Vicki Goldberg Dies at 88, an influential photography critic, she wrote essays, newspaper columns and books, including a notable biography of the photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.

 Via The New York Times

June 18, 2025

Vicki Goldberg, an influential photography critic and the author of a lauded 1986 biography of Margaret Bourke-White, the pioneering and colorful Life magazine photographer, died on May 29 in Manhattan. She was 88.

Bourke-White was America’s first female photographer to be accredited to cover World War II, a swashbuckling personage who worked for Fortune and then Life magazines. She shot Nazi rallies, and, in agonizing images, the liberation of Buchenwald. She flew in a Flying Fortress bomber to get shots of a raid on Tunis. She photographed a smug-looking Stalin. Away from the war, she perched on a gargoyle atop the Chrysler Building in Manhattan to photograph its twin and made perhaps what is the most famous portrait of Gandhi, sitting cross-legged with his spinning wheel.

Flag Day, 2025

 

Flag Day is a holiday celebrated on June 14 in the United States. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

Throughout history, flags have elevated the emotional impact of images. 

Joe Rosenthal/©AP

Perhaps the most iconic of all flag photos is Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. It was taken on Friday, February 23, 1945, five days after the Marines landed on the island. Almost instantly, the image came to symbolize American courage, resilience, and unity in the face of adversity, becoming a powerful emblem of the nation's resolve during World War II.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Thomas E. Franklin documented three New York firefighters raising the American flag amid the wreckage of the fallen World Trade Center towers. Like Rosenthal’s photo, it was universally embraced, an uplifting photo that defined resilience and unity.

Thomas Franklin/©Bergen Record

The weaponization of the flag has similarly produced iconic photographs. In 1976, Stanley Forman photographed a white protester outside City Hall assaulting an African American attorney with the American flag. “The photo shocked Boston” made front pages across the U.S. and also won a Pulitzer Prize. Captioned “The Soiling of Old Glory”, to this day it offers a dramatic window onto the turbulence of the 1970s and race relations in America.

©Stanley Forman

Nearly fifty years later, on January 6, 2021, a weaponized American flag was documented once again. David Butow’s unsettling photo of Trump supporters attacking police from the steps of the Capitol is a modern echo of Forman’s Soiling of Old Glory.

©David Butow

And most recently, 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.”

©Tracy Barbutes

©Ron Haviv

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris react to results on election night, 2024 Washington D.C

©Mark Peterson

Ku Klux Klan New Member Meeting, Kentucky, May, 2025

Seeing war: presentation, perception, and responsibility

 Via MEER Culture

June 9, 2025

"In the mid-19th century, governments and military institutions began actively employing photographers during conflicts to document their war efforts, images that were then used to cultivate a sense of national pride back home. Two well-known examples are Roger Fenton’s photographs of the Crimean War and Matthew Brady’s photographs of the American Civil War.

However, by the 20th century, with the rise of World War II, the technological boom, and the growing need for mass communication on a global scale, conflict photography began to shift toward a more raw and activist approach. It became widely used as a medium to expose concealed truths and reveal the horrors of war. This transformation became particularly prominent during the Vietnam War, where the power of photographic imagery played a central role in shaping public opinion and confronting audiences with the brutal realities of the conflict." -click to read full article

WWII  Eighty Years is on exhibit through June 22, 2025

Journalists are injured while covering the LA protests

 

June 9, 2025

Law enforcement injure at least 4 journalists covering protests in California amid federal crackdown

Several journalists have been injured while covering the protests in Los Angeles, including a television reporter who was struck when a law enforcement officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air

British photographer injured by 'plastic bullet' in LA protests

Australian journalist hit by 'rubber bullet' while reporting from LA

Chinese journalist hit by rubber bullet amid the Los Angeles conflict: report

Utah Artist Fellowship Program Announces Award to Photographer Eugene Tapahe

 Via The Salt Lake Tribune

(Eugene Tapahe) | The Jingle Dress Project: Eternal Legacy, 2023 (photograph)

The Utah Division of Arts & Museums has been supporting Utah artists since the agency’s founding in 1899. A large part of that support is the Utah Artist Fellowship, one of the highest state-sponsored awards a Utah artist can receive. The Utah Artist Fellowships are cash awards that recognize the careers of Utah artists demonstrating exceptional creativity in their fields. Fellows are chosen by out-of-state, nationally renowned arts professionals. Selections are based on evaluation of application narratives, as well as work samples from the past five years.

