Monday, March 30, 2009
Helen Levitt, Acclaimed Photographer of New York City, Has Died at the Age of 95
Miss Levitt had her first solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1943. Her photographs have since appeared in Edward Steichen's landmark 1955 show The Family of Man and in more recent exhibitions of great importance, including MoMA's Photography Until Now and the National Gallery of Art's On the Art of Fixing a Shadow in Washington, D.C., both celebrating the invention of photography. She has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Miss Levitt's incomparable oeuvre includes seven decades of New York City street photography in black-and-white, as well as little-known color work showcased for the first time in Slide Show. Like Lartigue, Kertész, and Cartier-Bresson, Miss Levitt wielded her camera as a seamless extension of her eye, able to capture fleeting moments of life with unsurpassed lyricism and style. As Adam Gopnik remarked in his 2001 New Yorker feature on the artist, "Levitt's photographs, like her city, though occasionally they rise to beauty, are mostly too quick for it. Instead, they have the quality of frozen street-corner conversation: she went out, saw something wonderful, came home to tell you all about it, and then, frustrated said, 'You had to be there,' and you realize, looking at the picture, that you were."
John Szarkowski, former director of the photography department at The Museum of Modern Art, once observed, "At the peak of Helen's form, there was no one better."
NPR has a slide show of Miss Levitt's photographs.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Bill Eppridge with his photograph of Robert F. Kennedy after assassination attempt, June 5, 1968 in the Ambassador Hotel
A very interesting exhibit will be on view in April during MOPLA (Month of Photography - Los Angeles). During the month of April The Pacific Design Center will feature 35 photographs from Tim Mantoani's "Behind The Photographs" project.
"Behind The Photographs" was borne from Tim Mantoani’s desire to record the living legends of photography. "We have come to a point in history where we are losing both photographic recording mediums and iconic photographers,” Tim comments. “While many people are familiar with iconic photographs, the general public has no idea of who created them. Behind Photographs became a means to do that, the photographer and their photograph in one image.” Tim used a soon to be extinct photographic medium, the 20×24 Polaroid record his subjects holding a print of their most iconic photograph.
A few of the living legends included are Harry Benson, John Dominis, Bill Eppridge, John Filo, Stuart Franklin, Karen Kuehn, Ormond Gigli, Elliott Landy, Neil Leifer, John Loengard, Joe McNally, Steve Schapiro, Sal Veder, and Stephen Wilkes.
Visit Tim Mantoani's website for more information.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
MARK SHAW RETROSPECTIVE PREVIEW ON WEBSITE
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
JOE SHERE: 1917 - 2008
In 1938, Shere joined Hillman Periodicals (A Pulp Magazine Publisher) as a studio photographer, illustrating stories and shooting covers. In 1941 Shere enlisted in U.S. Army Signal Corp as Chief of Photo Division, Newport News, Virginia until the War ended.
After the War he was sent to Hollywood by Hillman Publications as west coast manager and photojournalist. Shere continued to photograph for many publications, including Movieland, Pageant and TV Magazine. Starting in the late 1960's, he worked as a freelance photographer and for several years produced the annual history of the Academy Awards for the Motion Picture Academy.
Shere shot the famous image of Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren at Romanoff's, in Beverly Hills.
Monday, March 16, 2009
EDDIE ADAMS' FILM CONTINUES TO GARNER ACCOLADES
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
FROM THE NY POST
March 10, 2009 --
LEGENDARY photographer Eddie Adams would have hated his new book, "Vietnam." At the Umbrage exhibition of photos from the tome, his widow, Alyssa, said he never would have allowed the cover to show his 1968 Pulitzer Prize-winning shot of a Viet Cong prisoner being shot execution-style on a Saigon street. "The image disturbed him, and he continually wrestled with the responsibility it brought," she said. "He disliked being defined by one image when he was capable of much more." Nodding in agreement were Harry Benson, Bill Eppridge, John Loengard and Nick Ut (who won his own Pulitzer for the shot of a girl running from a napalm attack). Hal Buell, the AP Saigon bureau chief at the time, also attended with Eddie's pal Pete Hamill.
©The New York Post
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION
© Photo by Bill Eppridge
There was a huge turnout for the official publication and book signing of photographer Eddie Adams' book, Eddie Adams: Vietnam — authored by his wife, Alyssa Adamas — at Umbrage Editions in New York. Among the constellation of renowned journalists were Bill Eppridge, John Filo, brothers Pete and Brian Hamill, and Nick Ut. Here are some photographs from a very memorable evening
The book is now available from all major booksellers, and at Monroe Gallery of Photography. Our congratulations go out to Alyssa Adams.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
STEPHEN WILKES PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO FEATURED IN VANITY FAIR
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
EDDIE ADAMS BOOK LAUNCH MARCH 5
Adams’ life in the headlines took him to the remotest corners of this troubled, beautiful planet compiling historic record of the days of our lives. His 45-year career covered thirteen wars and amassed some 500 photojournalism awards.
Through astonishing never-before–seen pictures, articles written by Adams, pages from journals and other artifacts, one great journalist’s experience of the war is told in gripping detail.Edited by Alyssa Adams, with an essay by AP Bureau Chief Hal Buell, and contributions by Peter Arnett, Tom Brokaw, David Halberstam, George Esper, David Kennerly, and more, this is a classic of modern history and photography.
A man to whom Clint Eastwood said, "Good shot;" Fidel Castro said, "Let`s go duck hunting;" and the Pope said, "You`ve got three minutes,” The man behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning picture that changed the world in 1968.
Monroe Gallery of Photography is in New York for the book launch, and is very privilaged to represent the Eddie Adams Estate. Eddie Adams: Vietnam is available from the gallery and most major booksellers. To view Eddie Adams' photography, please vist our website.
Monday, March 2, 2009
STEPHEN WILKES IS GUEST LECTURER AT THE GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE
Stephen Wilkes will be a guest lecturer at the George Eastman House this Thursday, March 5. Stephen Wilkes’s most recent monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, was named as one of the 5 Best Photography Books by Time Magazine. His talk reviews the evolution of his fine-arts career, and his personal work on Ellis Island and China. Monroe Gallery of photography is honored to represent the photography of Stephen Wilkes.