April 6, 2021
A recommended read from photographer Joe McNally:
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Friday, April 2, 2021
New HBO Series "Exterminate All the Brutes" Features Ryan Vizzions Standing Rock Photographs
Premieres Wednesday, Apr. 7, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO
The series disrupts formal and artistic film conventions by weaving together rich documentary footage and archival material, as well as animation and interpretive scripted scenes that offer a counter-narrative to white Eurocentric history. Through a sweeping story in which history, contemporary life and fiction are wholly intertwined, the series challenges the audience to re-think the very notion of how history is being written.
Exterminate All the Brutes is produced by Velvet Film. Written and directed by Raoul Peck. Executive produced by Raoul Peck and Rémi Grellety.
Exterminate All the Brutes, from acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, HBO’s Sometimes in April), is a four-part hybrid docuseries that provides a visually arresting journey through time, into the darkest hours of humanity. Through his personal voyage, Peck deconstructs the making and masking of history, digging deep into the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism — from America to Africa and its impact on society today.
Based on works by three authors and scholars — Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past — Exterminate All the Brutes revisits and reframes the profound meaning of the Native American genocide and American slavery and their fundamental implications for our present.The series disrupts formal and artistic film conventions by weaving together rich documentary footage and archival material, as well as animation and interpretive scripted scenes that offer a counter-narrative to white Eurocentric history. Through a sweeping story in which history, contemporary life and fiction are wholly intertwined, the series challenges the audience to re-think the very notion of how history is being written.
Exterminate All the Brutes is produced by Velvet Film. Written and directed by Raoul Peck. Executive produced by Raoul Peck and Rémi Grellety.
"There’s a collage effect to its assemblage of maps, photographs, paintings, film clips, home movies, animation, nature videos, thought-experiment sketches and occasional pop-music interludes."
--Hollywood Reporter
Defend The Sacred, Standing Rock, Cannonball, North Dakota, 2016
One of five photographs by Ryan Vizzions featured in
"Exterminate All The Brutes"
View Ryan Vizzions' print collection here
Monday, March 22, 2021
Current Exhibition "Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color" in the Press
Blind Magazine: In a League of Her Own: Ida Wyman, Girl Photographer in a World of Men
The Albuquerque Journal - Ida Wyman captured the ordinary through an extraordinary eye.
"Despite the fact Wyman did not live to see her book published, her work is receiving its proper due in the new exhibition in Santa Fe, Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color, which showcases a recently discovered collection of Ektachtomes Wyman made at the age of 21."
"Her photographs reveal the exceptional within what initially might appear unremarkable. The images trumpet Wyman’s abiding curiosity about the human condition."
The Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo - Ektachrome moments: The color work of Ida Wyman
"She landed assignments through sheer perseverance. “I give her a lot of credit, a young girl — 18, 19, 20, 21 — especially in a man’s world, walking into these offices and self-advocating.”
The Eye of Photography: Monroe Gallery : Ida Wyman : East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color
"Reflecting the related practices of documentary photography, photojournalism, and street photography, these images are a testament to Wyman’s abiding curiosity about the human condition and the complexity of human experience, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Sunday, March 21, 2021
“A City Ruptured” with Ashley Gilbertson and Renee Melides
Photo by Ash Gilbertson / VII for The New York Times.
Third Ave, Midtown East, September 30, 2020
Date: Monday, March 22, 2021
09:00–10:15AM EDT
Join NY Times Editor Renee Melides and VII Photographer Ashley Gilbertson to discuss “A City Ruptured” on March 22 at 9 AM EDT.
The duo will discuss their year of COVID-19 coverage in New York City, the concepts behind the work, the production of a months-long story, and the importance of collaboration on projects.
Renee Melides
Renee Melides is a Photo Editor at The New York Times and is currently based in New York. Renee also worked for The Times in both their London and Hong Kong bureaus. Prior to this, she was the Deputy Photo Editor at Monocle Magazine in London.
Ashley Gilbertson
Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York City widely recognized for his critical eye and unique approaches to social issues. Gilbertson is a member of the VII Agency, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and a collaborator with the United Nations.
View the exhibition "History Now" featuring several of Ashley Gilbertson's photographs.
View a selection of Ashley Gilbertson's prints
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
In a League of Her Own: Ida Wyman, Girl Photographer in a World of Men
March 17, 2021
A new exhibition looks at rare color photographs of documentary photographer Ida Wyman made on the streets of New York in the 1940s.
