RICHARD CRUMP MILLER: August 6, 1912 - October 15, 2010

Richard C. Miller James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor take a break from filming "Giant"

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Richard C. Miller. Miller was an American photographer best known for his vintage carbro prints, photos of celebrities, and work documenting the building of the Hollywood Freeway.

Photographer Richard C. Miller poses on a shoot with model Norma Jeane Dougherty in 1946. He would later photograph her again more than a decade later, when she was known as Marilyn Monroe, on the set of "Some Like It Hot."

Richard Miller's interest in photography began when he was a child and toyed with his father’s 3¼x4¼ folding roll-film camera.  His passion for photography led to his increase in knowledge about established photographers, and when he found out Edward Weston was moving nearby he went over to introduce himself. The rest was history. (See more of Miller's biography here.)

There was a resurgence of interest in Miller's photography in spring 2009, when a collection of his images was shown alongside the work of Paul Outerbridge at the J. Paul Getty Museum.  (See the Los Angeles Times article about selections for the exhibit here.) Monroe Gallery of Photography began to represent his work that same year, and featured his photographs from the making of "Giant" at Photo LA in January, 2010.


Read the Los Angeles Times obituary here.

Listen to Richard C. Miller in an interview "Breakthrough Photographer" with Patt Morrison on 89.3 KPCC, recorded on April 2009 and aired 3 July 2009, here.

See more of Richard C. Miller's photographs here.

Richard C. Miller: James Dean besides his car during the filming of "Giant"

A Story Told: Miraculous Rescue, Remarkable Reunion

©TheBostonChannel.com

“I believe you took a photo for the Boston Herald American in January 1977 of a little girl and another of her mother that were published in the paper. The fire took place on Jan. 21, 1977, on 173 West Sixth St. in South Boston."

So began the message that photographer Stanley Forman received this July on his Facebook page. The message would lead to both a reunion and a hidden past revealed.

Forman, now a photographer for NewsCenter 5, had won three Pulitzer Prizes while working for the Boston Herald. His forte, then and now, is breaking news and fires.

"I am not sure if you would still have these pictures or more pictures that were not published. I am the little girl in the picture, Tammi,” the Facebook posting went on to say.
 
 

  ©StanleyFormanPhotos.com

 

Forman's compelling photos had captured a tragedy, and the girl in his pictures wanted to know more.


"It was one of the most intense fires I had ever been at. Knowing there were people trapped in the building and watching firefighters' attempts to get to them was very dramatic," said Forman.

Four people died in the fire, including Tammi's 6-year-old brother John.

Her mother, Ella May Kurtz, 30, was rescued, but died a few weeks later from her injuries.

But Forman's pictures also captured Tammi's miraculous rescue.
 
"When I got there the first shot I took was of firefighter George Girvan rushing a 3-year-old to safety after she was passed to him from firefighters who rescued her from the fire," he said.

©StanleyFormanPhotos.com

 
"I did not know at the time it was a girl," Forman said.

Forman had dropped off some of the pictures at the firehouse, including those of Alfred Chase, who the photos show being treated with oxygen after stumbling out of building.

After a few days of coverage in the newspaper, he thought the story had come to end.

Tammi Brownlee spent eight months in the hospital and then moved to Arizona for ten years before returning to South Boston. At first she lived with family and later with two foster families.

Thirty-three years after the fire, she went to the Boston Public Library to search for clues. She found Forman's pictures on the newspaper's front page and contacted him.

"This fire would have been another tragic fire that I have covered over my many years in this business," Forman said. "But then this e-mail came from Tammi and almost immediately I knew exactly which photos Tammi was talking about."

Earlier this summer, Forman joined a crew from for an interview with Tammi. After the interview, they took Tammi to South Boston for a surprise.

"The fire scene is now a vacant fenced in lot owned by the city. As Tammi and I walked up to the scene she was looking at this man coming towards us. She seemed confused as to who this man could be," Forman said.

"When I told her this was Alfred Chase, she knew exactly who he was from the newspaper clippings she had read and was taken aback," he said.

"He remembered locating her in the fire room and dragging her to safety with the help of other firefighters and passing her off to safety. It was a very emotional meeting for all," Forman said.

But Tammi's search did not end there. Fifteen years ago she learned she had two half siblings who had been given up for adoption before she was born.

"I had searched for years on adoption registry websites, hoping that they had put on there that they were looking for their birth mother or birth father," Tammi said. "When I started investigating the fire, everything fell into place."

Last month with help from the state, Brownlee found her sister Eleanor Doherty and just this week her brother David.

"It's a happy ending. It is what I have been waiting for, for a long time. It is family," Tammi said.

Along with her two children, Tammi brought her boyfriend of 10 years to the interview. Chad King is a Cape Cod firefighter.

I guess firefighters are my protectors,” Tammi said.

Copyright 2010 by TheBostonChannel.com

See more photographs from the fire here.

REMEMBERING CARL MYDANS

On the occasion the exhibition "Carl Mydans: The Early Years", we look back and share this article
published  at the time of Carl's death in 2004.

Carl Mydans

©The Digital Journalist
September 2004
by Dirck Halstead


Modern photojournalism has had a relatively short life. If you start with the premise that the profession that came with the big picture magazines really is only about eight decades old, it is not surprising that the giants who emerged during this period are beginning to die.

In the past month, two of the greatest have left us. First, it was Henri Cartier-Bresson, who more than any photographer defined "the decisive moment," then in August, Carl Mydans, who was without doubt one of the greatest of the original Life photographers.

