Monday, February 28, 2011

Suze Rotolo, Muse and Girlfriend to Bob Dylan, Dies at 67

Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo, New York, 1963
Don Hunstein: Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo, New York, 1963

ArtsBeat - New York Times Blog

The New York Times
February 28, 2011, 1:16 pm
By William Grimes


Suze Rotolo, Muse and Girlfriend to Bob Dylan, Dies at 67


Suze Rotolo, who entered into a romantic relationship with Bob Dylan in the early 1960s as his career was just getting started and, in one of the signature images of the decades, walked with him arm-in-arm on the cover of his groundbreaking second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 67.


The cause was lung cancer, her husband, Enzo Bartoccioli, said on Monday.

Ms. Rotolo, whose nickname was pronounced su-zee, met Mr. Dylan in 1961 at a Riverside Church folk concert at which he was performing. She was 17; he was 20.

“Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her,” Mr. Dylan wrote in his memoir, “Chronicles: Volume 1,” published in 2004. “She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.”

In her own book, “A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the 60’s” (2008), Ms. Rotolo described Mr. Dylan as “oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way.”

They began seeing each other and shared a walk-up apartment on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village.


Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan
Don Hunstein/Sony BMG Music Entertainment

Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan in their apartment in 1963

The relationship, lasting four years, was rocky. She was the daughter of Italian Communists with her own ideas about life, art and politics that made it increasingly difficult for her to fulfill the role of helpmate and, as she put it in her memoir, “boyfriend’s ‘chick,’ a string on his guitar.”

Her social views, especially her commitment to the civil rights movement and her work for the Congress for Racial Equality, had a strong influence on Mr. Dylan’s writing, as did her interest in theater and the visual arts, which exposed him to ideas and artists outside the world of music.

When, to his distress, she went to Italy in 1962 to study art at the University of Perugia, her absence inspired the plaintive Dylan love songs “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Boots of Spanish Leather” and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.” He later wrote a song highly critical of her family, “Ballad in Plain D.”

Ms. Rotolo spent most of her adult life avoiding discussions of her relationship with Mr. Dylan and pursuing a career as an artist, but she relented after Mr. Dylan published his autobiography. She appeared as an interview subject in “No Direction Home,” Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary about Mr. Dylan, and wrote “A Freewheelin’ Time” in large part to tell her side of the Dylan story and to portray herself as more complicated than a muse.

A fuller obituary will be posted at nytimes.comhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/obituaries/index.html.

Iconic Monday: Is this the Best Wedding Photo Ever Taken?

John and Jacqueline Kennedy at their wedding reception, Newport, RI, 1953
Lisa Larsen: John and Jacqueline Kennedy at their wedding reception, Newport, RI, 1953


Via  I Like to Watch
Monday, February 28, 2011

The Blog of Writer and Editor David Schonauer

Last week I wrote about the engagement of Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Diana Spencer. To be more precise I wrote about a few pictures that captured that captivating event in 1981. For this Iconic Monday, we'll stay with love, or if not love with marriage. I have a nomination for the best wedding photo ever taken. It was taken on September 12, 1953, by Life magazine photographer Lisa Larsen, at the wedding of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.


Undoubted I am drawn to this picture because of the Kennedy glamour. Kennedy weddings are about as close as we Americans come to royal weddings; their nuptials have combined romance and history in varying amounts. This photo seems loaded with both: Though JFK was still nearly seven years away from being elected President of the United States, I believe I can see here, in the sparkling presence of bride and groom, the first glimmerings of Camelot. (Or maybe it's just me; this is what happens when you look at photographs too much: They start speaking to you, and you can't be sure whether they're being entirely trustworthy.)

At any rate, Life.com has the contact sheet with this frame and Larsen's outtakes. So you can judge for yourself what kind of photographic gifts she brought to the wedding. Feel free to offer up other great wedding photos to compare.

I think I also admire the picture because of the photographer, who packed a little glamour of her own. Larsen was born in Germany and came to New York at age 17 after graduating from college. She was fluent in French, English, German, and had some Danish and Russian. She worked as a photographer for Vogue, Parade, Glamour, Holiday, and other magazines before being hired by Life as a contract photographer in 1950.

