"Not even a world war stopped this artist"

Georgia O’Keeffe, Santa Fe, LOOK, 1960

Via The Santa Fe Reporter
June 28, 2017,

By Maria Egolf-Romero, Alex De Vore

This Friday, a diverse collection of images in the exhibit Tony Vaccaro: From War To Beauty at the Monroe Gallery of Photography gives Santa Feans a glimpse into the life of the 94-year-old photographer from scenes of World War II to commercial fashion shots, and beyond.

This artist’s lens has captured some of the most famous humans ever—think Sophia Loren, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe. But some of his first forays into photography were spent documenting World War II. Drafted at 21 years old, Vaccaro carried a 35-mm camera through the trenches of Europe and used innovative techniques to develop his film: Patiently waiting for nightfall, the artist-soldier used the tools available to him in the middle of a war. “I would go over the ruins of a village and try to locate where a camera shop might have been,” he says. “So, in the ruins I could find developer and the things which you need.” Chemicals in hand, Vaccaro used helmets as developing trays; developer, water, hypo and more water to rinse; four helmets in succession in the pitch black. “From Normandy to Berlin, that’s how I developed my pictures,” he tells SFR.

Vaccaro had a long and illustrious career in photography after the war as well, including time working for magazines like Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Newsweek. His work took him to amazing places like the Nile River in Egypt and to photograph fabled architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

But which photo stands out to Vaccaro as his crowning achievement? Georgia O’Keeffe, he says. He asked the painter to take her work outdoors. “It’s one of the great photographs of my life, yes—I have it right in front of me—she’s in profile, and all you have is black, her face and then the great color of that painting,” he says. “The greatest [memory] was Georgia O’Keeffe, and coming to Santa Fe, and it was just Georgia and Tony for about a week or more. It was superb, really.” (Maria Egolf-Romero)

Tony Vaccaro: From War to Beauty

Opening Reception 5 pm Friday, June 30

Free 

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave.

992-0800

Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro

Screening 3:45 pm Saturday July 1.

Free.

Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail 

(Seating is limited, RSVP Required)  982-1338

A Day Without News

The Without News profile picture the Newseum is asking people to download and use Monday.

(Courtesy Newseum)

Via WTOP

WASHINGTON — The Newseum will look very different Monday as part of an annual campaign called “Without News.”

“It’s a day when we black out the front pages of the newspapers that we display here at the Newseum, and also on our Today’s Front Pages website,” the museum’s Sonya Gavankar told WTOP.

She said the idea is to reflect on what the world would be like without the people who bring us the news.

“It’s an important time for us to really talk about the crisis of journalists in peril, and also the attacks on freedom of the press, not only in this country, but also around the world,” says Gavankar.

Supporters are asked to use #WithoutNews on social media, and download a special profile picture from the Newseum website.
            
Also Monday, at 10 a.m., the Newseum will rededicate its Journalists Memorial, adding the names of 14 members of the media who died on the job in 2016.

The ceremony is free and open to the public with advance registration, or you can watch it live online.

The event will be held on the anniversary of the death of NPR photojournalist David Gilkey, who was killed by the Taliban while covering the war in Afghanistan.

Several items belonging to Gilkey will go on display at the museum, including a camera lens that was hit by a rubber bullet as Gilkey documented clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

SAVE THE DATES JUNE 30/JULY 1: TONY VACCARO IN SANTA FE

Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944

94-year Old Tony Vaccaro travels to Santa Fe for screening of documentary and exhibit  

Santa Fe, NM -- Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a major exhibition of 50photographs by Tony Vaccaro. The exhibit opens with a public reception for Tony Vaccaro on Friday, June 30 from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibit continues through September 17.  

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a free screening of  HBO Films' “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” at CCA on Saturday, July 1, starting at 3:45 pm. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro moderated by former senior editor and reporter for LIFE magazine, Richard “Dick” Stolley. (Seating is limited, RSVP required to Monroe Gallery by June 28.)