It was interesting that both photographers received huge obits on the pages of The New York Times. The sheer scope of these obituaries was generally reserved for great writers, poets, designers and heads of state.

Carl Mydans was often overlooked when compared with some of his more colorful colleagues, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks. Some critics called his work ordinary. But for those who knew better, Carl was without doubt the best photojournalist of them all.

Carl Mydans: Senator John F. Kennedy Campaigning with his Wife in Boston (©Time, Inc.)

What made his work so special was that Carl was first and always a journalist. He viewed his job as being a witness to history. To Carl, the written word was as important as the photography. In a closet in his Larchmont N.Y., home, which he shared with his wife Shelley until she died several years ago, were thousands of reporter's notebooks. He made a lifetime habit of sitting down at the end of every day and meticulously recording what he saw and heard. These notebooks are a huge legacy to historians.

He was the consummate journalist. Time-Life recognized this when they made him bureau chief in Tokyo following World War II. He is the only photographer in that company's history to be accorded this recognition.

On th

On The 6:25 fromGrand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963 :

A decade ago, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, turned over its walls to a major retrospective of Carl's work. When the full extent of his remarkable career could be seen in one place, the result was breathtaking.

Like his colleague and friend, Alfred Eisenstaedt, into his '90s, Carl remained engaged in the world. He still had the curiosity of a child. Even though he could barely hear, he made the trek to his office on the 28th floor of the Time-Life building until the mid-'90s.

In 1945, General George McArthur sent a plane to pick up Carl, who was then busy covering the defeat of Nazi Germany, to return him to the Pacific theatre so that Carl could accompany him on his return to the Philippines. The general knew that Carl had remained behind with the defenders of Corregidor when they were overrun by the Japanese, and the Japanese had imprisoned him and his wife for over two years.

This resulted in one of Carl's most memorable photos, of McArthur wading ashore.

 General Douglas MacArthur Landing at Landing at Luzon, The Philippines, 1945

Over four decades later, Time magazine sent Carl back to the Philippines to cover the elections that resulted in Corazon Aquino defeating President Ferdinand Marcos.

Carl's son, Seth Mydans, remembers:

What I recall is that my father wangled his way onto Ferdinand Marcos's small plane up to Ilocos Norte on voting day. Everyone else had had to make the long drive and had taken their places around the ballot box at dawn, everyone with their elbows firmly in their neighbors' ribs. My father (he may have been secretly grinning) walked in with the Marcos crowd and simply took his place in front of everybody, causing the usual cries of complaint. But I'm told everyone was very polite to the old war-horse. That image is coupled in my mind with a wonderful photo of Carl, in his funny sunhat, clambering up onto a wooden scaffold in the middle of Luneta Park during a Corazon Aquino rally, with all the other photographers reaching out to hold a hand, an arm, an elbow, a foot and help him up.

As for the Marcoses, we all know about their vivid imaginations. When I first met Imelda at a press conference in Malacanang in 1981, she announced in front of everybody, "Yes, my husband rescued your father from prison camp." I then had my first audience with Marcos, who promptly told me, "Yes, your father is the only photographer who ever got a picture of me during the war wearing my helmet." (These, of course, are the people who said they grew wealthy by "investing wisely," among other things.)

I'd like to mention also that Shelley hadn't lost her touch either. She volunteered to visit a polling place for The New York Times and produced one of the most vivid accounts of the day when a bunch of goons rushed the place and hammered with their pistol butts to get the nuns and schoolteachers to loosen their grips on the ballot boxes.

One other quite extraordinary moment: During the January-February 1986 campaign, my competition may have wondered how I was getting so much access to Marcos. More than once, my father asked me to "carry his camera bags" when he was invited in to shoot a portrait. On one of these occasions he autographed a copy of his new book, "Carl Mydans, Photojournalist," just as he did for other major figures (major like Doy Laurel): "With respect, at this historic moment." Two weeks after Edsa , I flew to Hawaii to interview Marcos in exile. He had not yet moved to Makiki Heights but was in a sad, barren seaside villa. The jewels and pesos and other goodies he had grabbed as he fled were already in some vault somewhere. But my father's book, autographed "at this historic moment," was out on a coffee table for me to see. One could say it was one of his valuable treasures, but I think that even as he fled his palace, Marcos still thought Time magazine and The New York Times could help him get back there again. After all, the cover photograph shows MacArthur's return.

Robin Moyer, who was then the Time contract photographer in Southeast Asia, remembers:

Carl and Shelley arrived in Manila in early January, checked into the Manila Hotel and immediately set about work. His special assignment was to cover the Marcos campaign.

Despite the fact he was 79 years old at the time, his boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired our shooters like James Nachtwey, Peter Charlesworth and Susan Meiselas. The Filipino photographers adopted

Carl as one of their own, reserving the best vantage places for him in the photo melees.

Even Imelda Marcos got into the act, proclaiming Carl an old-time friend of the family. "We've known Carl for years. He is world-famous and much taller than his son."

Carl's response was simple. "I met Imelda for the first time last week and Seth is much taller than I am."

Carl's tireless work in the sweltering heat of Manila produced some outstanding images, including one of the several covers during the campaign and a singularly stunning image that showed not only his skill as a photographer, but his sense of history.

At the final rally of the Marcos campaign, having worked his way through a crowd estimated at over a million people, past several layers of photographers and around the security teams surrounding Marcos and his wife, Carl mounted the stage and made what may be the best image of our months of coverage. Reminiscent of the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" photo, Carl snapped a picture of Marcos smugly holding up a banner headline proclaiming "MARCOS WINS!"

