SPRING NEWS FROM MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, SANTA FE, NM

The ultimate digital magazine where everything about photography is published daily, L’Oeil de la Photographie, recently feature the gallery’s current exhibition “Vintage Photojournalism”. The feature may be viewed here.

  

Art Shay: Hilton Hotel, Michigan Avenue, August 1968, Democratic Convention

  “Vintage Photojournalism” is a major exhibition of rare vintage prints from the 20th Century’s master photojournalists. The exhibit features unique, one of a kind prints that were used to fill requests for reproduction in LIFE magazine and other major publications, many with important historic information inscribed and stamped on the verso (backside) of the photograph. The exhibit continues through April 24.

We are very pleased to announce that the gallery is now representing the Spider Martin civil rights collection.  Alabama photojournalist, James "Spider" Martin, (b. 1939 - 2003) was employed as a staff photographer at The Birmingham News during one of the most eventful periods in American history. Martin covered key events during the 1960s civil rights movement, most notably Bloody Sunday and other historic incidents from the Selma to Montgomery march. His civil rights photographs are in included in the many collections, including the Birmingham Civil Rights museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

While a small number of Spider's civil rights era photographs have been published and exhibited, most of these dramatic and moving images have never been shown publicly because of their controversial nature for the time.

Spider Martin: Dr. King delivering his speech to the triumphant crowd at the end of the march, March 25, 1965

Monroe Gallery of Photography will be again exhibiting at the AIPAD Photography Show April 13 – 17 in New York at the Park Avenue Amory, 643 Park Avenue. The gallery will be in booth # 104. Celebrating its 36th year in 2016, The Photography Show features more than 80 of the world’s leading photography art galleries. We will be exhibiting specially selected photographs from the gallery's renowned collection of 20th and 21st Century master photojournalists. Among the highlights selected for this year's exhibition are: vintage prints from Spider Martin alongside other important civil rights photographs; a rare selection of never-before-seen vintage prints of photographs taken by Bill Eppridge on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated;  a rare vintage print made from the original negative of the iconic image from World War II by George Silk "An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942";  several large-scale color photographs from Stephen Wilkes’ Bethlehem Steel, China, and Day To Night collections, and an exciting previously unseen large scale photograph of David Bowie taken in New Mexico in 1975 during the filming of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” that is featured in the forthcoming book “Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro” which will be published April 26, 2016 by PowerHouse Books, and many other exciting new additions to the gallery’s collection.

Steve Schapiro: David Bowie,  New Mexico, 1975 ( “The Man Who Fell To Earth’)

 We would like to invite you to visit the AIPAD Show as our guests, please contact the gallery for complimentary admission to the Show.

We will round out the Spring season with the exhibition “Alfred Eisenstaedt: Classics and seldom-seen photographs”: April 29 – June 26. Renowned as the father of modern photojournalism, Alfred Eisenstaedt’s career as a preeminent photojournalist spanned eight decades. The exhibition of more than 50 photographs features numerous classic images, several little-known gems, and never-before-exhibited photographs.

We hope to see you in the coming months, and please do not hesitate to contact us for any information.

Our best,

Sid and Michelle Monroe

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

"When People Can See Time"

Via NPR All Tech Considered
February 19, 2016
Nina Gregory

Of all of the arts, photography may be the discipline most accustomed to the nudge of technology, and photographer and artist Stephen Wilkes fully embraces the challenge. His latest project, "Day to Night," takes on the idea of showcasing, in one composite still image, the transformation of a place over the course of a day.

Take his photo of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. For 26 hours, Wilkes shot 2,200 photos without moving the camera and while suspended in the air in a tent-like structure with a little window, so that animals wouldn't see or hear him as he photographed them coming to a watering hole from sunrise to deep into the night.

"I photograph by hand; this is not a time lapse. ... It's my eye seeing very specific moments," Wilkes says. "I like to describe myself as a collector of magical moments."

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes                     

Once Wilkes has all the images, he picks the best moments of the day and the night and creates what he calls a master plate. Those images then get seamlessly blended into one single photograph, where time is on a diagonal vector, with sunrise beginning in the bottom right-hand corner. That process of creating a single image can take about four months — though it's photographed in a single day.

I spoke with Wilkes in Vancouver, ahead of his TED talk, about the powers of digital photography, the experience of looking in the face of time and the challenge of sharing emotion through an image. Below are some of the highlights of our conversation.

---

Interview Highlights

On watching animal life unfold during the Serengeti shoot

Times Square, NYC, Day to Night, 201   

 Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes 

          

I'm changing time within the picture. As the sun is rotating, light is changing and all these animals, you can see time change on the light in the animals. It's all based on time. ... (At) sunrise you begin to see the watering hole is quiet and the animals migrate in as the sun rises. Wildebeests and zebras graze together; one has terrible eyes and the other has lousy hearing — the blind leading the deaf. There are meerkats. It was like watching the movie Jungle Book. As time is changing, you see the sun getting higher, you see the light begins to rotate and starts to go behind the animals. I'm watching them. Guess who else is watching them? A lion.