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

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1922, Tony Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the village of Bonefro, Italy after his family left America under threat from the Mafia. Both of his parents had died by the time he was eight years old and he was raised by an uncaring aunt. When World War II broke out, the American Ambassador in Rome ordered Tony to return to the States. He settled in with his sisters in New Rochelle, NY where he joined his high school camera club.

A year later, at the age of 21, Tony was drafted into the war, and by the spring of 1944 he was photographing war games in Wales. By June, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days, Tony fought on the front lines of the war. He entered Germany in December 1944, a private in the Intelligence Platoon, tasked with going behind enemy lines at night.

 After the war, Tony remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright. He visited Georgia O’Keefe in Abiquiu in 1960 on assignment for LOOK magazine.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1960

Now 94, Tony still carries a camera and puts in six or seven hours without a break; creating prints in his darkroom and identifying jobs for his staff. Tony has won numerous honors and awards,  including the Art Director’s Gold Medal (New York City, 1963), The World Press Photo Gold Medal (The Hague, 1969), The Legion of Honor (Paris, 1994), The Medal of Honor (Luxembourg, 2002), Das Verdienstkreuz (Berlin, 2004), and the Minerva d’Oro (Pescara, 2014).

Tony Vaccaro

Since retiring in 1982, Tony has been exhibited over 250 times and has published or been the subject of ten books and two major films. In 2014, the Tony Vaccaro Museum  was inaugurated in Bonefro (Italy). Tony’s photographs are in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington.

Legendary photographer Tony Vaccaro to speak at the Pollock-Krasner House, exhibit in Santa Fe

Willem de Kooning, standing in front of Leo Castelli's house, protecting a statue that Castelli himself had made in his driveway. Jackson Pollock disliked it and had threatened to run it over. East Hampton, 1953. By Tony Vaccaro.


Legendary photographer Tony Vaccaro will speak at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Sunday, May 28, 2017, at 5:00 pm, for the official opening and reception for the exhibit "East End Art World, August 1953, Photographs by Tony Vaccaro."

The exhibition of unpublished photographs has been up since May 4, and features twenty photographs selected by museum director Helen A. Harrison from eleven rolls of film found among Vaccaro's 450,000 negatives and transparencies. Maria Vaccaro, Tony's daughter-in-law, and Grace Ann Taylor, an NYU graduate student specializing in archiving, have both been working on the project for the Tony Vaccaro Studio, Long Island City, for nearly seven months.

Rare images of Tino Nivola, Leo Castelli, Alfonso Ossorio, and Wilfrid Zogbaum, make up some of the new finds. All the photographs on display are for sale, and some may eventually be part of limited editions. Remembering the visit, the 94-year old Mr. Vaccaro says:

“I went to the Hamptons because I was intrigued by Jackson’s work. It just grabbed me. I  knew it was the kind of work that would last forever. I also liked Marcel Duchamp. I had  photographed him on the streets of New York City in 1952. He told me ‘Many artists are  moving to the Hampton’s.’ I also knew Tino Nivola. We spoke Italian when we bumped  into each other on 8th Street. Nivola told me: ‘Many artists are setting up studios on Long  Island. It’s cheaper than New York City. So I kept telling Look Magazine art director  Charlotte Willard that this was a job that had to be done. In the Spring of 1953, Look  editor Fleur Cowles assigned me and Miss Willard to spend a week there. Willard went back to New York City after the week was up. I stayed an entire month.”

The Pollock-Krasner House is located at 830 Springs-Fireplace Road, East Hampton, NY, 11937.

The Sag Harbor Express covered the exhibition:
http://sagharborexpress.com/photographer-witness-revolution/

The Pollock-Krasner House press release:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/pkhouse/exhibitions.php

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to announce a major exhibition of more than 50 photographs by Tony Vaccaro at the Santa Fe Gallery this summer. The exhibit opens with a public reception for Tony Vaccaro on Friday, June 30 from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibit will continue through September 17, 2017.