Photographer Peter Charlesworth picked up the story:

As the press jostled for positions at a press conference to be given by President Marcos, I believe it was Robin Moyer who somehow instilled some discipline into the rabble of cameramen and photographers, setting them into tiered, orderly ranks. Carl was waiting, kneeling quietly in the front row.

Marcos arrived out of a side door and sat in front of a desk, whereupon Carl leapt up, leaned over the desk and started to make close-up portraits of the ailing dictator. Had this been anyone else, the verbal abuse from the massed press, whose views had been blocked, would have been deafening. A camera to the back of the head would have been more likely.

Nothing. There was a stunned silence as Marcos's security guards wondered what to do. Such was the awe in which Carl was held by the Filipino press corps - indeed, by all those present - that nobody moved. After a while, there were a few murmurs from those in the front row, "Er,  excuse me, Mr. Mydans, ..." as Carl continued to snap away, "er, Mr. Mydans "

At which point Carl turned around and cast a glance back at the gob-smacked photographers. With a mischievous grin he muttered, "Oh, I am so sorry," as if he had completely forgotten that anyone else was there, then shuffled back to his position in the front row.

In his last years, his friends continually visited Carl. These visits were a source of great joy.

We shall all miss him. We will not see his kind again.

© Dirck Halstead
Editor and Publisher of the Digital Journalist

Carl Mydans: The Early  Years October 1 - November 21

A Child Protects Her Brother from a Stranger with a Camera, Tsingtao, China



SAVE THE DATE - A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN WILKES: SAVE ELLIS ISLAND

Stephen Wilkes: Curved Corridor, Island 2, Ellis Island

On Sunday, November 7, join the Save Ellis Island Foundation for a very special tour and talk with Stephen Wilkes.

Included will be an illustrated presentation by renowned photographer Stephen Wilkes, who will discuss his work and the personal project that involved photographing the south side of Ellis Island...the inspiration for his poignant book "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom".

For the very first time, since the book was published, Stephen Wilkes visits Ellis Island to present his work, taking us on a journey to our collective past. The event begins at 10:00 am, starting with a fabulous brunch followed by Stephen's presentation and finally a emotional and inspirational walking tour of the unrestored south side Hospital Buildings.

-Each guest will be presented with an autographed copy of Stephen's book, "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" and a few additional surprises in a gift bag provided by your host, Save Ellis Island

-Seats are limited for this one-time fundraising event

-Donations: Individual $1,000 - Order tickets on line. For corporate reservations, please call 973-347-8400

-Complimentary transportation provided from Battery park, New York City and Liberty State Park, New Jersey

-To lean more, visit http://www.saveellisisland.org/

Ticket information here.

"In the southern shadows of Ellis Island’s Great Hall, forgotten by history and ill-equipped in its battle with nature, I came upon the ruins of a vast hospital: the contagious-disease wards and isolation rooms for the people whose spirits carried them across oceans but whose bodies failed them, just inches from Paradise. What I was obsessed to do, almost as if I was chosen to do it, was document the light and the energy and living spirit of this place. I added no light of my own, nor any artifice of the photographic craft. I wasn’t simply interested in graphics born from the patina of ruin. I just wanted to record the place as I found it."

--Stephen Wilkes


View Stephen Wilkes' Ellis Island Collection here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

Bill Eppridge: John Lennon, The Plaza, New York City, February, 1964

Previous: Brian Hamill Remembers John Lennon

Happy 70th Birthday John Lennon (With LENNONNYC film information)

BRIAN HAMILL REMEMBERS JOHN LENNON

John Lennon: The Dakota Rooftop, February 24, 1975

In our previous post, we wrote about what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday October 9, and the new film, LENNONNYC.

Photographer Brian Hamill photographed John Lennon on three occasions. Like many of his generation, Brian has profound memories of John's influence on his life and the times. Here, he shares some of his thoughts on the anniversary of John's 70th birthday.

 JOHN LENNON

There are three crucially important events that happened in my life where I can remember clearly who I was with and what I was doing when they happened. The whole world was a witness to all three of them. They were all defining moments in our global history. Unfortunately, they all involved the death of good people.

The assassination of JFK on 11/22/1963.
The assassination of John Lennon on 12/8/1980.
The assassination of more than 2,752 people at the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11/2001.

If you were alive with a working memory during all three you will probably feel as I do and remember most of the sad details. I can also throw in, with the same importance and feeling of “coming together” in our grief afterward, the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy too. It is very sad to have to remember and celebrate great people in this way, but because of this unique time in our troubled history, a big part of me does exactly that--that’s just the way it goes.

I am not going to give you any new perspective or cultural insight into John Lennon, although I will say that for my generation, for many generations, he was a major musical force and a phenomenal creative icon of the 20th century who influenced the world. No doubt about that. Everybody knows.


But I will always remember John Lennon as a quick-witted, vulnerable, stand-up, soft-spoken but unafraid guy. In my short time hanging with him, he spoke only the truth. I only spent time with him twice. I photographed him three times. They were all as memorable in my brain and in my heart as the awful day when he got murdered by a two-bit swine.  On  the night of 12/8/80, I was sitting in a rocking chair of my living room at my country house in Rhinecliff, NY, holding my three week old infant daughter Cara in my arms, just the two of us were there, listening to music together on the radio, me with the goofy faces and smiles and the baby talk, when suddenly the music was interrupted by a bulletin stating that John Lennon had been murdered. Projectile tears instantly shot out of my eyes onto my beautiful daughter. I had never cried like that. They were such immediate, forceful tears. I will never forget the combination, a one-two punch on the chin, of celebrating the wonderful joy of fatherhood one moment that was completely shattered in a split second moment by that painful, horrible news bulletin. John Lennon, dead!? Nooooooooooo!