They have this whole process of coming in and going out, it's a rhythm. I'm telling the story based on time. It's such a complicated process and yet there's so much luck involved.

Pont de la Tournelle, Paris, Day to Night, 2013      

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes             

On evolving as a photographer

I discovered digital in 2000 and started to realize, because I had to come through the process of analog ... I wanted to push the medium outward. So what I've been exploring is this concept of day-to-night, where I change time within a photograph. I'm really exploring the space-time continuum within a two-dimensional photograph. And it's really cool because I can tell stories that photographs could never tell before. Compressing an entire day into a single image, the best moments, allows me to share things on a narrative level that you just couldn't see.

On the power of seeing the face of time

The most exciting part of it really is how people respond to the work. It's an amazing, emotional thing. When people can see time, the face of time in a way, it's this thing we can never put our hands around. But yet, when you look at it, it makes you feel a different way and there's an emotional thing that happens and that's exciting. I just think it's the best time to be alive as a photographer, really. I think as technology keeps evolving the things you could only imagine or dream are at your fingertips now. It's just about where you want to go.

View from The Savoy, London, Day to Night, 2013      

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes             

On the advantages of digital photography

When you can capture an image on a silicon chip versus a piece of film you can see it instantly, that's the first thing. For me, when I do one of my photographs, I can shoot 2,500 images in a single day. Now, if I was doing that with an 8x10 camera, which is the image quality I have in my digital back*, that would be 2,500 sheets of 8x10 film. It would be impossible to do what I'm doing, just the visualization of that would be impossible — and financially, to boot. And my assistant would probably jump out of the cherry picker!

*Editor's Note: A digital back is a piece of equipment you can add to the back of a film camera to modify it to take digital images.

On the high level of detail in digital photography

So if I'm a storyteller, I love that, suddenly things that were insignificant are really significant now. And that's the power of what's happening now. Eventually photography is going to look like a window; you're going to have a visceral experience with my pictures on the wall. Because the way you'll see into my pictures is almost the way the eye sees, and that's the way it's going. For me, I want you to feel the way I felt when I stood there and took the picture.


On the future of photo printing
I work with a master printer in New York and I actually print on conventional photographic paper because of the depth perception. I really want to enhance that, but there are so many new technologies that are coming out in terms of 3-D printing and all kinds of different things. Who knows where we're going to be five, 10, 15 years from now based on what's happening and the speed of what's happening.



View the full Day To Night Collection here.

The Picture Show

Eerie Ellis Island, Then And Now

Vintage Photojournalism Opens Friday, February 19

Yale Joel/©Time Inc - The verso (back) of “A view of the funeral for Robert F. Kennedy, 1968” showing inscriptions and usage in publications

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce: “Vintage Photojournalism”, a major exhibition of rare vintage prints from the 20th Century’s master photojournalists. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday, February 19, 5 – 7 pm, and continues through April 17.

The exhibit features unique, one of a kind prints that were used to fill requests for reproduction in LIFE magazine and other major publications, many with important historic information inscribed and stamped on the verso (backside) of the photograph. By definition, a vintage print is a print made at or close to the time the photographer recorded the image onto the negative. Because these photographers were working on assignments for the next issue of a publication, the prints were frequently made within days of the negative and show evidence of the photographer’s or photo editor’s preferences for cropping, enlarging, or other directions. Although these images opened American eyes to the wonders of the world, many of these prints have never before been exhibited.

“Anything was fodder for the camera with Bill Eppridge”

©Bill Eppridge: Beatles Press Conference, 1964

Bill Eppridge shot 90 rolls of film while traveling with the Beatles in February 1964. Life Magazine published four photos

Ken Dixon: Gazing at history through a long lens
The Connecticut Post
February 13, 2016


Lets all get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born …”
John Lennon, Paul McCartney

This column is about “The Beatles - 6 Days That Changed the World February 1964,” photographic evidence of the late Bill Eppridge’s crazy, fun week with the Fab Four and their fans in New York and Washington, with a couple of wacky train rides to boot.

But it’s also about music, memory, history and the role of photography, the scientific process that someone with an eye, interpersonal skills and degrees of luck can use to make artful journalism.

Dozens of photos from the 90 rolls of film Eppridge shot that week are beautifully hung on the walls in the Art Gallery in the Visual & Performing Arts Center at Western Connecticut State University’s Westside Campus. The hours are Monday through Thursday, noon to 4 p.m. and weekends from 1 to 4 p.m. It’s a tour de force that runs through March 13. He’s represented by the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe.

Grandmothers will remember being teens and tweens. Forty-somethings may contemplate the changes the Beatles wrought to music and culture. And millennials can discover a simple slice of 20th Century social phenomena without the chore of too much reading.