 

"exhibition currently on view at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, pays tribute to one of the most acclaimed photojournalists of the last century"

Grey Villet, A portrait of LIFE in America

May 15, 2017 -

United States , written by L'Oeil de la Photographie

Fidel Castro, Hometown Greetings, 1959 ©Grey Villet

Born in South Africa, Grey Villet traveled America and the world for LIFE magazine like an observant explorer, mapping its emotional contours in the faces and lives of its people. His in-depth, personal studies of the American scene of the 1950s through the 1970’s illuminated the complex reality of those years with a truth that, in his own words, were “as real as real could get.” His images of presidents and revolutionaries, sports heroes, and everyday people struggling for their rights tell an emotional and compelling story of an era that shaped the present. This exhibition currently on view at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, pays tribute to one of the most acclaimed photojournalists of the last century.

Slideshow here.



Grey Villet, A portrait of LIFE in America
May 5 — June 25, 2017
Monroe Gallery
112 Don Gaspar Ave
Santa Fe, NM 87501
USA

http://www.monroegallery.com/

GREY VILLET: A Portrait of LIFE in America

Farm Collapse: Sarah Vogel, leader of class-action case on behalf of 240,000 farmers to stop USDA from seizing family farms, visiting neighbors who are facing foreclosure, North Dakota, 1982

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to announce an extensive exhibition of compelling photography of LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet. The exhibition runs from May 5 through June 30.

Born in South Africa, Grey Villet traveled America and the world for LIFE magazine like an observant explorer, mapping its emotional contours in the faces and lives of its people. His in-depth, personal studies of the American scene of the 1950s through the 1970’s illuminated the complex reality of those years with a truth that, in his own words, were "as real as real could get." His images of presidents and revolutionaries, sports heroes, and everyday people struggling for their rights tell an emotional and compelling story of an era that shaped the present.

Fidel Castro, Hometown Greetings, 1959

Grey Villet was born in a sheep herding center called Beaufort West in the Karoo desert of South Africa in 1927. His father expected him to follow him into medicine and Grey was duly enrolled in the pre-med program at Cape Town University.  It didn't take; he spent most of his time at a cafe downtown where there was music and a lot of smoke...At about this time his sister's fiancé gave him a camera and that did take...It was the excitement of seeing his own pictures emerge in a friend's   dark room that set the course of his life.  By the late 1940's, his despairing father sent him to London to study photography---but after a few months Grey left school to earn a meager living doing wedding snaps while living in a trucker's stop hostel. At 20 he landed a job on the Bristol Evening News--and within 2 years had moved up to Reuters International in London on the strength of his newspaper work. At 24 he returned to South Africa and a job at the country's leading newspaper, the Johannesburg Star--but the pomposity of management's objection to his disheveled look after a night of chasing a rough news story decided his future. Already determined to become a "magazine photographer" he quit the Star on the spot and soon set off for New York hoping to land a chance at LIFE. So it was that Grey's Villet’s career with LIFE magazine began in April of 1954. Within a year of being added to LIFE’s legendary roster of photographers in 1955, he won photojournalism’s most prestigious award when he was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. Other honors followed, including multiple firsts from NPPA and Gold from World Press Photo.

Villet excelled at LIFE’s acclaimed essay format, which exemplified his mastery of the medium, attesting to his credo that every story be, in his words, "as real as real could get". To achieve this, he generally used only available light and while shooting became as unobtrusive as a "fly on the wall" to allow meaningful moments to emerge naturally from a fluid reality.  

Featured in the exhibition are excerpts from Villet's intimate images of the interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. The 2016 film “Loving” Loving”, from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols starred Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the roles of Richard and Mildred Loving. 