John Lennon never got to fully mature as a man. The dude was only forty years old! He never really got to bring his full genius to all of us. Although, he certainly brought us some real genius. He never got to share more of that fun and laughter and wackiness with Yoko that we all were lucky enough to glimpse in a small way, and you certainly know a lot more of that was on their horizon. He never got to spend a lot of quality time with his nice sons. Yet he gave us all so much. Those John Lennon tears of mine will never fully dry.

He will be missed forever.

IMAGINE?

John Lennon: Madison Square Garden, New York, August 30, 1972

More photographs by Brian Hamill here.

Join us Friday, October 22 5 - 7 as we welcome Brian with a reception in conjuction with the Santa Fe Film Festival

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

October 9, 2010 would have been John Lennon's 70th Birthday.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, New York

Across the world, special events will recognize what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, October 9th, 2010. In New York's Central Park, home of the John Lennon "Imagine" memorial, a free, public screening of the American Masters film “LENNONYC” will be held on October 9th, 2010.

The screening, which will be first-come, first served, will take place at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (best reached by entering the park at 69th Street and Fifth Avenue). The screening, which will take place rain or shine, will include picnic style seating so viewers are encouraged to bring blankets. People interested in attending should visit www.thirteen.org/lennon for more information. The screening will start at 7:00 p.m. and doors open at 6:00 p.m. People are encouraged to line up early given there will be limited seating.

The Santa Fe Film Festival has announced a screening of LENNONNYC during the 11th edition of the film festival (October 22-24) at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Tickets for all Santa Fe Film Festival films go on sale October 8 here.  The film will air nationally on PBS on November 22 at 9pm.

Brian Hamill: John Lennon, The Dakota, New York

In conjunction with the Santa Fe Film Festival, Monroe Gallery of Photography is honored to welcome Brian Hamill to Santa Fe for a very special exhibition of his intimate photographs of John Lennon; as well as his photographs from the sets of classic movies. Brian Hamill will join us Friday, October 22, from 5-7 pm for a public reception. (The photographs are on exhibit now)

Brian Hamill was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the late 1960s, Hamill began a career as a photojournalist covering the Rock & Roll scene as well as the boxing world. He also worked as an assistant to several top fashion photographers.

In the early 1970s he traveled to Northern Ireland to photograph the troubles there, and widened his scope into unit still photographer jobs on movie sets. Since then he has worked as a unit still photographer on over seventy-five movies including twenty-six Woody Allen films, resulting in the much acclaimed coffee table photo book entitled “Woody Allen At Work: The Photographs of Brian Hamill” (Harry N. Abrams, 1995).

Hamill’s work has also appeared in numerous other books, publications and exhibitions including a one-man show at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1995.

See Brian Hamill's photographs here.

Related: Other John Lennon photographs here, and Beatles photographs here.



CARL MYDANS: WITNESS TO HISTORY

On the 6:25 from Grand Central to Stamford, CT, November 22, 1963

"All of us live in history, whether we are aware of it or not, and die in drama. The sense of history and of drama comes to a man not because of who he is or what he does, but flickeringly, as he is caught up in events, as his personality reacts, as he sees for a moment his place in the great flowing river of time and humanity. I cannot tell you where our history is leading us, or through what suffering, or into what era of war or peace. But wherever it is, I know men of good heart will be passing there". -- Carl Mydans

"Chain Gang" of New York Stock Exchange Officers Carries Traded Securities Each Day to Banks and Brokerage Houses, New York, 1937 

See the exhibit "Carl Mydans: The Early Years" here.

Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans: Amon Carter Museum Showcases a Special Documentary Photography Exhibition

Margaret Bourke-White: You Have Seen Their Faces: Little boy and hound dog, 1936 Gelatin silver print  ©Time Inc.

FORT WORTH, TX.- On October 2, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White. This special exhibition explores the work of three of the foremost photographers of the twentieth-century and the golden age of documentary photography in America. American Modern will be on view through January 2, 2011; admission is free.

Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Manhattan Bridge Looking Up, 1936. Gelatin silver print. The Art Institute of Chicago, Works Progress Administration Allocation, 1389.1943

Featuring more than 140 photographs by Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), Margaret Bourke-White (1906–1971) and Walker Evans (1903–1975), American Modern was co-organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. The exhibition is the result of a unique partnership between three curators: Jessica May and Sharon Corwin of the Carter and Colby, respectively, and Terri Weissman, assistant professor of art history at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Together, the three curators present the works of these three artists as case studies of documentary photography during the Great Depression and demonstrate how three factors supported the development of documentary photography during this important period in American history: first, the expansion of mass media; second, a new attitude toward and acceptance of modern art in America; and third, government support for photography during the 1930s.

Walker Evans (1903–1975), People in Downtown Havana, 1933. Gelatin silver print © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“This exhibition considers the work of three of the best-loved American photographers in a new light, which is very exciting,” says curator Jessica May. “Abbott, Evans, and Bourke-White are undisputed masters of the medium of photography, but they have never been shown in relation to one another. This exhibition offers viewers an opportunity to see works together that have not been shown as such since the 1930s.”