She did all kinds of assignments, surviving a trip into the Himalayas, trekking into Outer Mongolia (she was the photographer to do so after a government-enforced ten-year ban). The great photographer and Life historian John Loengard once characterized her to me as the "glamour girl" of photojournalism because she was so adept at endearing herself to people--particularly people who were newsworthy. According to Loengard, the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once gave her a bouquet of peonies, and North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh said, "If I were a young man, I'd be in love with you." (Sort of makes you wonder if we might have found a better way to fight the Cold War, doesn't it?) She was fabulous looking, and warm, and she made the people she photographed look that way, too.

Larsen was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1957 and underwent surgery. She came back full of high spirit and ready to resume her career, but in fact she was not well. She died in March, 1959, 52 years ago, at age 34.

President Kennedy would die some four years later, a little more than ten years after Larsen took pictures at his wedding.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

83rd OSCARS, 2011

Sid Avery: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward "admiring" their awards. His: 'Noscar' for not having received an Oscar (yet) and Hers; for "The Three Faces of Eve". Photo taken for the Saturday Evening Post in 1958



Related: Via NPR Picture Show - The 83rd Oscars are right around the corner and Life is looking back at some of the most iconic Academy moments through the years.

Friday, February 25, 2011

SHUTTLE DISCOVERY LAUNCHES INTO HISTORY; PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY'S SPACE SPEECH 49 YEARS AGO



 
AP/Chris OMeara


 
Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time Thursday, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era. Discovery is the oldest of NASA's three surviving space shuttles and the first to be decommissioned this year. Two missions remain, first by Atlantis and then Endeavour, to end the 30-year program.


It was Discovery's 39th launch and the 133rd shuttle mission overall. Discovery already has 143 million miles to its credit, beginning with its first flight in 1984. By the time this mission ends, the shuttle will have tacked on another 4.5 million miles. And it will have spent 363 days in space and circled Earth 5,800 times when it returns March 7. No other spacecraft has been launched so many times.


49 years ago, President John F. Kennedy laid out the ambitions for the United States Space Program.


John F. Kennedy, Houston, 1962
Bob Gomel: John F. Kennedy, Houston, September 12, 1962



On a very hot late summer's day, September 12, 1962, President Kennedy visited the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston. After a brief tour, he delivered brief remarks about the rapid achievements made by the country's space exploration program in recent years and its plans for future projects.

President Kennedy then travelled to Rice University in Houston, Texas, and gave this speech outdoors in the football stadium. The President spoke in philosophical terms about the need to solve the mysteries of space, reaffirmed America's commitment to landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s and also defended the enormous expense of the space program.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.


It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency."

Text of speech here.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

RICHARD C. MILLER EXHIBIT ON ARTSLANT


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SANTA FE
THE WILD WEST TO 4 WOMEN




RICHARD C. MILLER: 1912 - 2010 A RETROSPECTIVE
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar , Santa Fe 87501
February 11, 2011 - April 24, 2011


Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition of photographs by Richard C. Miller, who passed away at age 98 on October 15, 2010. The exhibition opens on Friday, February 11, 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition continues through April 24. Born in 1912, Richard C. Miller's interest in photography grew from toying with his father's 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" folding roll-film camera. In 1935, Miller showed his photographs to Edward Steichen who praised and encouraged him to work in photography. Beginning in 1946, he would shoot celebrities for the Saturday Evening Post, Family Circle, Parents, American Weekly, Colliers, Life and Time.






From 1955 to 1962, Miller was on retainer at Globe Photos, covering the entertainment industry and more than seventy films. After this stint he returned to freelance and became friends with celebrities such as James Dean. Never one for self-promotion, Miller rarely exhibited his work; the work, he figured, should speak for itself. In the spring of 2009, Richard C. Miller's photographic career was given long overdue recognition with an exhibition at the Getty Museum.





In addition to his Hollywood photographs, the exhibition includes a trove of vintage pictures from the 1930s-50s of Los Angeles. When Miller documented the construction of the four-level freeway interchange in mid-20th century downtown Los Angeles, he was overwhelmed by its man-made beauty.