“Unwilling to promote himself, Grey Villet modestly rejected the idea of organizing his own retrospective only months before his sudden death in 2000. “The work will tell” he told me then, “the work will tell.” Self effacing, quiet, Grey was truly a quintessential photojournalist in the service of truth.” -- Barbara Villet

In an era before any digital tinkering with results was possible, Grey Villet’s technique was one that required intense concentration, patience and understanding of his subjects joined with a technical mastery that allowed rapid use of differing cameras and lenses to capture and compose the "right stuff" on film as it happened. “RIGHTS, RACE & REVOLUTIONS:A Portrait of LIFE in 1960s America by Grey Villet” was exhibited at the Museum at Bethel Woods April 2 – December 31, 2016. 

THE LOVINGS: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT, a new book that documents the extraordinary love story of Mildred and Richard Loving, was published in April by Princeton Architectural Press and is available in the gallery.

O'Keeffe on Camera: Capturing an American Icon

Via the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Get insider views of Georgia O’Keeffe. Join us for a conversation with a filmmaker and three photographers who worked closely with the artist and made images of her. Participants include filmmaker Perry Miller Adato and photographers Christopher Makos, Tony Vaccaro, and Malcolm Varon. Moderated by Wanda Corn, guest curator of Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern.

Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to represent the photography of Tony Vaccaro. The gallery will present a major retrospective exhibition of Tony's work June 30 - September 17, 2017. Tony Vaccaro, now 94, will be present at the opening Friday, June 30, from 5 to 7 pm.

STEVE SCHAPIRO: EYEWITNESS CONTINUES THROUGH APRIL 30

Steve Schapiro

On the road, Selma March, 1965

The current exhibition Steve Schapiro: Eyewitness continues through April 30 in the gallery.

The Guardian newspaper featured Schapiro's forthcoming book today in a feature article, link here.

"But before mobile phone videos and Twitter allowed black Americans to directly telegraph their plight to the world, it was up to photojournalism to visualise the message, as Schapiro’s images did in Life magazine."

And the New York Times featured the cover photograph, "CORE Stall In, 1964" from the exhibition announcement in their review of the AIPAD Photography Show last week.

"Steve Schapiro’s astounding “CORE ‘Stall In,’ New York World’s Fair 1964,” at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, which documents a vehicular protest of racism.”

HAPPY 95th BIRTHDAY ART SHAY!

"I took this street montage near 26th and California Ave. in Chicago. It’s a lovely accident, created by a mis-wound Super Ikonta B. The Super Ikonta B's main feature was an 80mm lens that focused through a range finder and you focused it by turning around one element.  I was playing around with the camera because I thought it was peculiar that it took 11 shots on a roll.  I shot this, essentially four frame, montage while shooting out my 1949 Pontiac car window. “ Art Shay, March 30, 2017

We are extremely proud to wish Art Shay a very Happy 95th birthday! Visit us in booth # 534 during the AIPAD Photography Show this week in New York to see his acclaimed photographs!

Art Shay is an American photographer and writer. Born March 31,1922, he grew up in the Bronx and then served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he flew 52 bomber missions. Shay joined the staff of Life magazine as a writer, and quickly became a Chicago-based freelance photographer for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, and other national publications. He photographed seven US Presidents and many major figures of the 20th century. Shay also wrote weekly columns for various newspapers, several plays, children's books, sports instruction books and several photo essay books. Shay's photography is in permanent collections of major museums including the National Portrait Gallery and The Art Institute of Chicago.

New York Times review of the 2017 AIPAD Photography Show

Extremely honored to have the lead photograph in Friday’s New York Times review of the AIPAD2017 Photography Show: “Aipad’s Photography Show Grows Up”.

“Steve Schapiro’s astounding “CORE ‘Stall In,’ New York World’s Fair 1964,” at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, which documents a vehicular protest of racism.”

Hope you can visit us at Pier 94 through Sunday, booth #534. The exhibit Steve Schapiro:Eyewitness continues through April 30 at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.