In addition to vintage photographs from over 20 public and private collections, the exhibition also features rare first-edition copies of select books and periodicals from the 1930s. American Modern, May says, “reminds us that documentary photography was very much a public genre—this was the first generation of photographers that truly anticipated that their work would be seen by a vast audience through magazines and books.”

More from the Amon Carter Museum here.

©ArtDaily.com

55 YEARS AGO: JAMES DEAN DIED

Richard C. Miller: James Dean besides his car during the filming of "Giant"

En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955.

James Dean was a legendary hero with a legendary story; live fast and die young. For over half a century, he has captured the world with his casual style, unflinching look and rebel attitude. James Dean has defined the essence of cool and without-a-cause for generations. His star continues to shine brighter and brighter.


Never has there ever been, never will there ever be. The one, the only, James Dean. (See the official James Dean site here.)

James Dean was a photographer's dream subject, resulting in many now-iconic images.

Sid Avery: James Dean on the set of "Rebel Without A Cause", 1955

Richard C. Miller worked for This Week, Liberty, Family Circle, Parents, American Weekly, Colliers, Life, and Time; as well as documenting Hollywood. For seven decades, he made a living working for North American Aviation and later as stringer for Globe Photos, which kept him circulating in the universe of stars; and he covered more than seventy films.


His first on-location assignment was for Giant (1955), where his job was to shadow James Dean. When Dean died, many pictures of him were sold, becoming iconic images since he and Dean had developed a close relationship based on a mutual interest in Porsches and photography.
 
 

Richard C. Miller: James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor take a break from filming "Giant"

CARL MYDANS: THE EARLY YEARS

 Cafe in Pikesville, Tennessee, 1936 (for the Farm Security Administration)

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to announce "Carl Mydans: The Early Years”. (Carl Mydans: May 20, 1907 – August 16, 2004) The exhibition opens with a reception Friday, October 1, 5 - 7 PM, and continues through November 21.


Born in Massachusetts, near Boston, in 1907, Mydans’ keen sensitivity and honesty compelled him toward a lifetime of social and historical documentary photography. After working for the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, he joined the photographic staff of the Farm Security Administration in 1936. The FSA, as it was familiarly known, was a New Deal agency established during the Great Depression by Franklin Roosevelt designed to combat rural poverty during a period when the agricultural climate and national economy were causing great dislocations in rural life. The photographers who worked under the name of the FSA were hired on for public relations; they were supposed to provide visual evidence that there was need, and that the FSA programs were meeting that need. Roy Stryker, who Mydans described as one of the most important influences in his life, headed the FSA. Stryker hired Mydans, along with several other photographers who were also later to become legendary, such as Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, to document the conditions of people and their surroundings most affected by the Depression.

The Nation's Capitol viewed from a nearby slum area, Washington, DC (for the Farm Security Administration)

“My very first period, when I was photographing with the FSA, I consider to be my most meaningful body of work. Before that, I didn’t know what America really was. I learned who the people were, what they thought, what they did, what they read and what they cooked and ate. There are some things that come back to me, and when I see a farmer tilling his rice in Asia, there’s something about that Asian farmer that carries me back to our own American farmers in 1936. In a word, that experience I had working with the FSA, in 1936 and 1937, gave me a greater feeling for America, and from that a greater feeling for the people of the world.” – Carl Mydans, 1997  
 

Brick carrier at model community planned by the Suburban Division of the U.S. Resettlement Administration, Greenbelt, Maryland, 1936 (for the Farm Security Administration)

Featured in the exhibition is a rare and distinct collection of limited-edition prints from the FSA archives, specially selected from a large body of his work that is owned by the United States government. These prints were all made in by Mydans in1993 from his original negatives, which he borrowed from the Library of Congress. Each of the FSA photographs were signed by Mr. Mydans, and each image is limited to a total edition of between just six and fifteen examples.

After 16 months with the government, Mydans joined LIFE magazine as a staff photographer in 1936, just after the inaugural issue. Included in the exhibition are rare early vintage prints from the archives of LIFE magazine - the actual prints used for early LIFE magazine stories, with important archive information inscribed and stamped on the back of each photograph. Together with the FSA photographs, they provide a humanitarian and emotional record of this turbulent time in American history, an integral element to their lasting appeal over 70 years later.

Over four decades, Mydans carried out the full gamut of typical Life stories, from Hollywood celebrities to Texas cattle roundups, but his most important assignment, starting with the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939, was as a war photographer. Resourceful, determined and unruffled, Mr. Mydans managed to send back pictures of combat that even now define how we remember World War II, Korea and other conflicts. He photographed major news and feature stories in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Mydans reported on the Russo-Finnish winter war, Italy under Mussolini, and the fall of France. When war erupted in Europe, Mydans and his wife, LIFE researcher Shelley Smith, became the magazine’s first husband and wife team to be sent overseas. Constantly traveling, Mydans’ assignments took him to Britain, Sweden, Finland, Italy, France, China, Malaya, and the Philippines, where he and his wife were captured by the Japanese. Released after being held prisoner of war for two years, Mydans was sent back into war in 1944, eventually covering the stoic figure of General MacArthur landing at Luzon. This famous image eloquently captures the pride and determination of the great commander and stands in dramatic contrast to the sense of shame and resignation expressed in the photographs he made of the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri from the same year.