American photographer Ida Wyman (1926–2019) achieved her every dream except one — the opportunity to publish her illustrated memoir Girl Photographer: From the Bronx to Hollywood and Back before she died. Though Wyman was humble, she never lacked for confidence or nerve, becoming one of the few women photographers working for Look and Life magazines in the 1940s.
Park Avenue Archway, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
As with many things, Wyman was ahead of the times. “She never wanted to be the most famous,” says Heather Garrison, her granddaughter and executor of the Ida Wyman Estate. “I think in her later years she finally understood how important her journey was as a woman in a male dominated industry. She took meticulous notes and records, and had her archive well organized. She wanted to put it all into one piece.”
Despite the fact Wyman did not live to see her book published, her work is receiving its proper due in the new exhibition in Santa Fe, Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color, which showcases a recently discovered collection of Ektachtomes Wyman made at the age of 21. The only color body of work from the period, Wyman’s photographs offer a poignant portrait of working class life in New York after the war. Neither activist nor ethnologist, Wyman was a humanist with a profound love for street portraiture. She eschewed the term “street photography,” seeing it as an anachronistic term to describe the documentation of urban life.
Street scene in East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
A Magical Process
Born to Askenazi Jews who immigrated to the United States, Wyman was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and raised in the Bronx, where her family ran a small grocery store. “Ida was very practical and frugal, and a lot of that came out of necessity, how her parents raised her, and the era she grew up in,” Garrison says of Wyman’s childhood throughout the Great Depression. “She had a lust for life, and found that in normal, accessible ways: laughter, music, dancing, and beauty in the most ordinary things.”
The shoe shine man, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
At the age of 14, Wyman bought a camera and immediately got to work documenting her community and joined the Walton High School Camera Club, where she learned to develop and print photographs. “[Photography] seemed like a magical process, allowing me to hold forever on film what my eyes saw and my heart felt, as I explored the various neighborhoods of New York City,” Wyman wrote in an artist statement.
Bernard Hoffman, a staff photographer at LIFE magazine, met with students of the camera club, and encouraged Wyman to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer. After graduating high school in 1943, Wyman took a job at age 16 as the first “girl” mailroom boy at Acme Newspictures. After being promoted to printer, Wyman purchased a 3¼ x 4¼ Graflex Speed Camera, loaded up her film holders, and took to the street during her lunch break.
Guess your age, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
The Keymaker, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
After three years at Acme, Wyman came to understand her true passion was not in news photography but in making photo essays and telling stories of daily life. She created assignments for herself, crafting a body of work that she could sell to picture magazines. In 1945, Wyman sold her first story to Look. It was fortuitous timing, for that fall she lost her job at Acme after the company dismissed her in order to give her position to a returning military veteran.
“Photography has enabled me to understand the lives of others, lives different in experience and age from my own.”
A League of Her Own
In 1946 Wyman married Acme staff photographer Simon Nathan, who introduced her to Morris Engel, a member of the illustrious New York Photo League. “I considered myself a documentary photographer, and the League’s philosophy of honest photography appealed to me,” Wyman wrote in Girl Photographer. “I also began to understand the power of photographs to help improve the social order by showing the conditions under which many people lived and worked. Even after leaving the League the following year, I continued to emphasize visual and social realities in my straightforward photographs.”
Stickball on St. Nicholas East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
Wyman’s photographs in East Harlem are a testament to a shared vision of photography as a tool to amplify the political, economic, and social issues of the times. But Wyman was not overtly political with her work; she sought to tell a story without using it as a cudgel. Her vibrant color photographs of working class life are empathetic but devoid of a moralizing tone; she sees her subject as equals worthy of veneration as individuals, rather than objects to serve a larger agenda.
“Everyday life and where it was happening was what interested me,” Wyman said in her artist statement. “Taking pictures enabled me to hear the stories of the people I photographed, which satisfied an immense curiosity to learn and understand the lives of others, lives different in experience and age from my own.”
Man with guitar, East Harlem, 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
Bobby Soxer Makes Good
Although Wyman could be shy, the camera afforded her the ability to engage with people and connect, creating a space for mutual recognition. Her photographs are imbued with tenderness and intimacy, in no small part due to the fact that she sought to obtain her subjects’ consent before making the photograph.
