art world: over the past few years, galleries, artists, and even the industry’s flagship fairs have grappled with the challenges posed by the black swan event of the century. But slowly, the industry is righting itself, and for some, the quest is no longer just to make it through another year—or day—but to recommit to serving artists and collectors in impactful, future-facing ways. The Association for International Photography and Art Dealers’ (AIPAD) Photography Show is one such organization, led by executive director Lydia Melamed Johnson, cautiously emerged from the pandemic years with its 2022 edition.

Before returning to the ornate, Gothic Revival halls of its previous home at the Park Avenue Armory, the fair staged more intimate editions at Midtown’s Center 415. “We ensured the demand and supply was still present,” she told Surface of the decision to let the fair find its footing before returning uptown. “Following a fantastic edition in 2023, we knew the organization was ready to once again grow and inhabit such a distinct space.” From April 25-28, 2024, the fair will stage its first edition back in the Armory’s halls.

In the following interview, Melamed Johnson tells Surface about key themes shaping photography today, including championing women behind the lens, and the Black experience in America. She also shares how the Park Avenue Armory will impact the experiences of collectors and exhibiting galleries, and how fellow leaders at ADAA, the Winter Show, and Paris Photo have shaped the Photography Show’s renewed vision.

Tell us about the significance of the return of the show to the Park Avenue Armory. What drove the decision to return?

In Herzog & de Meuron’s book about the ongoing restoration project at the Park Avenue Armory, a quote by Jaques Herzog spoke to why this building has such an enduring legacy and why we are excited to juxtapose cutting-edge, contemporary photography within this Gothic Revival venue. “The foremost families of New York society celebrated themselves there. In the period rooms, you walk into sacred territory. The rooms are the creations of the best designers that were to be had in those days.”

AIPAD’s board of directors and I feel that it is in this space, with its renovations by some of the best designers of our age, like Herzog, that we can truly exhibit the power of photography through the ages and place our chosen art form alongside great design and scale.

How does the Armory better serve fair-goers and exhibitors?

Its location in the heart of New York City with close proximity to some of the world’s most important art institutions makes the Armory an ideal location for an art fair that celebrates the full and encyclopedic arc of photography. The scale is also great, as it’s not an overwhelming, unending space but an intimate, grand building that allows the viewer time to see everything inside without being swallowed by outsized rooms.

The Photography Show seems to see itself as being on the cusp of a new era. Tell us about some key exhibitors who encapsulate that.

AIPAD could not embark on a new era without the tremendous support and encouragement from our member galleries, many of which have been with us for decades. A great example is Edwynn Houk Gallery, who will be showing a self-portrait by Ilse Bing. Female portraiture and the evolution of women’s presence—both behind and in front of the camera—has been a big theme in photography recently, and we’re excited to have Houk further exploring this relationship in classic photography.

A direct correlation with our new management is the Associate Membership program that launched at the beginning of 2023. Next year’s edition will showcase four of our Associate Members, including The Hulett Collection of Tulsa and Assembly of Houston. We always welcome a few, select non-member galleries to the main sector, and are looking forward to seeing new presentations by galleries like RocioSantaCruz of Spain and Ellephant of Canada.

Tell me about some of the prevailing themes of this year’s fair, and the works, photographers, and exhibiting galleries that embody them.

The big themes in photography now are the female perspectives behind the camera and the interaction with both technology and the viewer. This is exemplified by the Domestic Demise and Anonymous Women series by Patty Carroll, the recent winner of the BBA Photography Prize. The series will be on view at Catherine Couturier’s booth, where the artist’s subjects melt into domestic spaces with an absurdity that calls out what’s expected of the feminine.

The Black experience in America continues to be a major arc in current scholarship and collecting. This will be exemplified with a presentation in Arnika Dawkins’ booth of works by Oye Diran, Ervin A. Johnson, Delphine Fawundu, Barbara DuMetz,, and Builder Levy that highlight Black beauty and its stark and moving evolution.

Socioeconomic and activist causes have also come to the fore. Marshall Gallery of Santa Monica, a first time AIPAD exhibitor, will feature Alex Turner’s Blind River series, looking at the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona and dissecting how contested spaces can influence the surrounding environment. This will be showcased alongside Cody Cobb, who utilizes artificial lighting and cutting-edge textured UV printing to create 3D topographic works of other-worldly and nocturnal landscapes.

It’s a really exciting time to see women leaders in photography, and, more broadly, art fairs right now. Were there any fellow leaders from across the industry whose feedback and advice has shaped your renewed vision for the Photography Show?