Daughter of migrant workes near Raymondville, Texas, 1937 (vintage print)

“As a storyteller in pictures, the photojournalist is looking not only for action but for substance. He is a historian and a sociologist. He has created humanity’s first international language, a common imagery for all mankind. And in his pictures, people see themselves with a clarity they never knew before.”--Carl Mydans

View the exhibition here.

VIVIAN CHERRY'S NEW YORK

Dancer-turned-photographer Vivian Cherry has been capturing the quirks of New York City for nearly 70 years, and has yet to grow tired of it."

—New York Daily News


New York City is characterized by its sheer diversity, as well as by the substantial level of open-mindedness consistently displayed by its residents making it irresistible to all kinds of people from all walks of life. Centuries of large-scale waves of immigration accompanied by a steady stream of freethinking American migrants have created the archetypal melting pot that it is today.


Photographer Vivian Cherry knows New Yorkers. This is reasonable considering she's been capturing them in their natural habitat for over half a century. One of the last surviving members of the Photo League, a cooperative of photographers that in the 1930s and 40s embraced social realism, Cherry shoots her subjects against the backdrop of the city, combining informal portraiture with gritty cityscapes. Her first powerhouse book, Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s, was released to critical acclaim. Now she returns with Vivian Cherry's New York, a collection of work shot in the past decade, in which she continues to present her audience with pictures that are raw and real, while at the same time affectionate and warm.

For a preview of the book please visit: http://www.powerHouseBooks.com/viviancherry.pdf

Vivian Cherry's work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the International Center of Photography; and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., amongst others, and has appeared in Popular Photography, Life, Sports Illustrated, Redbook, and Ebony, as well as the famed magazines of yesteryear: This Week, Pageant, Colliers, and Amerika. She made several short films and worked with photographer Arnold Eagle as a still photographer on a film about Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio. The author of Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s (powerHouse Books, 2007), Cherry lives and works in New York City.

© Copyright 2010 powerHouse Books

Vivian Cherry at Monroe Gallery of Photography's Booth during the 2010 AIPAD Photography Show

Vivian Cherry's New York
$29.95

Essay by Julia Van Haaften

Photography / New York City
Clothband
8.5 x 11.25 inches
114 pages, 100 duotone photographs

Ordering information here.

View a selection of her photography here.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1957:1,000 MEMBERS OF 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION OF THE US ARMY ESCORT 9 CHILDREN TO SCHOOL

Grey Villet: The Little Rock Nine enter classroom to register after escort from Army's 101st Airborne Division, September 254, 1957


Three years after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, which officially ended public-school segregation, a federal court ordered the Little Rock High School to comply.

On September 2, 1957, the night before school was to start for the year, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the state's National Guard to surround Little Rock Central High School and prevent any black students from entering in order to protect "citizens and property from possible violence by protesters" he claimed were headed in caravans toward Little Rock.


A federal judge granted an injunction against the Governor's use of National Guard troops to prevent integration and they were withdrawn on September 20.

When school resumed on Monday, September 23, Central High was surrounded by Little Rock policemen. About 1,000 people gathered in front of the school. The police escorted the nine black students to a side door where they quietly entered the building as classes were to begin. When the mob learned the blacks were inside, they began to challenge the police and surge toward the school with shouts and threats. Fearful the police would be unable to control the crowd, the school administration moved the black students out a side door before noon.

U.S. Congressman Brooks Hays and Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann asked the federal government for help, first in the form of U.S. marshals. Finally, on September 24, Mann sent a telegram to President Eisenhower requesting troops. They were dispatched that day and the President also federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard, taking it away from the Governor.

On September 25, 1957, nine black students entered the school under the protection of 1,000 members of the "Screaming Eagles" of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army.

The Little Rock Nine, as they nine students came to be known, were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Little Rock Central High School still functions as part of the Little Rock School District, and is now a National Historic Site that houses a Civil Rights Museum, administered in partnership with the National Park Service, to commemorate the events of 1957.

More: Little Rock Nine Foundation

Related: Little Rock member Jefferson Thomas dies.

55 YEARS AGO: JACKIE ROBINSON STEALS HOME BASE - Game One, The 1955 World Series, NY Yankees vs Brooklyn Dodgers

September 28, 1955 - Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson takes off from third and steals home in one of the most dazzling feats of World Series history! Game One, The 1955 World Series, 8th inning, the Brooklyn Dodgers trailing the Yankees 6 to 4.

Ralph Morse: Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson charging wildy fr. 3rd base as unwary NY Yankee catcher Yogi Berri squats behind Dodger batter during Jackie's steal of home plate in the 8th inning of the 1st game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium ©Time Inc

Grey Villet captured the scene with this series of three photographs:

Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson steals home base against NY Yankees in the 8th inning of the 1st game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, September 28, 1955

Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson after stealing home base in the 8th inning of the 1st game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium as Yogi Berra argues the call

NY Yankee catcher Yogi Berra arguing with the home plate umpire who is walking away after giving the safe sign to Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson's brilliant steal of home base in the 8th inning

To this day, Yogi Berra will swear that he tagged Jackie Robinson before he touched home plate. The umpire saw it differently. You decide for yourself, but one thing is clear -- Robinson was one of the most exciting players in the history of the game. Watch it here.

The Dodgers won the Series!