“She would introduce herself and ask permission,” Garrison says. “She was able to connect with people and put them at ease. Even though the photograph was candid and unposed, she was never trying to surprise them or grab the shot. Connecting with people brought her a lot of joy.”
Although Wyman could be shy, the camera afforded her the ability to engage with people and connect, creating a space for mutual recognition. Her photographs are imbued with tenderness and intimacy, in no small part due to the fact that she sought to obtain her subjects’ consent before making the photograph.
“She would introduce herself and ask permission,” Garrison says. “She was able to connect with people and put them at ease. Even though the photograph was candid and unposed, she was never trying to surprise them or grab the shot. Connecting with people brought her a lot of joy.”
Man on Fire Hydrant, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
The stringless Banjo, East Harlem, NY 1947
© Ida Wyman / Courtesy Monroe Gallery of Photography
As one of the few professional women photographers working at the time, Wyman could move through the streets openly without catching people off guard; that they may have underestimated her worked to her advantage every time. Garrison explains, “She was a girl in bobby socks taking pictures and I think people were endeared to that. They would relax because it was a girl taking pictures — no big deal, no stress, no high stakes. She got better photos because people were at ease and not putting on airs for the photograph.”
By Miss Rosen
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer focusing on art, photography, and culture. Her work has been published in books, magazines, and websites including Time, Vogue, Artsy, Aperture, Dazed, and Vice, among others.
Ida Wyman: East Harlem, New York, 1947 in Color
Through April 11, 2011
Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
https://www.monroegallery.com/
Thursday, March 11, 2021
"Life is Wonderful" exhibition presents Tony Vaccaro's 80-year prolific career for the first time in Finland
Photo: Tony Vaccaro: Anja with Oranges, Naples, Italy, 1965.
Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography and the Tony Vaccaro Studio.
Tony Vaccaro: Life is wonderful
5.6. - 8.8.2021
Photographs by Tony Vaccaro (b. 1922, U.S.) dive into the moods and a few seconds of past worlds.
The Life is Wonderful exhibition presents iconic fashion and lifestyle images by an internationally renowned photographer from the 1950s and 1970s. In addition to the glamour of New York, the pictures show a nostalgic summer atmosphere from Finland; The art hall also features the atmospheric Marimekko photos of Porvoo and Helsinki taken by Vaccaro in the summer of 1964 for LIFE magazine. The visit became special for the artist: Vaccaro met his future wife, Anja Kyllikki Lehto, who modelled for Marimekko.
In Tadehall, Helsinki, Vaccaro's nearly 80-year prolific career is presented with 130 photographs. In addition to fashion images, the exhibition will feature several photographs of visual artists and public figures. The first images of Vaccaro's career, known for his war photographs, of the battles of The Second World War in Germany and France, as well as a selection of shots of post-war European moods during the reconstruction period, are also on display.
The Life is Wonderful exhibition presents Tony Vaccaro's production for the first time in Finland. The exhibition is carried out in collaboration with Tony Vaccaro Studio, Monroe Gallery and Marimekko.
Tickets and more information here.
View the Tony Vaccaro collection of fine art prints here.
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Ashley Gilbertson: "My requiem to the New York that we knew before the pandemic, but also a love letter to the resilient people who never gave up."
March 10, 2021
The pandemic shattered the city’s economy, affecting people’s homes, livelihoods and wallets. One photojournalist documented the hardships, as both a lament and a tribute.
"I needed to photograph our decimated economy in a way that brought the various elements to life — through the people living it. The resulting photo essay is my requiem to the New York that we knew before the pandemic, but also a love letter to the resilient people who never gave up." -Ashley Gilbertson
Monday, March 8, 2021
Leica Camera USA Announces the Second Annual Leica Women Foto Project Award Winners, including Gallery photographer Anna Boyiazis
For the second year in a row, three award recipients will receive $10,000, a Leica Q2 camera and mentorship to support a personal photographic project through the female perspective
ALLENDALE, N.J., March 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dedicated to the expansion of diverse representation and inclusion in photography, Leica Camera USA is proud to announce on International Women's Day the three recipients of its second annual Leica Women Foto Project Award. This prestigious award is a part of the Leica Women Foto Project, an ongoing commitment to diversity in visual storytelling to help empower the female point of view through photography. This year's winners: Matika Wilbur, Karen Zusman and Anna Boyiazis were selected by a diverse panel of judges ranging from award-winning photojournalists to renowned contributors to the world of photography. Each recipient is awarded $10,000, a Leica Q2 (valued at $4,995) as well as a mentorship to support the continuation of their award-winning photo project.
