Strong winds and waves unmoored this home from its foundation in the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island. 2012.
Related: Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy
Monday, October 28, 2013
With war photography in the news, wrote Bob Gomel of Life magazine, how about some recognition for Max Desfor of The Associated Press?
Max Desfor ©Photo Bob Gomel
Via The New York Times Lens Blog
October 28, 2013
It was one celebrated photographer’s salute to another. With war photography in the news, wrote Bob Gomel of Life magazine, how about some recognition for Max Desfor of The Associated Press?
“Max was a great inspiration and mentor,” said Mr. Gomel, 80, of Houston. “He was a sweetheart, a gentle soul.”
Mr. Desfor had won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for photography with his Korean War pictures, particularly the haunting shot of a bombed bridge crawling with refugees (Slide 1).
In 1958, he had offered Mr. Gomel a coveted job with The A.P’s Wide World Division. Mr. Gomel had turned it down for a career in feature photography. Whereupon Mr. Gomel became perhaps best known for his 1969 Life cover, shot from high above, of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s coffin ringed with mourners in the Capitol rotunda. He also photographed the Kennedys, the Beatles, Malcolm X, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), Mickey Mantle and Marilyn Monroe.
“Max is 98,” Mr. Gomel said, and was living in a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md. Full article with slideshow here.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Stephen Wilkes-Bethlehem Steel
Stephen Wilkes: Steel Remains, Bethlehem Steel
Via ArtsQuest
ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks
Stephen Wilkes' photographs are on display in the ArtsQuest Center's second-floor Alvin H. Butz Gallery
101 Founders Way
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Bethlehem, PA 18015
This presentation highlights Stephen Wilkes' two-plus year documentation of the former Bethlehem Steel plant, which began as a three-day assignment for Archaeology Magazine. A long successful career leads up to his acclaimed - Day to Night - series.
Biography
Stephen Wilkes is an American photographer known foremost for his series of abandoned structures such as at Ellis Island and the former Bethlehem Steel plant, both of which he has captured as a lost world caught in a sort of visual amber. Wilkes' photo essay on Ellis Island, Ellis Island Ghosts, helped to raise $6 million from the United States Congress for the preservation of the structures on the south side of the island including the former hospital for infectious diseases. His fine art and photojournalism have been featured in such publications as Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine.
Wilkes' awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2004 Lucie Award, and the Epson Creativity Award. His photographs are in the permanent collection of the International Museum of Photography in the George Eastman House, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Griffin Museum of Photography, Jewish Museum of New York, Library of Congress and numerous private collections.
Related:
"Oh Silent Town of Bethlehem"
"Stephen Wilkes’ photos in Remembering Bethlehem were stunning … literally breathtaking."
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Robert Capa Centennial Birthday (born Friedmann Endre Ernő; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954)
Robert Capa, photographer, on a destroyer during the ship arrivals in French beach
for landings and liberation of France, June 6, 1944
Magnum photo by George Rodger
(Contact Gallery for print details)
Robert Capa: Magnum
Get Closer: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
New York Times Lens: Robert Capa: Finding a Fearless Photographer’s Voice
The Telegraph: Robert Capa: a giant of modern war photography
The Telegraph: Iconic War Photographs
International Center of Photography: Capa at 100
Robert Capa: International Center of Photography
Friday, October 18, 2013
Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy
Oct 29, 2013 - Mar 2, 2014
1220 5th Ave, Manhattan, NY 10029
This exhibition is part of the City Museum's ongoing initiative to present the photographic works of people from all walks of life as they capture pivotal moments in the city's history and is presented in conjunction with the International Center of Photography.
Once Again, October 30, 2012
Sayville, Long Island
Photograph by Amy Medina(DangRabbit)
The exhibit includes several photographs taken by Stephen Wilkes during Hurricane Sandy, including the iconic image of the Roller Coaster in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
45 Years Ago Today: Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympics
John Dominis—Life Picture Collection
Gold medalist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist
John Carlos (right) raise black-gloved fists during the American national anthem
at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who won
silver in the 200 meters and supported Carlos and Smith's protest, stands at
left
Via LIFE.com
On the 45th anniversary of their Oct. 16, 1968, salute, and in tribute to Smith, Carlos and every other athlete — Muhammad Ali, Eric Liddell, Curt Flood, Sandy Koufax and on and on — who has acted on principle in a highly public way, LIFE.com presents John Dominis’s indelible portrait of that moment.