Brooklyn Dodger Fans celebrating 1955 World Series victory, Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 1955 by Martha Holmes ©Time Inc

50 YEARS AGO: THE KENNEDY-NIXON DEBATE LAUNCHES POLITICS INTO THE MEDIA ERA

Paul Schutzer: Kennedy and Nixon Debate with Howard K. Smith as Moderator, September 26, 1960

September 26, 1960 - The first-ever televised presidential debate occurred between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. On 26 September 1960, 70 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard Nixon in the first-ever televised presidential debate. It was the first of four televised "Great Debates" between Kennedy and Nixon. The Many who watched were inclined to say Kennedy 'won' the debate, while those who listened only to the radio thought Nixon did better. Nixon, who declined to use makeup, appeared somewhat haggard looking on TV in contrast to Kennedy

The Great Debates marked television's grand entrance into presidential politics. They afforded the first real opportunity for voters to see their candidates in competition, and the visual contrast was dramatic. In August, Nixon had seriously injured his knee and spent two weeks in the hospital. By the time of the first debate he was still twenty pounds underweight, his pallor still poor. He arrived at the debate in an ill-fitting shirt, and refused make-up to improve his color and lighten his perpetual "5:00 o'clock shadow." Kennedy, by contrast, had spent early September campaigning in California. He was tan and confident and well-rested. Kennedy's practice of looking at the camera when answering the questions -- and not at the journalists who asked them, as Nixon did -- made viewers see him as someone who was talking directly to them and who gave them straight answers. Kennedy's performance showed not only that he was a knowledgeable and credible elected official, but also that he just plain looked better.

The televised Great Debates had a significant impact on voters in 1960, on national elections since, and, indeed, on our concerns for democracy itself. The debates ushered in an era in which television dominated the electoral process.



John F. Kennedy had learned the power of the image, of the visual, from his father, who was for a time a power in the movie business. Joseph P. Kennedy was the first, or among the first, to merge the creation and marketing of the celebrity trade, the tricks of public relations, to the business of politics and governing. With politics aforethought, the founding father had created an archive—still and moving pictures of his children—ready to be used to entice a nation into a cause in the same way they were pulled into movie theaters. There was one thing President Kennedy always had time for: he would spend hours looking at photographs of himself and his family. That was neither narcissism nor pride to Jack Kennedy, but recognition of polities as a show of fleeting images. In the mostly black-and-white world of the early 1960s, the right picture in the right place duplicating itself forever was worth a great deal more than any thousand words.



Audio/Visual show of the debate here.

EDDIE ADAMS WORKSHOP TO BE HONORED AT 2010 LUCIE AWARDS GALA AT LINCON CENTER

©The Eddie Adams Workshop

New York, NY -- The 8th annual Lucie Awards will honor The Eddie Adams Workshop at its Lincoln Center gala on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Hosted by the non-profit, charitable Lucie Foundation, the awards recognize photographers and organizations that have made significant contributions to the advancement of photography. This year, the Workshop will be presented with the Visionary Award.


Other honorees at this year's event in New York City include the photographers Tina Barney, Howard Bingham, James Drake, Graciela Iturbide, Lee Tanner and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Tickets are on sale at http://www.lincolncenter.org/.

In 1976, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams bought a defunct dairy farm in Jeffersonville, New York, with an idea of transforming the big rural property into a “foto farm.” What that meant wouldn't become clear for another two decades, when he and wife Alyssa Adams created Barnstorm: The Eddie Adams Workshop, an invitation-only, tuition-free boot camp for 100 young photographers taught by the top professionals in the field. Since 1988, the Workshop has been a transformative experience for those lucky enough to attend the annual four-day program, and some have gone on to win their own Pulitzers and return as faculty, treating the next generation of photojournalists to a unique forum for shooting, editing and learning.

Students are divided into 10 teams of 10, each guided by a professional photographer, editor and a researcher through their assignments in and around Jeffersonville, 20 minutes from the original Woodstock concert site, and two hours from Manhattan. Together, these teams of young photographers descend on the astonishingly diverse community, shooting amid the rich, fall colors on the surrounding birch and fir trees that will factor heavily into their pictures. By the end of the weekend, several students are awarded with one of many coveted scholarships, internships, editorial assignments and other career-boosting prizes.

Throughout the years, faculty and guest speakers have included some of the most esteemed names in photography: Gordon Parks, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Cornell Capa, Mary Ellen Mark, James Nachtwey, Platon, Hal Buell, James Colton, Kathy Ryan, Bill Eppridge, Eugene Richards, Nick Ut, Ralph Gibson, Jay Meisel and many others. The idea behind Barnstorm was to allow a new generation to meet these seasoned professionals, to exchange ideas, techniques and philosophies in the course of a single weekend, and maybe save some crucial time in their budding careers. It continues to operate with the active support of Nikon and other sponsors, keeping the Workshop alive in a difficult economy and an ever-shifting new media terrain.

That impulse is rooted in a shared commitment to picture journalism that Eddie Adams showed throughout his long career. Before his death at age 71 in 2004, Adams covered 13 wars, working for the Associated Press, Time and Parade, and enjoyed private portrait sessions with the likes of President Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood and Pope John Paul II. He witnessed the arrival of the Beatles in America and joined Fidel Castro at the Cuban leader's private fishing hole. But Adams is best known for one of the most notorious photographs of the Vietnam War, documenting the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon in 1968 with a sudden bullet to the head. The picture was published around the world, won Adams a Pulitzer, and is said to have contributed to America's exit from the war.

That experience remained with him, and at the Workshop he established an annual tribute to six photojournalists killed in Vietnam, a solemn but ultimately joyous ceremony. It is one more vivid memory that students take away from the experience.