In 1946, Dick photographed a model: Norma Jeane Dougherty. He would later photograph her as Marilyn Monroe on the set of "Some Like It Hot". The exhibit also includes a selection of striking portraits including some of his best friends Edward Weston and Brett Weston.

The exhibit also includes a selection of striking portraits including some of his best friend Edward Weston and Brett Weston.

In addition to his Hollywood photographs, the exhibition includes a trove of vintage pictures from the 1930s-50s of Los Angeles. When Miller documented the construction of the four-level freeway interchange in mid-20th century downtown Los Angeles, he was overwhelmed by its man-made beauty.








Although he was shy, Miller was known for his warmth and eagerness to share his knowledge. A younger generation of photographers have worked to bring Miller recognition. "He was like 007 with a gun over his shoulder," family friend Michael Andrews told The Los Angeles Times in 2010. "The camera went everywhere. He must have climbed to the top of buildings, hiked up hills to get some of these perspectives."


Richard C. Miller passed away on October 15, 2010 at the age of 98.


(Images: Richard C. Miller, Marilyn Monroe,"Some Like it Hot"; Nude,1949 #2, Pigment Print, 20 x 24 inches; Freeway Construction, 4 Level, 1950, Pigment Print, 20 x 24 inches; Rock Hudson,1959, Pigment Print ,20 x 24 inches; Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography)


Posted by Abhilasha Singh on 2/21

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A WEEKEND OF FINE ART, FOOD, FASHION, AND HOMES BENEFITING ART PROGRAMS FOR SANTA FE'S YOUTH

 


A GREAT TIME FOR A CREATIVE CAUSE: Now in its 14th season, ARTfeast is heralded as one of the most inspired reasons for a getaway. The weekend of festivities celebrates the City Different’s world-class chefs and restaurants, an international array of vintners, original designer fashions and unique homes, along with nationally and regionally prominent artists represented by members of the Santa Fe Gallery Association. All of this fun and food helps young people develop the skills needed to creatively respond to life.

ARTsmart was founded in 1993 to address the lack of funding for art programs and supplies in Santa Fe public schools. In a city built on and sustained by the arts, ARTsmart is committed to funding the creative thinkers of tomorrow. Every year ARTsmart organizes ARTfeast as its major fundraiser. Contributions are made through ticket sales, event and program underwriters, donors, and the volunteerism of hundreds of businesses and educators.

Through 2010, ARTsmart distributed just under $835,000 to ARTsmart projects, public school programs, art related organizations and endowment funds. In 2010, $111,632 was distributed.


JOIN US FEBRUARY 25-27, 2011
Tickets, schedule of events and more information here.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A FOND FAREWELL TO THE CAMERA OBSCURA GALLERY AND BEST WISHES TO HAL GOULD

Hal Gould, Dir., Camera Obscura Gallery, 1988 © 2010 Kurt Edward Fishback




The Camera Obscura Gallery will be closing its doors at the end of April, 2011. The following is a schedule of the concluding events:

March 4-March 19:
We will hold a silent auction of selected works from the gallery collection in the upstairs galleries; in conjunction, paintings by Mollie Uhl Eaton will be on display in the downstairs galleries. Bids for the auction will close at 4:30 PM on March 19th. After March 4, you can go to the "auction" link on our website home page for a list of pieces included, registration details and updates.

Please join us for a special First Friday launch of the Auction on March 4 from 5 to 9PM

March 25-April 30:
Two retrospective exhibitions:
Hal D. Gould in Gallery 1 and the upstairs galleries, and Loretta Young-Gautier in Gallery 2. A reception for the artists will be held on Friday, March 25th from 5:30 to 8:30 PM.
Saturday, April 30
We will host an open house and final farewell to our friends, patrons and volunteers, from 2:30 to 5:30 PM.
The Camera Obscura Gallery has been a cornerstone of the photographic arts in Colorado. Read more history here.

"Owning The Camera Obscura Gallery has been a tremendous experience for 48 years. I'd like to close with a special thank you to all our valued patrons and friends for helping to make a dream come true. Good bye and happy trails."