Smith and Carlos (both of whom are National Track and Field Hall of Famers) were vilified at home for their stand. They were suspended from the U.S. team. They received death threats. But neither man ever apologized for his raised fist or his bowed head — and neither ever had need to.
“We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” Smith said years later, in a documentary on the 1968 Mexico City games produced for HBO. “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag — not symbolizing a hatred for it.”
Finally, it’s worth noting that the Australian silver medalist in the 200 meters in 1968, Peter Norman, stood solidly with Smith and Carlos, both literally and figuratively — displaying his solidarity with their action by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the medal ceremony. Four decades later, in 2006, both Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman’s funeral.
“We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat,” Carlos was quoted as saying at the time. “[Norman] said, ‘I’ll stand with you.’”
Carlos expected to see fear in Peter Norman’s eyes before the medal ceremony, when there was no turning back from what they were about to do. But he didn’t see fear.
“I saw love,” he said.
[MORE: Read Madison Gray's 2010 interview with John Carlos on TIME.com.]
Related: "A raised arm, black power and Olympic trauma"
50 stunning Olympic moments No13: Tommie Smith and John Carlos Salute
The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games
Saturday, October 12, 2013
"one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced"
Photo ©Timothy Hyde
Congressman John Lewis with Sidney Monroe, Monroe Gallery Booth,
DC Fine Art Photography Fair. To the right of Congressman Lewis' shoulder is:
© Steve Schapiro Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights
with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman
and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman
and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
Photo ©Timothy Hyde
Congressman John Lewis viewing Ernest C. Withers' iconic
"I Am A Man" photograph
© Steve Schapiro: John Lewis, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1963
Friday, October 4, 2013
The Memphis blues again: Photojournalist Ernest C. Withers
Ernest C. Withers/©The Withers Trust
Sanitation Workers assemble in front of Clayborn Temple for a solidarity march, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968Via PASATIEMPO
The New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture
Friday, October 4, 2013 5:00 am
The photographer Ernest C. Withers had the good fortune to find himself at the right place at the right time, if Memphis in the 1950s and ’60s could possibly have been the right place and time for any African American. He must have been sometimes nervous as he navigated the byways of his native city and of the larger American South during that era of racial apartheid. Nonetheless, he showed a canny talent for observing trouble from close up without having it consume him personally. People let him get near, but he kept his photographer’s distance. This essential skill enabled to him to produce an extraordinary portfolio documenting the summit events of the civil-rights era.
On Friday, Oct. 4, an exhibition of his work opens at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, where it remains on display through Nov. 24. Sidney and Michelle Monroe have curated the show, which displays 40 photographs from an archive that runs well into the thousands. “In selecting the prints,” Sidney Monroe said, “we have tried to highlight images of the greatest significance from when Memphis was an epicenter of African-American life. Obviously, that means a number of images relating to civil rights, but Memphis was also a center of music at that time, and baseball was flourishing there. This was all part of the world Withers documented.”
Ernest C. Withers/ ©The Withers Trust
Withers, who was born in 1922, maintained a studio on Beale Street, which had long been the main drag for the Memphis music industry; remember W.C. Handy’s “Beale Street Blues,” an early classic of its genre? By the 1950s, a new generation of music-makers was filling the hot and heavy Memphis air with traditional blues as well as the emerging sounds of soul, funk, and rock ’n’ roll. Images of many of these ground-breaking artists line the walls of the show — B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, James Brown, and Isaac Hayes, among others. Baseball proved to be a parallel passion for Withers. He was already establishing his career when Jackie Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier in 1947, and he was there to document the decline of the Negro Leagues and the rise of African-American superstars on newly integrated diamonds: Larry Doby, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and others of their colleagues.
His work was not limited to famous names. “He had nine children,” Monroe said, “and he earned a good living by constantly hustling up work. When he was not out shooting a news event, he was hustling to shoot parties, weddings, anything that was going on locally.” The pictures of his music-star friends may excite us today, but when he was in a club, he was also snapping pictures of audience members, who bought their photo-portraits on the spot for a buck and a half.