Through these fellowships, the agency seeks to support professional and committed artists reaching pivotal moments in their artistic practices, encouraging their career advancement and growth. Candidates are selected through an open application process. All eligible applications receive equal consideration through a two-round review process: a prescreen staff review, and a juror review. This year, five fellowships were awarded in the categories of Design Arts, Literary Arts, Performing Arts (Theatre), and Visual Arts. This year marked the inaugural year for a Literary Arts category.

2025’s Visual Arts Fellows are Eugene Tapahe, Christopher Lynn, Nancy Rivera, Ariel C. Wilson, and Xi Zhang. Visual Arts juror Lana Meador said: “The submissions reflected an incredibly rich artistic community, making the selection process no easy feat. The chosen artists displayed a clear vision and commitment to their practice in works that push the boundaries of their chosen media in new and exciting ways.”  Full article

Monroe Gallery is honored to present a very special exhibit by Eugune Tapahe - Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project. The exhibit opens on July 5, 2025, with an artist’s talk at 5:30 p.m. It will continue during the renowned Santa Fe Indian Market weekend, the world’s largest Native American art market, August 16 and 17, and conclude on September 14, 2025. Please contact the Gallery for more information

 

Widening the Aperture: A War Photographer’s World With Ashley Gilbertson

 

Tuesday, June 3 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm at the Southern Vermont Arts Center.

Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning (GMALL) welcomes Ashley Gilbertson, an Australian photographer based in New York City recognized as one of the best documentary photographers working in the U.S. today, to talk about his life as a war photographer. Sometimes war photographers must tell the whole story in a single image, never knowing whether that’s all the viewer will see. That doesn’t make every picture perfect, but it does make every picture essential, worth taking whatever risks are necessary to get it. And it gives the good photographers a special way to look at the world around them. Ashley Gilbertson has covered the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine, as well as the January 6 riot and countless other domestic and foreign stories. The conversation will be moderated by Susan Weiss, a Vermont-based photographer, filmmaker, and art educator. Registration for this program is $20 per person.

 For more information or to register, please visit greenmtnacademy.org or call our office at 802-867-0111.

Venue

Southern Vermont Arts Center

860 Southern Vermont Arts Center Drive
Manchester, VT, 05254 

+ Google Map

Organizer  Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning

Phone 802-867-0111

Email  greenmountainacademy@gmail.com

War Reporting in a Time of Chaos | Phil Klay, Ashley Gilbertson, Victor Blue, & Danielle Paquette in Conversation

 Via 20summers.org

Sunday, May 25, 2025

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Hawthorne Barn

29 Miller Hill Road, Provincetown, MA

RSVP Here

In a panel discussion moderated by National Book Award–winning author and Marine veteran Phil Klay, distinguished conflict journalists and photographers Victor J. Blue, Ashley Gilbertson, and Danielle Paquette will discuss their work in conflict zones on several continents over the past couple of decades. How has their work changed? How has it changed them? And as we move into a chaotic time both in the news industry and in foreign relations, where old assumptions about the international order are quickly being upended, what are unique challenges of covering wars now? And what insights can long-time war correspondents offer as we look out into an uncertain future? 

Phil Klay is an author, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, and a professor at Fairfield University. His short story collection Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction, and his novel Missionaries was listed by former President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2020. He also regularly writes essays on politics, culture, and American military policy for publications such as the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post.