The three winners are:
Anna Boyiazis is a documentary photographer whose areas of focus include human rights, public health, and women and girls' issues. Based between Southern California and East Africa, Boyiazis has been working on her project Finding Freedom in the Water since 2016. The winning series bears witness to women and girls in Zanzibar who are learning to swim, which she describes as, "an act of emancipation in an ultraconservative region where such an act conflicts with patriarchal, religious norms." Boyiazis' work focuses on an in-depth, visual narrative of these women and girls, revealing the intimate context of their daily lives. With the support of the Leica Women Foto Project Award, she will be able to resume her work on the project later this year by returning to Zanzibar during the dry season and continuing to document the women and girls she has built relationships with so far.
Matika Wilbur, acclaimed Tulalip & Swinomish Pacific Northwest photographer and social documentarian, has produced a stunning visual narrative of Tribal sovereignties in the US, Project 562, to "change the way we see Native America". Wilbur has visited over 400 Tribal Nations in all 50 states by car, RV, plane, train, boat, horseback, and on foot. She has exhibited her work and presented at scores of leading galleries, universities, and other venues while hosting her groundbreaking podcast, All My Relations, ranked at the top of feminist and race & society categories. She is currently completing a 500-page book for Ten Speed Press of Project 562 photographs and oral narratives and is curating a massive career retrospective exhibition and is a National Geographic Explorer for her Alaskan Tribal series. Matika's extraordinary creative initiative and singular body of work began after a dream with her grandmother, who asked her to photograph their own peoples. Matika honors her ancestor by portraying the richness and diversity of lived experiences of Indian Country with bold and inspired creativity.
New York-based photographer Karen Zusman began her journalism career documenting human trafficking in Malaysia and over the past several years has made over 20 trips to Cuba for a photo book project. When travel came to a stop during the pandemic, Zusman was spending more time in New York and the inspiration for her winning project, The Super Power of Me Project was born. Growing out of her involvement with a Black Lives Matter bicycle protest group, her latest portrait series documents the strength and spirit of children of color in New York City, which the photographer says, "Shows who they are before the world tells them otherwise." With the assistance of the Leica Women Foto Project Award, Zusman plans to expand the project to an outdoor exhibit and workshops that foster creativity and self-esteem building for children to express, protect and expand their vision of who they are.
The second annual Leica Women Foto Project Award underscores our ongoing commitment to diversity in visual storytelling," says Kiran Karnani, Director of Marketing for Leica Camera North America. "With the Award and the overarching initiative, we aim to empower, inspire and amplify underrepresented voices in photography. Our commitment continues with a virtual summit in April and a call for entries for the next iteration of the Leica Women Foto Project Award this summer."
The projects submitted by Matika Wilbur, Karen Zusman and Anna Boyiazis were carefully selected by nine influential women in photography, art and journalism, which include:
Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director & Chief Representative, Leica Galleries International
Amanda de Cadenet, Entrepreneur, journalist, author, photographer, activist and found of Girlgaze & The Conversation
Laura Roumanos, Executive producer and co-founder, United Photo Industries and Photoville
Sheila Pree Bright, Fine-art photographer and visual cultural producer
Elizabeth Avedon, Independent curator, photo consultant, designer and writer
Elizabeth Krist, National Geographic photo editor and founding member of the Visual Thinking Collective
Lynn Johnson, Photographer and National Geographic contributor
Maggie Steber, VII Agency photographer and Guggenheim Grant Fellow
Sandra Stevenson, Assistant Editor in the photography department at The New York Times
In addition to the $10,000 award, recipients will each receive a Leica Q2, a fixed-lens compact camera with a rangefinder-style electronic viewfinder that produces unparalleled high-quality images. Designed with a weather-sealed body and crafted to last a lifetime, the Leica Q2 cameras will be gifted to this year's award recipients: Matika Wilbur, Karen Zusman and Anna Boyiazis so they can continue their groundbreaking work for years to come. To further elevate the voices of these female award recipients and their diverse photographic subjects, the new awardees will also be offered opportunities to participate in Leica Gallery exhibitions and Leica Akademie workshops as well as receive mentorship from notable photographers in the industry.