My favorite photo was captured outside The Plaza Hotel in New York. An amused black-clad chauffeur is trying to unload The Beatles’ baggage in a scrum of girls. One kid, with a huge smile, is hugging a guitar case as if it were Paul McCartney himself. If she was 14 then, she’s 66 now. Every time I look at the image it makes me laugh out loud.

Eppridge, a famous photographer for Life magazine and Sports Illustrated, died in Danbury about 2 1/2 years ago at 74. When President John F. Kennedy was murdered in November of 1963, Eppridge was with mountaineers in the Alps. He came off Mont Blanc, the tallest in Europe, where a local priest told him of the assassination. In just a few years, as the sassy ’60s unwound in violence and cynicism, he would get extremely close to another Kennedy murder.

On the morning the Beatles landed, Feb. 7, Eppridge got the assignment to meet them at the newly renamed JFK International Airport.

A welcome relief after the president’s murder less than three months earlier, the lads from Liverpool were met by thousands of teenagers. Eppridge called his editor and said he wanted to stay with the band for a few days.

“I liked these guys immediately,” Eppridge recalled in the 2013 book of photos about the week, published by Rizzoli. “Shortly after, Ringo Starr turned to me and said, ‘All right, Mr. Life Magazine, what can we do for you?’ ‘Nothing,’ I said, ‘not one single thing. Just be you and I’ll turn invisible. I won’t ask you to do a thing.’”

In the winter of 1964, the United States needed The Beatles and their pop harmonies. On Sunday night, Feb. 9, they took “The Ed Sullivan Show” by storm.

Monday, Feb. 10, was a nasty, cold rainy day in Stamford. It was so horrible that the runny-nosed masses at Belltown School — usually confined to the playground in all weather until school started — were allowed inside, to line up on a stairwell, dripping wet, to await the 9 o’clock bell. All the fourth-grade chatter was about The Beatles appearance the night before and who might be a kid’s favorite.

Alas, we were a “Disney” family on Sunday nights, watching wholesome entertainment on another TV network, rather than the usual cavalcade of nightclub comics and crooners that Sullivan trotted out every week for CBS.

I knew nothing about the Beatles, was drastically behind the pop curve and never really caught up. Maybe that’s why I’m a contrarian newspaper reporter.

Of course, I eventually found the Beatles and their poppy tunes and startling harmonies. You can easily catch their Ed Sullivan appearances on the Internet. Those first 13 minutes, with “All My Loving.” “Till There was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” say almost all you need to know about the innocent, early ’60s.

“Anything was fodder for the camera with Bill,” recalled Adrienne Aurichio, Eppridge’s wife and collaborator, who held a gallery talk the other night at WestConn. Among his 900 assignments were Dr. Jonas Salk, who defeated polio, actress Mia Farrow, President Lyndon Johnson, Woodstock, Barbra Streisand and Vietnam.

In a way, the Beatles were a welcome respite as the remainder of the ’60s played out. By the fall of 1964, Eppridge was practically living with a couple of heroin addicts for Life’s stark, harrowing, graphic “Needle Park” report on drug users at 72nd Street and Broadway. Maybe in 50-plus years we haven’t really evolved too much, as the latest heroin epidemic plays out.

Eppridge is most famous for the iconic image of Robert F. Kennedy dying on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, a bus boy by his side, after winning the California presidential primary in 1968. The murder occurred two months after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The ’60s were surely over.

Last week, RFK’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan, now 71, was denied parole for the 15th time.

Ken Dixon’s Capitol View appears Sundays in the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers. You may reach him in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Find him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst. Dixon’s Connecticut Blog-o-rama can be seen at blog.ctnews.com/dixon/

Bob Gomel's Photograph on the cover of the new book "Blood Brothers"

Bob Gomel's photograph of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and Malcolm X is on the cover of the new book, "Blood Brothers".

LA Times Review
When Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali's friendship changed history: The new book 'Blood Brothers' explains

Visit us during Photo LA 2016 this weekend

photo l.a. celebrates super snapshots at The Reef from Jan. 22-24. (Photo: Stephen Wilkes, Serengeti, Tanzania, Day To Night, 2015, Courtesy of the Monroe Gallery of Photography)

NBC 4 Southern California

By Alysia Gray Painter

January 21, 2016

Weekend: photo l.a.
Celebrated shutterbugs, collectors, galleries, and fans converge to buy, admire, discuss.


photo l.a.: The yearly gathering of galleries, fans, buyers, and lauded photographers who capture elaborate stories with one click has a big name for the bigness it encompasses. The Reef downtown is the setting for The 25th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Exposition will be flush with photos and tours and panels and everything that has anything to do with the camera, the lens, and the eye. You don't have to buy or attend one of the programs to enjoy a day; a one-day ticket to the Jan 22-24 snapshot spectacular is twenty bucks.