Absolutely! I’m privileged to have worked with and been able to turn to many industry-leading women for collaboration and advice, each of whom is a constant inspiration and motivation to continue improving our flagship fair and this organization. From Florence Bourgeois of Paris Photo to Maureen Bray at ADAA, who has been kind enough to share her counsel on sustainability at the venue and within her organization, and Helen Allen from The Winter Show, who has been a mentor and was instrumental in our move back. Within AIPAD itself, much of the propulsion for the evolution of the organization and the fair have been our deep well of female founders and gallerists, such as Yancey Richardson, Caroline Wall of Robert Mann, Arnika Dawkins, Andra Russek, Augusta Edwards, and Marina Pellegrini of Galeria Vasari

The Photography Show’s 2024 Exhibitors include:

°CLAIRbyKahn | Zurich, CH

19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop | New York, NY

Arnika Dawkins Gallery | Atlanta, GA

Assembly | Houston, TX

Augusta Edwards Fine Art | London, UK

Baudoin Lebon | Paris, FR

BILDHALLE | Zurich, CH | Amsterdam, NL

Bruce Silverstein Gallery | New York, NY

Candela Gallery | Richmond, VA

Catherine Couturier Gallery | Houston, TX

Cavalier Gallery | New York, NY | Greenwich, CT | Nantucket, MA | Palm Beach, FL 12. Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc. | New York, NY

CLAMP | New York, NY

Contemporary Works/Vintage Works | Chalfont, PA

Daniel / Oliver Gallery | Brooklyn, NY

Danziger Gallery | New York, NY

Deborah Bell Photographs | New York, NY

Edwynn Houk Gallery | New York, NY

ELLEPHANT | Montreal, CAN

Etherton Gallery | Tucson, AZ

Fisheye Gallery | Paris, FR | Arles, FR

Foto Relevance | Houston, TX

Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière | Paris, FR

Galerie Esther Woerdehoff | Paris, FR

Galerie Johannes Faber | Vienna, AT

Galerie Olivier Waltman | Paris, FR

Galerie SIT DOWN | Paris, FR

Galerie XII | Santa Monica, CA

Gallery 270 | Bergen, NJ

Gitterman Gallery | New York, NY

Grob Gallery | Geneva, CH

HackelBury Fine Art | London, UK

Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Inc. | New York, NY

Higher Pictures | Brooklyn, NY

Holden Luntz Gallery | Palm Beach, FL

Howard Greenberg Gallery | New York, NY

IBASHO | Antwerp, BE

Ilaria Quadrani Fine Arts | New York, NY

Ippodo Gallery | New York, NY

Jackson Fine Art | Atlanta, GA

jdc Fine Art | San Diego, CA42. Joseph Bellows Gallery | Santa Monica, CA

Keith de Lellis Gallery | New York, NY

La Galerie de l’Instant | Paris, FR

Laurence Miller Gallery | New York, NY

Les Douches la Galerie | Paris, FR

Magnum Photos Gallery | Paris, FR | London, UK

Marshall Gallery | Los Angeles, CA

Michael Hoppen Gallery | London, UK

Michael Shapiro Photographs | Westport, CT

MIYAKO YOSHINAGA | New York, NY

MOMENTUM | Miami, FL

Monroe Gallery of Photography | Santa Fe, NM

Nailya Alexander Gallery | New York, NY

Obscura Gallery | Santa Fe, NM

PACI contemporary | Brescia, IT

Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc. | San Francisco, CA

Peter Fetterman Gallery | Los Angeles, CA

Photo Discovery | Paris, FR

RocíoSantaCruz | Barcelona, ES

Robert Klein Gallery | Boston, MA

Robert Koch Gallery | San Francisco, CA

Robert Mann Gallery | New York, NY

Scheinbaum & Russek LTD | Santa Fe, NM

Scott Nichols Gallery | Sonoma, CA

Staley-Wise Gallery | New York, NY

Stephen Bulger Gallery | Toronto, CA

Stephen Daiter Gallery | Chicago, IL

The Hulett Collection | Tulsa, OK

The Third Gallery Aya | Osaka, JPN

Throckmorton Fine Art | New York, NY

Todd Webb Archive | Portland, ME

Toluca Fine Art | Paris, FR

Vasari | Buenos Aires, ARG

Von Lintel Gallery | Santa Monica, CA

Weinstein Hammons Gallery | Minneapolis, MN

Yancey Richardson Gallery | New York, NY

Monroe Gallery of Photography at the 2023 AIPAD Photography Show