Nonetheless, what made Withers irreplaceable was his ubiquity when the civil-rights movement crashed and banged through the American South. “He was kind of like the Woody Allen character Zelig,” Monroe said. “He was everywhere at once.” From his home in Memphis, Wither crisscrossed the South tracking the statesmen of the movement, including Medgar Evers, James Meredith, and, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “He was renowned in these circles at that time, and he was trusted by the leaders of the movement and their families. He was friendly with Martin Luther King. Often Dr. King would specifically ask him to come document some event that was being planned. In that sense, he could be considered an insider in the movement. He was there at some of the most intimate moments. He was even given entrée to funerals; he photographed Medgar Evers after he was killed, and he took a photograph of King lying in his casket.”
Withers could document a great deal of civil-rights history without leaving his hometown. One of his most striking images depicts a solidarity march of sanitation workers in Memphis on March 28, 1968; it was to support these workers that Dr. King traveled to the city, where he would be gunned down a week later. The African-American demonstrators carry identical signs — perhaps a hundred of them — starkly declaring “I Am a Man” in what seems a river of humanity cresting behind a dam. Withers would also travel at the drop of a hat to place himself close to the action — for example, to witness King joining Rev. Ralph Abernathy in 1956 to ride a newly desegregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; to observe the “Little Rock Nine” in Arkansas that same year; and to attend Evers’ funeral in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
Withers constantly fed his black-and-white images to magazines including Life, Time, Newsweek, and Jet, and some of his pictures became iconic. Other photographers were also crowding around, to be sure, and they are well known to Monroe Gallery, which specializes in photojournalism. “Every one of those photographers was really one of a kind,” Monroe said. “Another was Charles Moore, a photographer based in Alabama, and he was very active when things started happening in Birmingham. He was white, but he had access because he was local. Often local photographers had first access to events; but when the national press would show up, things could get ugly.”
Unfortunately, Monroe said, “Withers’ story is a familiar one for photographers of the ’50s and ’60s. There was such a proliferation of magazines then that they could earn a good living being a news photographer. When the 1970s crept in, Americans were turning to TV at the expense of magazines. Life magazine folded. Everyone wanted color photos, which created issues for photographers and were harder to process for magazines. Withers was like many other important news photographers of his day; they were growing older, they had covered momentous moments in history, but they figured their work was basically done.” In his later years, Withers mostly busied himself photographing goings-on of essentially local interest in Memphis. Around the year 2000 there was a resurgent interest in civil-rights photography in general, and Withers accordingly enjoyed renewed acclaim. That year, a show of 125 of his photographs was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, and then traveled to the Philadelphia Art Alliance; the show’s catalog, titled Pictures Tell the Story: Ernest C. Withers Reflections in History, has become a collector’s item. “Faced with increasing inquiries about his work, he went back to his negatives and started to make prints, though not a great deal. He was starting to be known again, but then he died in 2007.”