Hal Gould

IWO JIMA, FEBRUARY 23, 1945





Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division Raise the American Flag Atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945
Joe Rosenthal: Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division Raise the American Flag Atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945


Iwo Jima was the costliest battle in Marine Corps history. Its toll of 6,821 Americans dead, 5,931 of them Marines, accounted for nearly one-third of all Marine Corps losses in all of World War II.


Shortly before 2am on Feb. 19, 1945, the Navy's big guns opened up on Iwo Jima again, signaling the beginning of D-Day. After an hour of punishment, the fire was lifted, leaving Iwo smoking as if the entire island were on fire.

Both Americans aboard their transports and the Japanese in their caves looked to the skies now. One-hundred-ten bombers screamed out of the sky to drop more bombs. After the planes left, the big guns of the Navy opened up again.

At 8:30am, the order, "Land the Landing Force," sent the first wave of Marines towards the deadly shores. Once ashore, the Marines were bedeviled by the loose volcanic ash. Unable to dig foxholes, they were sitting ducks for the hidden Japanese gunners.

Heavy fire made it impossible to land men in an orderly manner. Confusion reigned on the beaches.

The battle was unique in its setting. One hundred thousand men fighting on a tiny island one-third the size of Manhattan. For 36 days Iwo Jima was one of the most populated 7.5 miles on earth.

 
 
 
 
The first flagraising atop Mount Suribachi, February 23, 1945. Hank Hansen (without helmet), Boots Thomas (seated), John Bradley (behind Thomas) Phil Ward (hand visible grasping pole), Jim Michaels (with carbine) and Chuck Lindberg (behind Michaels).

Photo by Lou Lowery. 10:37 AM Feb. 23, 1945
 
 
Joe Rosenthal's story, told again and again with virtually no variation over the years, is this:

On Feb. 23, 1945, four days after D-Day at Iwo Jima, he was making his daily trek to the island on a Marine landing craft when he heard that a flag was being raised atop Mount Suribachi, a volcano at the southern tip of the island.

Marines had been battling for the high ground of Suribachi since their initial landing on Iwo Jima, and now, after suffering terrible losses on the beaches below it, they appeared to be taking it.

Upon landing, Rosenthal hurried toward Suribachi, lugging along his bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at the time. Along the way, he came across two Marine photographers, Pfc. Bob Campbell, shooting still pictures, and Staff Sgt. Bill Genaust, shooting movies. The three men proceeded up the mountain together.

About halfway up, they met four Marines coming down. Among them was Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, who said the flag had already been raised on the summit. He added that it was worth the climb anyway for the view. Rosenthal and the others decided to continue.

The first flag, he would later learn, was raised at 10:37 a.m. Shortly thereafter, Marine commanders decided, for reasons still unknown, to replace it with a larger flag.

At the top, Rosenthal tried to find the Marines who had raised the first flag, figuring he could get a group picture of them beside it. When no one seemed willing or able to tell him where they were, he turned his attention to a group of Marines preparing the second flag to be raised.

Here, with the rest of the story, is Rosenthal writing in Collier's magazine in 1955:

"I thought of trying to get a shot of the two flags, one coming down and the other going up, but although this turned out to be a picture Bob Campbell got, I couldn't line it up. Then I decided to get just the one flag going up, and I backed off about 35 feet.

"Here the ground sloped down toward the center of the volcanic crater, and I found that the ground line was in my way. I put my Speed Graphic down and quickly piled up some stones and a Jap sandbag to raise me about two feet (I am only 5 feet 5 inches tall) and I picked up the camera and climbed up on the pile. I decided on a lens setting between f-8 and f-11, and set the speed at 1-400th of a second.

"At this point, 1st Lt. Harold G. Shrier ... stepped between me and the men getting ready to raise the flag. When he moved away, Genaust came across in front of me with his movie camera and then took a position about three feet to my right. 'I'm not in your way, Joe?' he called.

"'No,' I shouted, 'and there it goes.' (click for film clips) 

"Out of the corner of my eye, as I had turned toward Genaust, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera, and shot the scene."