As part of the brand's campaign to celebrate the power of photography and continued dedication to amplifying diverse voices in photography, Leica Camera will also be holding a virtual Summit in April. The Summit will be open to the public and those who submitted for the Leica Women Foto Project Award will have access to exclusive programming, including panels, opportunities to meet with photographers and more. For additional details on timing and how to sign up, please be sure to visit the Leica Camera website and follow @leicacamerausa on social media.
To learn more about the Leica Women Foto Project Award and the award recipients, visit http://bit.ly/Leica_Women and @leicacamerausa on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Saturday, March 6, 2021
History through the camera lens: A Houston man's life work documents some of the biggest moments of the 20th century
Author: Mia Gradney
Published: March 5, 2021
HOUSTON — A recent movie release, "One Night In Miami," is a fictional account of one incredible evening shared by four icons of the civil rights movement, but a Houston man was actually there that night to capture it all with his camera.
Bob Gomel is a famous and award-winning photographer. Gomel is now 87 years old and describes himself as a travel photographer, but for decades, he documented some historic moments in history.
"The '60s were an iconic decade," Gomel said. "We didn't know it at the time, but look what we had besides Ali. We had the Beatles. We had John Kennedy. My goodness, at the time, this was just normal. But when you look back on it, wow! So much had happened."
Gomel, a photojournalist for the legendary LIFE magazine, took photographs of monumental moments involving icons.
His first cover was in 1964 of a young African-American boxer, Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, on the eve of his career defining fight against Sonny Liston. Gomel met up with Ali in Miami for training, the fight and more. He was there to also experience and document the victory celebration that included another iconic figure Malcolm X.
The photograph that captured Ali and Malcolm X together is now part of the Library of Congress. More recently it's been reimagined in a new movie, one Gomel has seen for himself. But who needs to see it when you were there?
Gomel describes part of the excitement of that night, saying, "Malcolm, who was a devoted amateur photographer, was behind the counter taking pictures of Ali. And this prompted me to climb up on top of the counter to get an overview of what was going on. I couldn't be at the same level to do that properly. So I'm standing on top of the counter and photographs. And then what happened is that Ali proceeded to entertain the crowd. He pretended to be a matador with his arm gestures like he was holding a, you know, curtain and he was, of course, his lyrics in his rhyming was superb."
"It was quite a show he put on for his crowd," Gomel said. "At some point, Malcolm came around, of course, from the counter and came behind to converse with Ali, whispered in his ear, and I have that photograph."
Gomel is now retired. Post pandemic he plans to resume his travels and his breathtaking photography from afar.
He's recently been featured in a documentary, "Bob Gomel: Eyewitness to History," available on Amazon's Prime Video.
View Bob Gomel's collection of available fine art prints here.
Friday, March 5, 2021
Ektachrome moments: The color work of Ida Wyman
March 5, 2021
By Michael Abatemarco
Ida Wyman with two of her cameras in an undated photograph
The golden age of street photography, photojournalism, and documentary photography lasted from the 1930s to the 1950s. It was an era that saw the birth of a number of influential photography agencies and collectives, including Magnum, founded in Paris in 1947, and New York’s Photo League, founded in 1936. Many of their number were among the most respected photographers of their day, including Magnum’s Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Photo League’s Paul Strand and Arthur Leipzig.
Most of the images that came out of the era were in black and white, partly because color printing was more expensive and less stable, and most news agencies and magazines only printed in black and white. “Color negates all of photography’s three-dimensional values,” claimed Cartier-Bresson.
Stickball on St. Nicholas Avenue, East Harlem, 1947
Ida Wyman: East Harlem, 1947 in Color is a selection of 14 photographs on exhibit at Monroe Gallery drawn from a series called Lost Ektachromes. The photographer, who was a member of the league, came across the negatives sometime around 2010. They remained undeveloped until then because Wyman, who was proficient at printing in black and white, lacked the expertise to do her own color printing. She needed to find someone she could trust who could print them with fidelity and under her supervision.
“She was already in her 80s,” says Wyman’s granddaughter Heather Garrison, who manages the estate. “She always said she wanted to do an exhibit on this work. And as we catalogued it, we found additional pieces.”
Wyman (1926-2019) was “no slouch,” says Michelle Monroe, co-owner of Monroe Gallery of Photography, adding that she shot more than 100 assignments for Life magazine throughout her career as a freelance photographer. Her work exemplified the cooperative’s focus on capturing the human condition in America’s urban and rural settings at mid-century.