A curious coda to his career arrived in 2010, when it was reported that Withers had been an informant to the F.B.I. about the civil-rights scene in 1969 and 1970. “That stirred up a lot of concern. But from all we’ve been able to research, and from the accounts of his family, it becomes clear that a lot of people in the movement knew full well they were being watched.” Throughout his career, Withers was famous for attending civil-rights events with three cameras hanging from his neck. With one, he took pictures for the white press; with the second, for the black press; with the third, pictures for his own files. “He tried to remain friendly to the F.B.I. They would ask him for pictures, and he would have his three rolls of film. He knew what he was willing to give to them and what he was not. There is no evidence that the F.B.I. ever paid him, and no evidence that anything he provided them ever compromised anyone or anything. During his lifetime, Ernest Withers told people repeatedly that he actually avoided some meetings because he didn’t want to be privy to certain information that might be too sensitive. You could say he took the path of least resistance, and during those years that path actually allowed him to keep doing his work as he wanted. When you look at the work, the photographs speak for themselves.” ◀
details
▼ Ernest C. Withers: A Life’s Work
▼ Opening reception (Withers’ daughter Rosalind Withers is scheduled to attend) 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4; exhibit through Nov. 24
▼ Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800
Thursday, October 3, 2013
BILL EPPRIDGE - 1938 - 2013 - AN AMERICAN TREASURE
Bill Eppridge, Santa Fe, 2009
Photo by David Marks
"What a sad day for photography when we loose Bill Eppridge" --Bob Gomel
The New YorkTimes: Bill Eppridge, Who Captured Powerful ’60s Images, Dies at 75
The Baltimore Sun: Remembering photographer Bill Eppridge
The Globe and Mail: Photographer Bill Eppridge: an eyewitness to moments in history
RFK Center: Deepest Condolences on the Passing of Bill Eppridge
Missouri School of Journalism: Remembering Bill Eppridge
Sports Illustrated: Tribute to Photographer Bill Eppridge
New York Times Lens: The Moment a Photographer Became a Historian
BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies
"What a sad day for photography when we loose Bill Eppridge" --Bob Gomel
The New YorkTimes: Bill Eppridge, Who Captured Powerful ’60s Images, Dies at 75
The Baltimore Sun: Remembering photographer Bill Eppridge
The Globe and Mail: Photographer Bill Eppridge: an eyewitness to moments in history
RFK Center: Deepest Condolences on the Passing of Bill Eppridge
Missouri School of Journalism: Remembering Bill Eppridge
Sports Illustrated: Tribute to Photographer Bill Eppridge
New York Times Lens: The Moment a Photographer Became a Historian
BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies
Time LightBox: In Memoriam: Iconic LIFE Photographer Bill Eppridge (1938-2013)
CBS News: Bill Eppridge, photographer at RFK assassination, dies;
In this 2008 interview, he talks about the moment Kennedy was shot.
BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies
National Press Photographers Association: Life Magazine Legend Bill Eppridge, 75
Herald Scotland: "Bill Eppridge was a photojournalist who took what is considered to be one of the greatest news pictures of all time"
Associated Press: Photographer at RFK assassination dies in Conn
CBS News: Bill Eppridge, photographer at RFK assassination, dies;
In this 2008 interview, he talks about the moment Kennedy was shot.
BBC: Bill Eppridge, US photojournalist who captured Robert Kennedy assassination, dies
National Press Photographers Association: Life Magazine Legend Bill Eppridge, 75
Herald Scotland: "Bill Eppridge was a photojournalist who took what is considered to be one of the greatest news pictures of all time"
Associated Press: Photographer at RFK assassination dies in Conn
"The world mourns one of the finest and most iconic photographers of our time."
Washington Post: Photographer Bill Eppridge, who captured images of mortally wounded RFK, dies in Conn. at 75
Washington Post National: Bill Eppridge, Life magazine photographer, dies at 75
CNN: Photographer Bill Eppridge
CNN: Photos: People we lost in 2013
AFP: Photographer who captured Robert Kennedy assassination dies
Washington Post: Photographer Bill Eppridge, who captured images of mortally wounded RFK, dies in Conn. at 75
Washington Post National: Bill Eppridge, Life magazine photographer, dies at 75
CNN: Photographer Bill Eppridge
CNN: Photos: People we lost in 2013
AFP: Photographer who captured Robert Kennedy assassination dies
Danbury News-Times: Bill Eppridge, iconic New Milford photographer, dead at 75
Stanford Advocate Slideshow: The iconic images of Bill Eppridge
Mass Live/The Republican: LIFE magazine photographer Bill Eppridge dead at 75
Stanford Advocate Slideshow: The iconic images of Bill Eppridge
Mass Live/The Republican: LIFE magazine photographer Bill Eppridge dead at 75
Elizabeth Avedon: BILL EPPRIDGE: 1938-2013
From his first college newspaper, University of Toronto's The Varsity:
Pages from the Past: Bill Eppridge
"The man could shoot anything. And he did. Goodbye, Bill. And thanks."
THE HISTORIC MASTER VINTAGE PRINT OF ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT
From his first college newspaper, University of Toronto's The Varsity:
Pages from the Past: Bill Eppridge
"The man could shoot anything. And he did. Goodbye, Bill. And thanks."