Now in its 23rd year, the Eddie Adams Workshop lives on under the direction of Alyssa Adams, currently deputy photo editor at TV Guide. Top professionals still come to share, mentoring students who are enrolled based entirely on the quality of their work, not on ability to pay. Little has changed at the farm since the very beginnings of Barnstorm, beyond the inevitable shift from slide film to digital over the last decade, and the absence of Eddie himself.

For more information about Barnstorm: The Eddie Addams Workshop, visit http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/

To view more of Eddie Adams work and available signed prints, click here.

FINAL WEEK FOR "BILL EPPRIDGE: AN AMERICAN TREASURE"

Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure continues through September 26. This first-ever retrospective for the acclaimed photojournalist has been a major event since its opening on July 2. As a fitting conclusion to the exhibit, we have gathered here some articles about the exhibit and Bill Eppridge.

Review: The Magazine - Bill Eppridge's work was as epic as the times themselves

Review: The Albuquerque Journal - An Eye on the Times

Documentary film: The Eye of The Storm  tells the story of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy through the eyes of five photojournalists, four of whom were in the room when he was shot.

Documentary film: Neshoba: The Price of Freedom revisits civil rights tragedy that Bill Eppridge covered

The historic master vintage print of Robert F. Kennedy shot included in Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure

Opening reception for Bill Eppridge: An American Treasure attended by Governor Bill Richardson

Bill Eppridge in High Museum exhibit Road To Freedom - Photographs from the Civil Rights Movement
(Travelled to Skirball Center and Bronx Museum of Art)

Bill Eppridge in Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera at Tate Modern and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Bill Eppridge in Folkwang Museum exhibit A Star is Born - Photography and Rock Since Elvis

Bill Eppridge at Woodstock

Bill Eppridge Receives the Prestigious Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism

OCTOBER IN SANTA FE

Ernst Haas: New Mexico, 1952  vintage chromogenic print  10 x 8 inches

Autumn has almost officially arrived and so will cooler weather. October arrives in full golden glory as aspen trees display their glowing fall colors, usually through the middle of the month. The Santa Fe Ski Basin offers a wonderful Fall Scenic Chairlift that is an ideal way to take in the foliage. With highs averaging 67 degrees and lows dipping to 37 degrees, October's crisp, cool weather is ideal for hiking, biking and other outdoor activities.

Monroe Gallery of Photography starts the month with a timely and significant exhibition: "Carl Mydans: The Early Years". There is an opening reception on Friday, October 1, from 5 - 7 PM.

Cafe in Pikesville, Tennessee, 1936 (for the Farm Security Administration) ©Time Inc

Born in Massachusetts, near Boston, in 1907, Carl Mydans’ keen sensitivity and honesty compelled him toward a lifetime of social and historical documentary photography. After working for the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, he joined the photographic staff of the Farm Security Administration in 1936. The FSA, as it was familiarly known, was a New Deal agency established during the Great Depression by Franklin Roosevelt designed to combat rural poverty during a period when the agricultural climate and national economy were causing great dislocations in rural life. The photographers who worked under the name of the FSA were hired on for public relations; they were supposed to provide visual evidence that there was need, and that the FSA programs were meeting that need. Roy Stryker, who Mydans described as one of the most important influences in his life, headed the FSA. Stryker hired Mydans, along with several other photographers who were also later to become legendary, such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Arthur Rothstein, to document the conditions of people and their surroundings most affected by the Depression.

Carl Mydans: Demonstrators in a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Strike, 1937 (©Time Inc)

Featured in the exhibition is a rare and distinct collection of  prints from the FSA archives, specially selected by Mydans in 1993 from a large body of his work that is owned by the United States government; as well as rare early vintage prints from the archives of LIFE magazine - the actual prints used for LIFE magazine stories. (Watch this blog for more information shortly.)

Mark Edward Harris will also join us that evening to sign copies of the second edition of his book, The Way of The Japanese Bath. A selection of prints from the book, specially printed with rich charcoal tones on washi paper, will be on exhibit.

Mark Edward Harris: the Way of the Japanese Bath

The annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta takes place October 2 - 10. Each day, it fills the skies south of Santa Fe with hundreds of colorful hot air balloons that dazzle the crowds during morning and evening Balloon Glows, Mass Ascensions and an array of contests. It is the largest ballooning event on earth, the most photographed event on earth, and the largest annual international event held in the United States.

For 10 years, the Santa Fe Film Festival took place in early December. In 2010, it moves to October 20 - 24, continuing to feature innovative programing. The festival showcases films made in the Southwest as well as independent American-made narrative films, films made outside the U.S., documentaries and art films celebrating the creative spirit. With a full schedule of workshops, panels, parties, awards and more, the Santa Fe Film Festival has become an exciting and popular film event that appeals to professionals and fans alike. on Friday, October 22, Monroe Gallery is very pleased to welcome acclaimed photographer Brian Hamill for a special reception and exhibition. In the late 1960s, Hamill began a career as a photojournalist and also worked as an assistant to several top fashion photographers. Hamill has worked as a unit still photographer on over seventy-five movies including twenty-six Woody Allen films, resulting in the much acclaimed coffee table photo book entitled “Woody Allen At Work: The Photographs of Brian Hamill” (Harry N. Abrams, 1995). Please join us on October 22, from 5 - 7 PM, to welcome Brian and enjoy his photographs from the movies.

Brian Hamill: Diane Keaton and Woody Allen, 59th Street Bridge, New York, 1978, "Manhattan"

For a full calendar of October events, visit the official Santa Fe Convention and Visitors web site here.