Monroe Gallery is located in booth #205 /302, just to the right of the main fair entrance.
Friday, January 22, 11am - 7pm
Saturday, January 23, 11am - 7pm
Sunday, January 24, 11am - 6pm
More information here

Exhibit | They Broke the Mold

Via CraveOnline
January 19, 2016
By Miss Rosen

©Amalie R. Rothschild: Janis and Tina at Madison Square Garden, November 27, 1969.

“Wrong is right,” observed Thelonious Monk. “I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing? even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

Musicians of the past were not only artists—they were visionaries. Before video killed the radio star and digital replaced the analogue world, musicians like Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie were changing the cultural landscape. “They Broke the Mold”, a collection of classic music photographs, is currently on view at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM, through January 30, 2016.

©Art Shay: The Supremes, Hitsville, Detroit, 1965

Featuring photographs taken between 1931-1974, the exhibition begins with a work by Alfred Eisenstaedt, “Violinist Nathan Milstein, pianist Vladimir Horowitz & cellist Gregor Piatigorsky after a concert, Berlin, Germany.” The early formality of live performance is evident in other works, images of Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. wearing tuxedos, Eartha Kitt and Judy Garland draped in evening gowns.

As time goes by, we witness a radical cultural shift, perhaps beautifully exemplified by a photograph of the Beatles taken by Bob Gomel in Miami in 1964. Lying out on sun chairs, fully or partially dressed, the Beatles look like nothing so much as British lads unfamiliar with the idea of catching a tan. With this image, we see the British invasion in its most self-conscious form.

©Eddie Adams: Louis Armstrong, Opening Night, Las Vegas, 1970

The times turn as a new, more radical era emerges, one beautifully rendered in Steve Schapiro’s 1965 photograph of Andy Warhol, Nico and the Velvet Underground in Los Angeles. Here we enter the age of the rock star and the freedom that is unleashed as the rise of pop culture dominates the world.

As the 1960s transform into the early ‘70s, a new kind of artist arrives in the form of Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, and Freddie Mercury. The diva incarnate returns to the stage, capturing our imagination. “I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend,” Freddie Mercury said, playing the part to the hilt. He knew his time here would be brief, and like many others in “They Broke the Mold”, he lived it to the fullest. To one interviewer, Mercury replied, “What will I be doing in twenty years’ time? I’ll be dead, darling! Are you crazy?”

Such as it is with so many of the greats who live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse. But others live long and full lives, and it is here in the photographs that we can remember the very best of times.

“They Broke the Mold” is currently on view at the Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM, through January 30, 2016.

All photos courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography.

---

Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.

Steve Schapiro remembers David Bowie, his muse

David Bowie in his dressing room while filming "The Man Who Fell to Earth" in 1975.

(Steve Schapiro)

The Chicago Tribune
By Rick Kogan
January 14, 2016

World-renowned photographer Steve Schapiro, who moved to Chicago with his wife, Maura, in 2007, has in his lengthy career taken millions of photos, many of them collected in stunning books.

He is in his early 80s, and the list of his subjects is almost surreal in its breadth: Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., Chevy Chase (Schapiro and his wife are the godparents of the actor's daughter), Jerry Garcia, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Johnny Depp, Mae West, Satchel Paige, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr, Ike and Tina Turner (together), Buster Keaton, Richard Pryor, Sophia Loren … It goes on.

He also shot David Bowie. One of his photos was used for the cover of 2014's "Nothing Has Changed" and, in the wake of the artist's death, Schapiro remembered:

"It was 1974 when I first photographed David. From the moment he arrived, we seemed to hit it off. He was incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas.

"He talked a lot about Aleister Crowley, whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. And when he heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his heroes, we talked about him and immediately became friends.

"Our first session started at four in the afternoon. David would come out in incredible costumes, each seemingly turning him into a different person. I would raise my camera to shoot and he would say, 'Wait just a minute, I have to fix something,' and 20 minutes later he would come out in a totally different outfit.

"We decided to do a close portrait on a dark green background because we felt it would make the worst possible color for a magazine cover. We laughed about it, but eventually it did become a cover for People magazine (in September of 1976).

David Bowie

A portrait of David Bowie, taken by Steve Schapiro.

"That session lasted from four in the afternoon to four in the morning, and the last photograph of David was on his bike, lit by the headlights of a car.

"Over these many years I would find photos of David in my files, photos that I had totally overlooked, unexpected and pleasant surprises. Working with an amazingly talented person can be collaborative, often unspoken. The photographs I took were David's ideas, brought from his imagination into the real world. I was merely the conduit from genius into the light of day."

Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune

Steve Schapiro's photographs of David Bowie are included in the exhibition "The Broke The Mold", on view through February 7, 2016.