Rosenthal didn't know what he had taken. He certainly had no inkling he had just taken the best photograph of his career. To make sure he had something worth printing, he gathered all the Marines on the summit together for a jubilant shot under the flag that became known as his "gung-ho" picture.

And then he went down the mountain. At the bottom, he looked at his watch. It was 1:05 p.m.

Rosenthal hurried back to the command ship, where he wrote captions for all the pictures he had sent that day, and shipped the film off to the military press center in Guam. There it was processed, edited and sent by radio transmission to the mainland.

On the caption, Rosenthal had written: "Atop 550-foot Suribachi Yama, the volcano at the southwest tip of Iwo Jima, Marines of the Second Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Division, hoist the Stars and Stripes, signaling the capture of this key position."

At the same time, he told an AP correspondent, Hamilton Feron, that he had shot the second of two flag raisings that day. Feron wrote a story mentioning the two flags.

The flag-raising picture was an immediate sensation back in the States. It arrived in time to be on the front pages of Sunday newspapers across the country on Feb. 25. Rosenthal was quickly wired a congratulatory note from AP headquarters in New York. But he had no idea which picture they were congratulating him for.

A few days later, back in Guam, someone asked him if he posed thepicture. Assuming this was a reference to the "gung-ho shot," he said,"Sure."

Not long after, Sherrod, the Time-Life correspondent, sent a cable to his editors in New York reporting that Rosenthal had staged the flag-raising photo. Time magazine's radio show, "Time Views the News," broadcast a report charging that "Rosenthal climbed Suribachi after the flag had already been planted. ... Like most photographers (he) could not resist reposing his characters in historic fashion."

Time was to retract the story within days and issue an apology to Rosenthal. He accepted it, but was never able to entirely shake the taint Time had cast on his story.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

PRESIDENT'S DAY, 2011




The Sunday Before Victory, November 2, 2008, Columbus, Ohio
Peter Turnley: The Sunday Before Victory, November 2, 2008, Columbus, Ohio


 Emma Booker Elementary School. Sept 11, 2001
Eric Draper: Emma Booker Elementary School. Sept 11, 2001


Alfred Eisensatedt: President Bill Clinton: Martha'S Vineyard, MA,  August 1993


Neil Leifer: George Bush Inauguration, The Capitol, Washington, D.C. January, 1980



 
Harry Benson:  President James E. Carter, The White House, 1979


 
 
Harry Benson: President Gerald Ford, 1974


 

Harry Benson: Nixon resigns the presidency on August 9, saying farewell to his Cabinet and White House staff with his family by his side, 1974


Bob Gomel: Lyndon Johnson, New York, NY, 1960


Portrait of John F. Kennedy, 1961
Alfred Eisenstaedt: John F. Kennedy, 1961


Carl Mydans: Dwight D. Eisenhower arriving for Geneva Conference, 1955


Harry S. truman walking to the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago
Grey Villet: Harry S. truman walking to the 1956 Democratic Convention in Chicago


Margaret Bourke-White: President Franklin Roosevelt smiling and talking while sitting in convertible with women (Eleanor is in the back looking down),  Warm Springs, GA, 1938


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Rebel with a camera: Dennis Hopper's stunning photographic archive is revealed

Ike and Tina Turner, 1965
All Photograpahs by Dennis Hopper: Ike and Tina Turner, 1965

The Independent
The Independant
Saturday, 19 February 2011


When the actor and director Dennis Hopper died last year, it sparked renewed interest in his 'other' career – a chronicler of Sixties America. As his stunning photographic archive is published in a book for the first time, John Walsh pays tribute.



Actress Jane Fonda, 1965
Jane Fonda, 1965

The film critic Matthew Hays wrote of him: "No other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the Sixties than that of Dennis Hopper". Note the word "persona" – as if the real Hopper lay forever hidden behind the image he projected, of the scary, wild-eyed, chemically enhanced, crazily enthusiastic combination of hippy visionary and serious artist.