THE HISTORIC MASTER VINTAGE PRINT OF ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT
Bill Eppridge was one of the most accomplished
photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and captured some of the most
significant moments in American history: he covered wars, political
campaigns, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States,
Vietnam, Woodstock, the summer and winter Olympics, and perhaps the most
dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in
Los Angeles. His most recent project was to record the disappearance of the
American Family Farm and he was as passionate about this subject as he was any
other.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Bill
Eppridge's visual contribution to American History. A recent retrospective of
his work at Monroe gallery was titled: “Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure”. He was indeed a treasure, and he is already missed. --Sidney and Michelle Monroe
Bill Eppridge is a sobering reminder of the necessity of a common history to a civilized society.
Reposted from Bill Eppridge's good friend Dave Burnett.
It's hard to write or even to read the words about the passing of Bill Eppridge. A little older than I was, to me and my generation (the late sixty somethings) Bill was always one of those guys to whom we could point and realize that THIS GUY was the photo journalist you wanted to be. Tough, dedicated, a rare sense of humor, willing to share and guide (he once gave me one of the kindest beratings over some pictures I had in a round-up piece to which LIFE had assigned both of us..) it was never snarky, since he didn't need to be snarky about anything. Even when he was dealt a lousy hand with health issues, he kept motoring ahead, and was never, ever, without a Nikon of some sort to catch that inevitable fleeting moment. I only once got to share a fishing line with him, in Thomas Mangelsen's back yard. He kept trying to show me how to throw the line in so that some clueless fish might forget ...to reject me. I have a feeling that the 'fishing Bill' was a whole different side of him, and sorry I missed it. He and Adrienne were a great couple. The last time we hung with them was in NY when Bill, Melanie Burford and I judged the N Y Press photographers contest a year and a half ago. It was a blast to see what was, and wasn't acceptable to Bill. He had high standards for his craft, and was probably tougher on himself than anyone else. Bill had one of those great grins: it was somewhere between shit-eating and cat swallowing canary. In fact it might have even been canary swallows cat. It was as if there was always one more story to tell, and he'd just heard the punch line, and wanted to be the one to share it. I'm sorry we won't have him around to tell some of those stories. He was a master at it in all ways.
It's hard to write or even to read the words about the passing of Bill Eppridge. A little older than I was, to me and my generation (the late sixty somethings) Bill was always one of those guys to whom we could point and realize that THIS GUY was the photo journalist you wanted to be. Tough, dedicated, a rare sense of humor, willing to share and guide (he once gave me one of the kindest beratings over some pictures I had in a round-up piece to which LIFE had assigned both of us..) it was never snarky, since he didn't need to be snarky about anything. Even when he was dealt a lousy hand with health issues, he kept motoring ahead, and was never, ever, without a Nikon of some sort to catch that inevitable fleeting moment. I only once got to share a fishing line with him, in Thomas Mangelsen's back yard. He kept trying to show me how to throw the line in so that some clueless fish might forget ...to reject me. I have a feeling that the 'fishing Bill' was a whole different side of him, and sorry I missed it. He and Adrienne were a great couple. The last time we hung with them was in NY when Bill, Melanie Burford and I judged the N Y Press photographers contest a year and a half ago. It was a blast to see what was, and wasn't acceptable to Bill. He had high standards for his craft, and was probably tougher on himself than anyone else. Bill had one of those great grins: it was somewhere between shit-eating and cat swallowing canary. In fact it might have even been canary swallows cat. It was as if there was always one more story to tell, and he'd just heard the punch line, and wanted to be the one to share it. I'm sorry we won't have him around to tell some of those stories. He was a master at it in all ways.
Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art
Via The Tampa Bay Newspapers
October 1, 2013
Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art from the Bank of America Collection is the largest exhibition of African American art ever presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.
More than 90 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures, and mixed-media works by 36 accomplished artists will be on view from Saturday, Oct. 5 to Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014.
"Photographers and TV cameramen brought the Civil Rights Movement into our homes, mobilizing action and change. Memphis-based Ernest C. Withers was called “the official photographer of the Civil Rights Movement.” Six images from his famous I Am A Man portfolio document pivotal moments in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle as a whole. They are especially moving as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream’” speech."
More here.
Related Exhibition: Ernest C. Withers: A Life's Work
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