“It was really one of the first movements to use photography as a social documentary tool,” says gallery co-owner Sidney Monroe.
The work in the show includes portraits, street scenes, and candid images of people. Some are street vendors selling their wares. Some sit on stoops engaged in conversation, and some are merely walking or otherwise going about their day. As a whole, it’s a simple snapshot of life in the city.
The Key Maker, East Harlem, 1947
East Harlem was a neighborhood of immigrants and the working class poor. As a photographer, she had an ethos in line with that of the Photo League, although she was not yet a member at the time the photos were taken. And none of them were shot as an assignment but purely to indulge her own enthusiasm for the medium. Wyman was also experimenting with a new kind of film. Ektachrome was only developed in the early 1940s. The work languished in her archives, in part because Wyman never achieved the notoriety of her contemporaries until late in life, and she was never focused on showing her work publicly in galleries or museums.
“Ms. Wyman — whose work for Life, Look and other magazines went largely unheralded for decades — discovered what she called a ‘special kind of happiness’ in photographing subjects like a little girl wearing curlers, a peddler hauling a block of ice from a horse-drawn cart and four boys holding dolls, pretending to be the plastic girls’ fathers,” wrote Richard Sandomir in Wyman’s New York Times obituary (“Ida Wyman, Whose Camera Captured Ordinary People, Dies at 93”). Perhaps that’s because Wyman, like many of the subjects she photographed, came from a working-class family. Her parents were Jewish immigrants in Malden, Massachusetts, who later owned a small grocery store in the Bronx.
Soon after graduating from high school in 1943, Wyman started working in the mailroom at Acme Newspictures. Eventually, she was promoted to photo printer. Her intention was to spend a year working before starting nursing school. “She was always fascinated by science and medicine,” Garrison says of Wyman, who got her first box camera at 14. But in the interim, her love of photography superseded other ambitions.
Wyman spent her earnings on film and processing. “On her lunch breaks and in her spare time she just loved to walk the city and take pictures,” Garrison says. “Then she would have a body of work that she could show.” Determined to land assignments, she reserved these bodies of work to show to editors.
Wyman had no job security at Acme. When the men came back from the war, Wyman and women like her were out of a job.
However, her career in photography was just beginning.
The Shoe Shine Man, East Harlem, 1947
Over the course of the next six years, she worked as a freelancer, taking assignments for Fortune, Look, Life, and Parade, among other publications. “She had the usual soft assignments, like for the Saturday Evening Post,” Michelle Monroe says. “If there was a grocery store opening, ‘send the woman.’ She wasn’t picky. She wanted the work. I think it was very hardscrabble working as a woman without the affiliation of a publication directly.”
But Wyman was motivated. Garrison says she landed assignments through sheer perseverance. “I give her a lot of credit, a young girl — 18, 19, 20, 21 — especially in a man’s world, walking into these offices and self-advocating,” Garrison says.
Wyman was encouraged to join the Photo League on the advice of her husband, photographer Simon Nathan, but in the early 1950s, the demands of family life temporarily curtailed her career. When she returned to photography in the 1960s, it was as a photographer in medical fields. She was chief photographer at the department of pathology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1968 until 1983 when she returned to freelancing.
“Her varied assignments always focused on human interest stories, which have become a hallmark of her work,” Garrison says.
That’s what we see in her black-and-white photographs, but also in the Ektachromes. And like her monochromatic work, the contrasts are stark, the shadows deep and rich, befitting, perhaps, the work of one who’s not used to shooting in color. The palette is muted, giving them the appearance of hand-colored photographs, a technique that was common since the early days of photography. And they weave a similar kind of nostalgic spell. But unlike hand-coloring, their ethereal and dreamlike quality, says Michelle Monroe, was due in part to the city’s pollution.
The stringless banjo, East Harlem, 1947
“Most cities in, say, like the 1920s through the 1960s, were powered by coal,” she says. “There’s a lot of diffused light. Coal hung around the lower city so much. There’s such a softening of the air from that particulate. Margaret Bourke-White taught us that — not directly, but in studying her work.”
But it’s the joyous aspects of the familiar and the sense of commonality that also make them captivating.
“She always had an eye for people,” Garrison says. “She loved to connect with people, and I think that’s what made her photos so wonderful.”
details
Ida Wyman: East Harlem, 1947 in Color
Through April 11
Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800, monroegallery.com
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