He was born in Kansas but his parents relocated to San Diego in 1949 when he was 13. California clearly suited him. In his high-school graduate class of 1954, he was voted the Boy Most Likely To Succeed. He didn't waste much time. His film career began a year later, when he appeared in Rebel Without a Cause, the first of two films with James Dean. Hopper hero-worshipped Dean, and was with him almost every day for eight months before Dean died in a car crash. And it was Dean who encouraged him to pick up a camera.

Selma, Alabama (full employment), 1965
Selma, Alabama (Full Employment), 1965 

Ironically, the death of his friend pitched Hopper into such a fever of anti-authority attitude that for years Hollywood studios refused to use him. Photography became a substitute. His first pictures were street scenes in New York, where he moved to study acting at Lee Strasberg's method school. The turn of the 1960s was an explosive time for the arts – pop music, pop art, wayward graphics, post-studio cinema, photo-realist reportage, the rise of the art super-dealer like Robert Fraser in London and Henry Geldzahler in Manhattan. Hopper lapped up all the new influences around him. He was, reputedly, the first person ever to buy a Warhol soup can (for $75). He became a self-confessed "gallery bum". And his photographs began to reflect two things he had discovered: the texture of the ordinary, and the attractions of fame.

His pictures of empty highways, graffiti and torn posters on city walls were eloquent statements of everyday decadence. When Hopper moved on to photographing people, he revealed a talent for capturing expressions. Check out the three black kids on the "Full Employment" demonstration in Alabama (above): the boy in the middle is clearly wondering if the white snapper is going to use his image for good or ill; but his friend grins sardonically as though pleased just to have his picture taken.



Biker couple, 1961
 Biker Couple, 1961
 

Look at the biker couple in his 1961 double portrait: the man so handsomely chiseled, his hair so back-slicked, his beard so trim, his tattoos so expressive of death, glory and rebellion as he gazes into the future – and his girlfriend so contrastingly down-to-earth, as if she's wondering just how long she can put up with this troubled, self-preening hero.

As he grew more confident and better known into the Sixties, Hopper acquired some famous friends and put them under the intelligent gaze of his lens. Paul Newman is snapped, looking grumpily like his jailbird alter ego Cool Hand Luke, behind a wire-mesh fence, so that its shadows imprison him in a net. He photographed Jane Fonda and her husband Roger Vadim in a series of loving poses, but managed to snap Jane flexing her independent muscles with a bow and arrow. He caught Ike and Tina Turner in a wonderfully ambiguous mood, amid the carnival paraphernalia of his house: Ike sitting on a kind of throne, fingering the organ keys, while Tina is left (ironically?) playing the role of washerwoman, scrubber, and cowed helpmeet (not that she looks terribly cowed).


Twins at 1712, 1966
Twins at 1712, 1966


His photography became more experimental (see Twins, above, where two bursts of strong Klieg lights blind the viewer who is trying to concentrate on the girls' bottoms) and more celebrated. In the mid-1960s, Better Homes & Gardens magazine commissioned a profile of him as "a photographer to watch" by the novelist Terry Southern, later to write Candy and The Magic Christian. By 1967, however, his photographic career was over. No longer an up-and-coming snapper, he was soon to become the hottest new director around. His counter-cultural masterpiece, Easy Rider, won a prize at Cannes, and was nominated for an Oscar (for best original screenplay). But his photographs, which capture with intelligence both street-life and the lives of famous friends, remain Hopper's vivid calling-card, announcing the arrival in town of a wild and wayward talent.

'Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967' is published on Monday by Taschen

More photos here.

Friday, February 18, 2011

"Atget is the father of a huge branch of photographers"

The record-setting gelatin silver chloride print "Joueur d'orgue," 1898-99, for which a European collector paid $686,500 at Christie's New York last April

Art & Auction Magazine
By Kris Wilton

Via ARTINFO

The small sign on the door of Eugène Atget’s modest Montparnasse studio read Documents pour Artistes. In the 1890s photography was not considered an artistic medium, nor did Atget think of himself as an artist. Rather, he established himself as a documenter of a Paris that he saw threatened by modernity, and he sold his images — of the city’s streets, buildings, parks, and characters — to "actual" artists to use as aides-mémoires for their own works, as well as to architects and historians. Today, thanks to the championing of the American photographer Berenice Abbott, Atget has risen in status to forebear of modern photography, with influence and auction results to match.