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York City recognized for his critical eye and unique approach to social issues. He is a frequent contributor to major media outlets and a collaborator with the United Nations. For over twenty years, Gilbertson’s work focused on refugees and conflict, an interest that in 2002, led him to Iraq. His work from that country was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal, and in 2007, Gilbertson’s first book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, was released, going on to become a best seller. Today, Gilbertson documents global migration in Africa and Europe, and works on climate, social and health issues in the United States and Asia. He writes regular opinion and news stories for outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, ProPublica, and UNICEF. In 2014, a multimedia story on the militarization of the South China Sea earned him an Emmy nomination.

Victor J. Blue is a New York based photojournalist whose work is most often concerned with the legacy of armed conflict, human rights and the protection of civilian populations, and unequal outcomes resulting from policy and politics. He has worked in Central America since 2002, concentrating on social conflict in Guatemala, and since 2009 has photographed the Counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan. He has completed assignments in Syria, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Iraq, and India, and has documented news stories and social issues across the United States. He worked as a staff photographer at The Record in Stockton CA, and holds a Masters Degree in Visual Communication from Ohio University. He practices a deeply reported, character driven documentary photography that tries to both inform viewers intellectually and move them emotionally, and communicate something universal from the particular circumstances of individual lives and struggles. 

Danielle Paquette is a national correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously served as West Africa bureau chief and has reported from more than 20 countries on four continents. Paquette joined The Post in 2014, starting as a roving economics reporter. A native of Indiana, she has also worked for the Tampa Bay Times and the Los Angeles Times. She resides in the nation’s capital with her husband and dog.

The Gallery is closed Saturday May 24 for a family wedding

 The Gallery will be closed Saturday, May 24 for a family wedding. We will be open Sunday and Monday, Memorial Day.

Joe McNally receives Professional Photographer Achievement Award at IPC Hall of Fame and Professional Photographer Achievement Awards on May 14th

 Via International Photographic Council (IPC)

May 18, 2025

The International Photographic Council (IPC) is a non-profit organization committed to promoting the power of photography as a universal means of communication. IPC is a Civil Society Organization formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. Through our global community of photographers, educators, and industry experts, we strive to foster intercultural understanding and collaboration through visual storytelling.

View a selection of Joe McNally's photographs here.

Arthur Rothstein: New Deal America at Kingsborough Art Museum

Via The Brooklyn Rail

May 13, 2025

By Farren Fei Yuan

 In 1935, Arthur Rothstein, freshly graduated from Columbia University, was recruited by his former professor in economics, Roy Stryker, to join the photography unit of the Historical Section, later part of the Farmer Security Administration (FSA) under the New Deal. The Historical Section’s role was to document—and create a history for—the FSA’s work. Faced with the prolonged economic depression, Rothstein quickly took up the offer, not knowing that he would soon author some of the most reproduced images of his time.

This is where New Deal America: Photographs by Arthur Rothstein, on view at Kingsborough Art Museum, begins. Bookended by one of Rothstein’s earliest and most famous “Dust Bowl” pictures (Heavy Black Clouds of Dust Rising over the Texas Panhandle, Texas [1936]) and a deceptively serene scene taken as the U.S. fully entered World War II (Saturday Afternoon in a Prosperous TVA town [1942]), the exhibition surveys what is arguably the most successful period in Rothstein’s career—travelling across the United States on assignment, he photographed rural and suburban communities affected by the Great Depression and the FSA’s efforts toward rehabilitation and resettlement.

Arthur Rothstein, Heavy Black Clouds of Dust Rising over the Texas Panhandle, 1936

The forty-two black-and-white photographs on view have been selected from the Library of Congress collection by the curators, Dr. Ann Rothstein Segan, who is Rothstein’s daughter, and her partner, Brodie Hefner. Presented in chronological sections, the display illustrates a “narrative of recovery and renewal,” as the gallery director Dr. Brian E. Hack writes, one that provokes timely reflection on the role and nature of the federal government. Yet what remains unsaid, though implicit, in the emphatic accumulation of photographic encounters—cemented by the occasional meeting of gazes between the photographer, his subjects, and the viewer—are the questions the exhibition raises about different conceptions of the documentary and the social responsibility of art.    Click for full article