National Geographic PROOF Features Stephen Wilkes Day To Night Series

Photographing from the Desert View Watchtower, Wilkes made this image of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 27 hours. This vantage point allowed him to see the scale of the people along the overlook.

Via National Geographic PROOF Picture Stories
January 5, 2016

Piecing Together Time in the ‘Ultimate Brain Puzzle’

"A single image in Stephen Wilkes’s “Day to Night” series is composed of an average of 1,500 frames captured by manual shutter clicks over a period of anywhere from 16 to 30 hours. During this process, Wilkes must keep his horizon line straight and maintain continuity, which means keeping his camera perfectly still.

He then spends weeks in postproduction, piecing the best frames together into a final composite of layered images, essentially compressing time. For Wilkes, the excitement is in showing people something more than a photograph, something that provides a multidimensional experience, a window, as he describes it, into a world where the full spectrum of time, light, and experience plays across the frame. We’re treated to a view we’ve never seen before—one our eyes could never take in on their own." Full post here.

 

Wilkes and his assistant spent 30 hours perched on a platform 18 feet in the air, behind a crocodile blind so the animals wouldn’t see them. The elephant family marched across the frame just as he and his assistant had resumed shooting after taking a break to backup their files (each shoot takes about 20 gigabytes of storage). Had they passed five minutes earlier, he would have missed them

Monroe Gallery will be exhibiting Stephen Wilkes’ "Day To Night" photographs featured in the January, 2016 issue of National Geographic during photo l.a. 2016, as well as selections from Wilkes' recent Remnants collection.



Related: Nationally recognized photographer Stephen Wilkes has turned his lens to our national parks, commemorating their 100th anniversary

             

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT PHOTO LA 2016

Happy 2016!

We are delighted to return and be exhibiting at Photo LA, January 21 – 24, held again this year at The Reef/LAMart.

This year the fair celebrates its 25th annual edition, and Monroe Gallery will be in our same location, booth #205/302,  just to the right of the main fair entrance.

The gallery will be exhibiting a wide variety of classic photography, including never-before-seen historic vintage photojournalism prints and dramatic photographs documenting the Civil Rights movement in America from the 1950's to the present day. A special selection of Spider Martin’s photographic record of the pivotal “Bloody Sunday” will be included.

Monroe Gallery will also be exhibiting Stephen Wilkes’ "Day To Night" photographs from the January, 2016 issue of National Geographic, as well as Wilkes' recent Remnants collection.

We look forward to seeing you in Los Angeles!

Information, directions and ticket information.


Related: Nationally recognized photographer Stephen Wilkes has turned his lens to our national parks, commemorating their 100th anniversary

Happy New Year 2016

Peace, love, and happiness

in the New Year

WCSU exhibit features Eppridge photo chronicle of Beatles’ 1964 US visit

        
Via WCSU.edu

DANBURY, CONN. — A remarkable photographic chronicle by legendary Life Magazine photojournalist Bill Eppridge of the Beatles’ historic 1964 visit to the United States will be featured in a Western Connecticut State University Art Gallery exhibition that will open Tuesday, Jan. 19, and continue through Saturday, March 13, 2016, at the university’s Visual and Performing Arts Center.

A collection of 55 black-and-white photographs taken by Eppridge during his coverage for Life of the British rock group’s visit to New York and Washington from Feb. 7 through 12, 1964, will be shown in the exhibition, “The Beatles: Six Days That Changed the World,” sponsored by the WCSU Department of Art. An opening reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Art Gallery at the arts center on the WCSU Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. Reservations to attend the free public reception may be made on the VPAC events Web page at www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com.

Eppridge, who resided in New Milford in his later years, died in October 2013 in Danbury after an extraordinary career as a photojournalist spanning 60 years. He is widely recognized for capturing iconic images of contemporary history including the Beatles’ Feb. 9, 1964, appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and the poignant image on June 6, 1968, of a busboy kneeling beside the mortally wounded Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen moments after his assassination. “You are not just a photojournalist,” he said in recalling the Kennedy image. “You’re a historian.”
Yet the WCSU exhibition of selections from his 1964 Beatles tour photo shoot, which consumed more than 90 rolls of film and 3,000 photographs, would have been impossible without the mysterious recovery of these images seven years after they went missing and the painstaking work of Eppridge’s editor and wife, Adrienne Aurichio, to review and organize this vast photo archive into a comprehensive record of the Beatles’ tour as it unfolded.

Aurichio recalled in a 2014 essay for CBS News marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” appearance that the 26-year-old Eppridge found himself in the right place on the morning of Feb. 7, 1964, to draw the assignment from Life Magazine photography director Dick Pollard to cover the Beatles’ arrival that day at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. He followed the Beatles as Life’s photo correspondent throughout the first six days of their U.S. tour, shooting spontaneous images documenting performances, rehearsals and private moments during the tour that established the group as an international rock ‘n’ roll sensation.