"Atget is the father of a huge branch of photographers," says Matthieu Humery, specialist and head of sale for photographs at Christie’s New York, where last April the photographer’s proto-Surreal "Joueur d’orgue," 1898-99, earned an artist record $686,500. "When you look at his work and then the work of Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Brassaï, William Eggleston — you can see the link."

By the time he turned to photography, Atget had lived many lives, although we have scant information about them. Born in 1857 and orphaned at an early age, he was brought up by an uncle in the port city of Bordeaux, where he became a sailor. Atget made his way to Paris, surviving for a while as an actor by taking bit parts with second-tier repertory and touring companies. "As he had rather hard features, he was given unflattering roles," his theater friend André Calmettes wrote in a letter to Abbott in 1927. Eventually even these dwindled, and Atget was forced to seek a new way to support himself and his companion, the actress Valentine Delafosse.

After a brief foray into painting, Atget turned to photography, hoping to create a font of images, Calmettes writes, "of all that both in Paris and its surroundings was artistic and picturesque." He invested in the necessary equipment and plates and diligently hit the streets each day at dawn with his 18-by-24-centimeter view camera, gradually building a client base. But it wasn’t until 1925 that Abbott discovered Atget’s photographs through Man Ray, who had published several (uncredited) in the journal "La révolution surréaliste," and recognized the work as art for the first time. "The subjects were not sensational but nevertheless shocking in their very familiarity," she wrote in her 1964 book "The World of Atget." "The real world, seen with wonderment and surprise, was mirrored in each print." Abbott began visiting Atget regularly, buying as many prints as she could afford.


In 1927, Abbott asked Atget, then a widower, whom she described as "tired, sad, remote, appealing," to sit for a portrait. When she went to show him the prints, she learned that he had died, at the age of 70. Fearing that his work would be lost, she tracked down Calmettes, his de facto executor, and arranged to purchase about half of the thousands of prints and plates that remained. Later she brought on the New York dealer Julien Levy as a partner, and together they promoted Atget in the United States — Abbott, through articles and by showing the prints to friends, including Walker Evans; Levy, through exhibitions. In 1968, Abbott sold her trove of more than 5,000 prints to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for $50,000. To this day, most of the photographer’s works in U.S. collections can be traced to Abbott.


+ Atget originally sold his prints for pennies, gradually increasing his prices over the years. Berenice Abbott wrote that they ranged during his career from 0.25 to 13 francs.



+ In the 1920s, Man Ray offered to print Atget's images on modern paper to achieve clearler tones, but Atget refused, preferring his more antiquated methods.


+ In the last decades of his life, Atget subsisted on an unusual diet, composed primarily of bread and milk, that is thought to have contributed to his death. "He had very personal ideas on everything, which he imposed with extraordinary violence," wrote his friend André Calmettes.


+Abbott modeled her careerlong photographic project to document a rapidly changing New York City on Atget's work.


It is estimated that Atget produced as many as 8,500 images during his 35-year career. Given their vast numbers, it’s not surprising that they vary considerably in quality and desirability. "He took lots of photographs of door knockers and ornamental ironwork, and not all of that rewards a second viewing," says Christopher Philips, who curated "Atget, Archivist of Paris" at the International Center for Photography, in New York, last year. "But maybe 15 percent of this enormous output does seem to have remarkable lyrical and poetic quality, and that’s really what explains the long-term interest in Atget."

After a brief foray into painting, Atget turned to photography, hoping to create a font of images, Calmettes writes, "of all that both in Paris and its surroundings was artistic and picturesque." He invested in the necessary equipment and plates and diligently hit the streets each day at dawn with his 18-by-24-centimeter view camera, gradually building a client base. But it wasn’t until 1925 that Abbott discovered Atget’s photographs through Man Ray, who had published several (uncredited) in the journal "La révolution surréaliste," and recognized the work as art for the first time. "The subjects were not sensational but nevertheless shocking in their very familiarity," she wrote in her 1964 book "The World of Atget." "The real world, seen with wonderment and surprise, was mirrored in each print." