Monroe Gallery of Photography specializes in 20th- and 21st-century photojournalism and humanist imagery—images that are embedded in our collective consciousness and which form a shared visual heritage for human society. They set social and political changes in motion, transforming the way we live and think—in a shared medium that is a singular intersectionality of art and journalism.
— Sidney and Michelle Monroe
Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to present a special exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the largest and most violent military conflict in human history. “WWII – Eighty Years” opens on Friday, April 18, with a special free screening of the HBO Documentary Film “Underfire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro” on Saturday, April 19 at 5 pm. Seating is limited, RSVP required. The exhibition continues through June 22, 2025.
This anniversary reminds us of war’s cost and the courage to believe in humanity, even in the darkest times.
At the age of 21, Tony Vaccaro was drafted into WWII and was a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. The acclaimed HBO Films documentary “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” tells the story of how Tony Vaccaro 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.
In a world where the things that divide us sometimes feel insurmountable, impassable, impossible, artists build bridges. The space between us may be vast and physical like the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Ocean, the Taos Gorge, or it may be figurative, imagined or implied like an ideology, opinion, emotion, perspective, boundary or border. This collection from some of Santa Fe’s finest galleries invites an inquiry into the negative space, the space between things and the ways in which artists navigate the invisible world between objects.
Showcasing fine art glass works alongside an assortment of vibrant watercolor, acrylic, ink, oil, mixed media, and poignant photographs, Bridges celebrates the dynamics of the space between us. These pieces soar above literal and figurative separations, some imposed by the Earth herself, some imagined or drawn on maps. It is the strength of the connections we make across the space between us that inspires this exhibition.
All work represented here is available for purchase. Please contact the representing gallery or the Santa Fe Gallery Association to inquire: info@santafegalleryassociation.org 505/982-1648
The Santa Fe Gallery Association in conjunction with the City of Santa Fe Arts & Culture Department. are delighted to bring you this exhibition featuring works from some of Santa Fe's finest galleries and artists reflecting the depth and breadth of our fine art community
An upside-down American flag hangs from El Capitan near Yosemite National Park’s Horsetail Falls to protest the thousands of federal job cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration, February 22, 2025
On February 22, 2025 – almost exactly 80 years to the day after Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima Photograph - Tracy Barbutes photographed an inverted American flag — historically used as a sign of distress — off the side of El Capitan, a towering rock formation in Yosemite National Park, hung to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Park Service. Hundreds of visitors had gathered to photograph an annual phenomenon in the park known as firefall, when the setting sun causes a seasonal waterfall on El Capitan to glow orange. One spectator commented: “I feel like our national parks are national treasures, and they need to be protected, as does our democracy. It was a call to action and a call for hope.”
"Heading to Yosemite that Saturday, I had been told there might be some form of protest at El Capitan (Tu-tok-ah-nu-lah), the park’s iconic 3,000-foot granite monolith.
There were unconfirmed reports that at least one recently-fired park employee would rappel with an American flag to protest his firing, as well as to protest the thousands of federal jobs lost due to the Trump administration/Elon Musk DOGE cuts.
The event would likely happen near Horsetail Fall, during “firefall” – a natural phenomenon that draws thousands of spectators each February.
I stood under El Cap, something I’ve done hundreds of times, and as I documented the unfurling of that upside down American flag, an act signaling distress, I couldn’t help but think of the paradox of the overall situation as we were gathered on colonized Indigenous land.
There wasn’t an immediate or overwhelming reaction from the crowd, though there was no missing the event. While intent on capturing a series of images, I was mindful that I was documenting a bold, courageous, historic act.
It wasn’t until later that night and the next morning as the image went viral that I began to understand what those actions, and the image, meant. Did Nate Vance, the fired park employee behind the flag protest, and his cohorts, shake people out of a collective stupor and spark a movement of resistance." -- Tracy Barbutes
Barbutes is a photojournalist, writer, and wildfire photographer based near Yosemite.
“It’s one thing to see a picture,” Dr. Garcia said, looking at a video he shot on his phone. “To see it when we were there, it just opens your eyes,” he added. Every imaginable use for plastic — takeout containers, bleach bottles, cigarettes, plastic bags and even lab equipment — seemed to be represented on that beach and in the ocean that stretched beyond it. And every day, it was breaking down, getting smaller and smaller.
"Monroe Gallery of Photography will be located at Booth C8 and will present distinctly curated exhibits, with a central focus on Diné (Navajo) photographer Eugene Tapahe’s “Art Heals: Jingle Dress Project”.
“The Jingle Dress Project” originated from Tapahe’s dream inspiring him to bring global attention to Native American issues in these uncertain times of social differences through the healing power of the Ojibwe jingle dress dance. Since then, Tapahe has traveled over 25,000 miles, documenting family members dancing the healing jingle dress dance in National Parks and Monuments, honoring the places where their ancestors once lived. This project has received national and international recognition
for its unifying effect on communities. Monroe Gallery is the exclusive representative for
Tapahe’s “Jingle Dress” fine art prints.
Also on exhibit will be a selection of important contemporary photojournalism with a focus on American politics, climate issues, and refugee migration. Three newly represented independent photojournalists will be featured: Ron Haviv, Tracy Barbutes, and Bing Guan. Haviv is an Emmy nominated filmmaker and an award-winning photojournalist. He co-founded VII Photo Agency and The VII Foundation and has produced an unflinching record of the injustices of war covering over 25 conflicts. Barbutes is a photojournalist, writer, and wildfire photographer based near Yosemite National Park whose recent photograph of an inverted American flag — historically used as a sign of distress — off the side of El Capitan, the towering rock formation in Yosemite National Park, hung to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Park Service became a viral sensation. Guan is a full-time freelance photographer, journalist, and artist based in New York City. He is currently an adjunct professor of photography at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. "
Monroe Gallery will exhibit this photograph and other examples of Guan’s work at the 2025 Photography Show presented by AIPAD in booth #C8, April 23 – 27 at The Park Avenue Armory in New York City.
Santa Fe, NM - Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce exclusive representation of photographer Bing Guan for fine art print sales.
Guan is a Chinese American full-time freelance photographer, journalist, and artist based in New York City. He is currently an adjunct professor of photography at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Australia and raised in the United States, Bing attended Dartmouth College and holds a BA cum laude in history from Columbia University. He has reported from across the U.S., and from places including Antigua, Burma, Mexico, Rwanda, and Hong Kong.
Bing is a regular contributor to Reuters, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. He has been awarded grants from the Parsons School of Design, the Ucross Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Bing speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, and is certified in HEFAT and as a FAA Part 107 drone pilot.
Monroe Gallery will exhibit examples of Guan’s work at the 2025 Photography Show presented by AIPAD in booth #C8, April 23 – 27 at The Park Avenue Armory in New York City.
Lisa Larsen photographed the 1953 wedding of Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and one print is featured in the current exhibition "Loving"
“Women can be good photographers much in the same way that they can become good doctors, good cooks or whatever they choose to be good at,” Lisa Larsen said in the mid-1950s. By that point she had become one of LIFE Magazine’s most successful photojournalists, having already won Magazine Photographer of the Year in 1953. In that time, she became known for her interest in the truth of humanity. “I dislike anything superficial and I especially dislike superficial relationships,” she said in 1954.
Lisa Larsen, née Rothschild, arrived in the U.S. as a Jewish emigre from her native Germany–her family left after Kristallnacht. She was just a teenager at the time, but knew the career path that was right for her. By then, a group of German Jewish photographers had elevated photojournalism as an artform in the U.S. and formed the influential photography agency Black Star, one of Magnum’s greatest competitors. Larsen joined them as a file clerk. She then began her career as a freelance photographer for magazines like The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Seventeen, Glamour, and more, but she worked at LIFE for a decade beginning in 1949.
At first, as a woman, she was relegated to fashion and entertainment photography–she took photos of Marlon Brando and Grace Kelly, for example, though even those somehow situate megawatt stars of the time as mere mortals, a way audiences hardly got to see them then and, arguably, still now.
Over time, Larsen was able to expand her practice and become an intrepid, adventurous world traveler. She became, for example, “the first American photographer to enter Outer Mongolia after a government-enforced 10-year ban,” as LIFE wrote. She also traversed the Himalayas; photographed world leaders at the first Bandung Conference in Indonesia, which sought to solidify African-Asian relations’ and Eastern Europe during the Cold War in 1955, among many others. She was additionally sent to photograph high-ranking political figures from Dwight D. Eisenhower on his campaign for president and First Lady Bess Truman, wife of Harry S. Truman; to Nikita Khrushchev and the 1953 wedding of Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, not to mention Queen Elizabeth II’s first tour as a royal.
Larsen was known to be both charming and hardworking, and knew how to get a great photo. In her time, she dazzled many a world leader. “Appreciative Khrushchev gave Larsen a bouquet of peonies,” scholar Patryk Babiracki wrote in Apparatus Journal. “Ho Chi Minh spotted Larsen…and confessed: ‘If I were a young man, I'd be in love with you,’” Babiracki continued. Truman Vice President Alben Barkley called her “Mona Lisa.” According to the International Center of Photography, “she photographed Iran’s Premier Mohammed Mossadegh from his New York hospital bed during the 1951 Iranian oil dispute with Great Britain,” which “led to a personal invitation from Mossadegh to visit Iran for a two-week vacation.”
Ryan Vizzions describes Atlanta as a uniquely diverse melting pot shaped by its history. He credits Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the city’s role as a hub for African Americans during segregation as foundational to its identity. This legacy, he says, makes Atlanta exceptional not only in the South but across the entire country as well.
Photography as a Purposeful Journey
Ryan captured this photo during the procession of civil rights activist John Lewis.
(Photo by Ryan Vizzions)
Vizzions’ photography began as a personal outlet but evolved into a passion for storytelling. Over the years, he embraced various forms, from photojournalism to architectural and street photography. He views his work as a medium for raising awareness and documenting social movements.
Standing Rock and Activism
This photo from Standing Rock is one of the most influential in Ryan’s career.
(Photo by Ryan Vizzions)
One of the defining moments in Vizzions’ career was his documentation of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Inspired by a haunting resemblance to the Civil Rights era, he felt compelled to witness the movement firsthand. What began as a spontaneous trip turned into a six-month immersion, during which he lived at the camp and captured some of the most recognized images of the movement.
Honoring Atlanta’s Modern-Day Leaders
This is one of Ryan’s final images for Colors of Atlanta.
(Photo by Ryan Vizzions)
Vizzions chose to highlight contemporary changemakers for his Atlanta-focused project for “Colors of Atlanta.” He selected civil rights attorney and activist Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP. Vizzions first met Griggs during the Black Lives Matter protests in Atlanta and later during the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial. Impressed by Griggs’ relentless advocacy in the courtroom and on the ground, Vizzions wanted to create a powerful portrait that Griggs and his family could be proud of.
Auburn Avenue: Connecting Past, Present and Future
Vizzions selected Auburn Avenue, a historic street in Atlanta, as the backdrop for his photograph. Known as Black Wall Street, Auburn Avenue holds deep cultural significance. It was home to jazz legends at the Royal Peacock and the pulpit of Dr. King at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Vizzions sought to intertwine Atlanta’s rich past with its present and future.
Stepping Beyond Photojournalism
Ryan captured the image in Auburn Avenue. (Photo by Andrew Clark)
Although Vizzions’ background is rooted in documentary and photojournalism, this project pushed him into the editorial realm. Initially nervous, he quickly found his rhythm, collaborating with Griggs to create powerful, meaningful images. He expressed pride in the final result, seeing the work as a collective achievement.
Atlanta’s Influence on his Art
Vizzions draws continuous inspiration from Atlanta. For him, photographing Atlanta is more than capturing its skyline; it’s about preserving the spirit of its people, honoring its leaders and ensuring that its legacy endures.
Learn more about other talented photographers featured on “Colors of Atlanta” and watch the TV series.
Reflections from the 2025 Contest global jury (With Nina Berman)
Chosen from nearly 60,000 entries by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries, the award-winning images are those of struggle and defiance, but also of human connection and courage – visually stunning work that draws you deeper into stories behind the news. This enriching selection of the world’s best photojournalism and documentary photography was chosen by an independent international jury based on their visual quality, storytelling approach, and commitment to diverse representation.
"My hope is that tomorrow’s lawyers, reporters, and policymakers will be affected and moved by these images, and that perhaps they will strike a chord in some of today’s 11-year-olds, who, having forged the beginning of a relationship with them, will continue their life journey knowing that pictures, and the stories they tell, matter.
We made our choices with an eye on the final mix: as much as a World Press Photo Contest award is an immense recognition for photographers, often working under difficult circumstances, it is also a recap of the world’s major events. Yet, what we have here is just a partial overview. Not all the events that were topical in 2024 were covered by the photos submitted, but the jury selected images, I believe, fully aware of their power, and of the legitimacy that the award would lend them." – Lucy Conticello, director of Photography, Le Monde, and 2025 Contest global jury chair