At the time, Life Magazine published just four of the images from Eppridge’s assignment, and the original film submitted to the Time-Life photo lab for processing could not be located when he attempted several months later to retrieve the images. By his account, at least seven years passed before the film turned up on his desk with no explanation of how it had been recovered.

Aurichio’s role in re-creating Eppridge’s Life photo chronicle of the 1964 Beatles tour began in 1993 when she came across one of his prints from the shoot while researching photographs for a magazine project. Intrigued at the prospect of discovering more photos from the Beatles visit, she soon learned the full story of Eppridge’s recovered film chronicle, which provided the images featured in the WCSU exhibition and in the book, “The Beatles: Six Days That Changed the World,” released in 2014 by Rizzoli Publishing. In his acknowledgments for the book, Eppridge noted that Aurichio played a critical part as co-editor in “piecing together my story. I relied on her vision and experience as an editor to research and unravel the photographs, and then pull them together in chronological order.”

Aurichio observed that Eppridge’s photographs of the Beatles’ 1964 visit reflect the fact that “he made pictures as they happened, never staging anything. The pictures are so personal. You know that there were other photographers and media around, but Bill had a way of focusing in on his subjects — excluding the distractions. You feel like Bill was the only photographer there.”

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1938, Eppridge grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and became interested in photography at an early age, beginning his career as a sports photographer for a local newspaper at the age of 15. In 1959 he earned his first award for photography in the National Press Photographers Association Pictures of the Year competition. The following year he graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with honors as “College Photographer of the Year.” Upon graduation he landed an internship at Life Magazine, which led to a yearlong around-the-world photo assignment for National Geographic and a coveted position as staff photographer for Life from 1964 to 1972. During his tenure at Life, he covered many of the most noteworthy public figures and historical events of the era, from the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War to the Woodstock music festival and drug addiction in New York.

After Life closed at the end of 1972, Eppridge served as a photojournalist for other national publications including Time and Sports Illustrated magazines. The numerous professional recognitions for his work included the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the highest honor given by the National Press Photographers Association. His photographs have been shown in exhibitions across the United States, featured in a major show at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and included in shows at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

For more information, call the Department of Art at (203) 837-8403, the Art Gallery at (203) 837-8889, or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.


Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.

Bill Eppridges' photography will be included in Monroe Gallery's exhibit at photo la, January 21 - 24, 2016; and is available on line here.

Here We Go: The "BEST" of Everything Photography 2015

The lists begin earlier every year: everyone's photography "Best of" lists. As 2015 comes to a close, below is what has become an annual tradition: our compilation of what the web selected as the "best" of all things photography 2015. Check back frequently as we update through the end of the year.    Updated 1/1/16


The New York Times: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Top 10 Lists


Photographs

The Week: The year's best photojournalism

Slate: The Five Best Photo Stories You Might Have Missed This Year 

TIME: In Memoriam: Remembering the Photographers We Lost in 2015

pdn: The Year’s Top 10 Photo of the Day Posts

LensCulture: Documentary Photography: Important Stories from 2015

The White House: Behind the Lens: 2015 Year in Photographs
                               By Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer

BBC: Getty Images year in focus

UN News Centre: 2015 in pictures

LiveMint: Mint’s best photos of 2015

The Best WIRED Photo Stories of the Year

BBC: Year in pictures 2015

NBC: The Year in Space Pictures: 2015

The New York Times Magazine’s Best Photos of 2015

The Guardian: The best of the wildlife photography awards 2015 - in pictures

Boston Globe: The Big Picture 2015 Year in Pictures: Part I

                         2015 Year in Pictures: Part II

The Guardian: Five fake photos that went viral in 2015

news.com.au: The most powerful, newsworthy images of 2015

Tech Insider: The 50 most unforgettable photos of 2015

ABC News: Year In Review: Best News Photos of 2015

Pulitzer Center: 2015: A Year in Photos

The Guardian: The best photographs of 2015 – in pictures

BBC: UK year in pictures: 2015

Aperture’s 2015 Year in Review

The Guardian: The 20 photographs of the year

Vantage: The Best Street Photographer In San Francisco 2015: Troy Holden

The National: Year in review 2015: The pictures of the year

The Guardian: Stories behind the pictures of 2015: January to March

                        Stories behind the pictures of 2015: April to June

                        Stories behind the pictures of 2015: July to September
                    
                        Stories behind the pictures of 2015: October to December

The Independent: National Geographic unveils the 'photo of the day' top images for 2015

The Guardian: The best photographs of America 2015 – in pictures

Politico Europe: Most powerful photographs of 2015

NBC: The Year in Pictures: 2015 See the most powerful images of the year.

The Telegraph's photographers choose their favourite pictures of 2015

The National: Best business pictures of the year 2015

LA Times: 2015 World and Nation | The year in Pictures

The Guardian: The best portraits of 2015 – in pictures

PetaPixel: The Best iPhone Photos of 2015 by President Obama’s Official Photographer

CBS: 2015: The year in pictures

Rolling Stone's Best Photos of 2015

USA Today: The 26 best sports photos of 2015

CNN: Best travel photos of 2015

Esquire: The Best Drone Photos of 2015

The Guardian: National Geographic's best travel photos of 2015 – in pictures


The Guardian: Magnum photographers' best shots of 2015 – in pictures

PDN Pulse: Top Photo News Stories of 2015

Fortune’s Year in Photos

Euro News: 2015: the year in photos

amNY: Empire State Building 2015 year in photos

NJ.com: N.J. prom photos of 2015

The Globe and Mail: The Year in Photos: Events from around the world

The Globe and Mail: The Year in Photos: The best images from Globe and Mail photographer John Lehmann

USA TODAY's best photographs of 2015  (YouTube)

Reuters: 2015 Humanitarian year in pictures

Santafe.org:   The Top Ten Santa Fe Instagram Photos of 2015

Telegraph: Weird, funny and bizarre photos of the year: Part 1

                 Weird, funny and bizarre photos of the year: Part 2

New York Times Lens:  The Story Behind The Times’s Year in Pictures

Vogue UK: This Year In Pictures - 2015

TASS: Best Photos of 2015

The New York Times: 2015’s best graphics, visualizations and multimedia stories from The Times

CBS: The year in Google search 2015: the Top 30 News Subjects

Guardian photographer of the year 2015: Yannis Behrakis

BBC: Travel Photographer of the Year

CNET: Best science stories of 2015 (pictures)

VII 2015 Year in Review

The New Yorker: Our Favorite Documentary Photographs of 2015

The New York Times: The Year in Pictures 2015

The Guardian: Eyewitness: Guardian agency photographer of the year

The Guardian: 2015: Eyewitness accounts of the year’s most defining moments

Los Angeles Times: A Year in Focus | 2015

CNET's best photos of 2015

The Creators Project: [Best of 2015] The Year in Photography

Proof: Pictures We Love: Seeing Science

The Atlantic: The Most Powerful Images of 2015

Nature: 365 days: The best science images of 2015

MSNBC: This year in pictures: The best images from 2015

Baltimore Sun: 2015 Baltimore Sun pictures of the year

Gulf News: 2015 in review: The best photographs of the year

The Creator's Project: [Best of 2015] The Year in Photography

Huffington Post UK: Pictures Of The Year: The 12 Most Defining Photos Of 2015

Popular Science: The Best Science And Tech Images Of 2015

Wall Street Journal: Offbeat Images From 2015

Mirror: 2015 in incredible pictures: 28 stunning and spectacular photographs from across the globe

TIME’s Best Photojournalism of 2015

The Guardian: Sean O'Hagan's top 10 photography shows of 2015

USA Today: Image of crying children in migrant crisis wins UNICEF photo of the year

Euro News: 2015: The year in photos

The Telegraph: Weird, funny and bizarre photos of the year: Part 1

The Independent: The most stunning drone photos of 2015

Chicago Tribune's 2015 Photos of the Year

Christian Science Monitor: Our best photos of the year 2015

Business Insider: The 37 strangest photos of 2015

Mashable: The Best Photos of 2015

Twitter: Best Photos of 2015

The 405: In Photos of the Year: 2015 Special

NOOR: Best of 2015

ABC News: AP PHOTOS: Top Pictures in 2015 From Europe and Africa

Belfast Telegraph: Best images of 2015 by Press Association photographers

TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2015

PhotoShelter: How Memorable are TIME’s Top 10 Photos of the Year?

BBC: The best images of 2015 by Press Association photographers

USA Today: 2015: The year in pictures

USA Today: Best USA TODAY photos of 2015

Alessandro Penso is TIME’s Pick for Photo Story of the Year

Velo News: Photo Essay: Best of 2015 — Battles and attacks

Wall Street Journal: Year in Photos 2015

BBC: Picture power: Eight photographers on their best image of 2015

Telegraph:  Pictures of the year: January, February and March 2015
                  
                    Pictures of the year: April, May and June 2015

                   Pictures of the year: July, August and September 2015

                   Pictures of the year: October, November and December 2015

Crave: Year In Focus: The Best Sports Photographs of 2015

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Best of 2015 Photojournalism by J.B. Forbes

 AAJ News: Top 10 pictures that remain In the news throughout the year 2015

News One: 21 Of President Barack Obama's Best Photos Of 2015

Mashable: These are the 10 worst selfies of 2015

InformationWeek: NASA's 10 Best Images Of 2015

CBS: Entertainment photos of the year

Tech Insider: 12 of the most breathtaking drone photos of 2015

You have successfully emailed the post.            

Stacy Kranitz Is TIME’s Pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year 2015

Daily Star: Pictures of the Year 2015

Bloomberg's Best Photos of 2015

Independent: 95 incredible pictures that sum up 2015

Washington Post: The stories behind some of this year’s fascinating photos

The Guardian: Pictures of the year: January, February and March 2015

The Atlantic: 2015: The Year in Photos, January-April

                       2015: The Year in Photos, May-August

                      2015: The Year in Photos, September-December

Business Insider: The best US military pictures of 2015

The Atlantic: Top 25 News Photos of 2015

The Atlantic: Hopeful Images From 2015

The Big Picture: The best Boston Globe photos of 2015

NY Post: The 100 Best Photos of 2015

AP Photos Top 100 News Images of 2015

TIME Picks the Top 100 Photos of 2015

TIME Picks the Top Magazine Covers of 2015

Boston Globe: The best Boston Globe photos of 2015

BGR: The most incredible and jaw-dropping photos from 2015

Buzzfeed: 18 Pictures From 2015 Guaranteed To Make You Sad

Rock and Ice: Photos of the Year 2015

Reverb: The best concert photos of 2015

weather.com's Top Photos of 2015

Outdoors: Best Outdoor Photographs Of The Year 2015

Super Sport: Golf year in Pictures: 2015

Dayton Business Journal: The Year In Pictures 2015

CNN: 2015: The Year in Pictures

Reuters: Pictures of the Year 2015

PhotoShelter Blog: 45 Reasons to Love Photography 2015

The Denver Post: A selection of Agence France-Presse photos of the year 2015

The New York Times: The Best in Art of 2015

National Geographic: The Pictures We Loved in 2015

TIME: The 50 most Instagrammed places in America

The Guardian: Photographer of the year – 2015 shortlist: atrocities in Paris and Syria, bodybuilders in Palestine

TIME  Picks the Best Wire Photographer of 2015

PetaPixel: The Top Photos and Cameras on Flickr in 2015

The Arizona Republic: Year in Review 2015: David Wallace photography

CBC:  The Canadian stories behind the best wildlife photos of 2015

FUSE: Photos of the Year: The Best & Memorable Pics of 2015

The Guardian: Wildlife photographer of the year 2015 winners - in pictures

Emirates 24/7 World's Best? Pictures that made 2015 the 'Year of the Photograph'

Audubon: 2015 Audubon Photography Awards Top 100


Photo Books

The FlakPhoto Photography Booklist is here to help

Elizabeth Avedon: BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS of 2015....and Some Honorable Mentions

The Daily Beast: The Best Photography Books of 2015

The New York Times Magazine: The Best Photo Books of 2015

Prison Photography: Six Books Pete Picked Up This Year and Liked

Vogue: Picturing the American South: The Year’s Best Photo Books Reveal a Vast Portrait

The Daily Beast: The Best Photography Books of 2015

The Guardian: Shōji Ueda: the most beautiful, surprising photobook of the year

Telegraph: The best art photography books of 2015

Slate: The 10 Best Photography Books of 2015

Evening Standard: The best photography books of 2015

Conscientious Photo Magazine:  My favourite photobooks in 2015 (and more)

American Photo: Best Photo Books of the year 2015

photo-eye:  Best Books of 2015

1000 Words editor Tim Clark looks back over the year’s photo book releases: Top ten: the best photo books of 2015

Photo District News: Notable Photo Books of 2015: Part 1

The Guardian: The best photography books of 2015

blakeandrewsblog: It's that time of year again. Christmas lights are out. A chill is in the air. And the annual photobook list parade has begun

Smithsonian.com:  The Best Photography Books of the Year

atsushisaito.blog: Best Photobooks of 2015

photolia: Lists of the Best Photobooks of 2015

PhotoBookstore Magazine: Photobooks of 2015

TIME Picks the Best Photobooks of 2015

The Wall Street Journal: The Best Books for Photography Lovers

Fotokritik: The Best Photobooks of the Year (This one is a must read!)

theloggingroad:13 Best Photobooks and 2 Worst Photobooks of the Year 2015: And There is the Cosmos, to Capture Her Soul

Crave: The Top 7 Photography Books of the 21st Century (So Far)


Media and Miscellaneous

PDN: Top Gear Stories of 2015

Poynter: A look at the front pages of 2015

Don't Take Pictures: The Best of 2015's "Best Of" Lists

PDN: Some (Mostly) Fun Photo Stats for 2015

Newseum: Remembering the Journalists We Lost

Popular Photography Camera of the Year 2015: The Nominees

CNET: The 20 most interesting cameras of 2015 (pictures)

Columbia Journalism Review: The best and worst journalism of 2015

British Journal of Photography: Winners of the BJP International Photography Awards 2016 announced

Poynter: #LoveWins, #BlackLivesMatter, #JeSuisCharlie among the news that dominated Twitter in 2015



Remember when? Here is "The Best" of yesteryear, 2014.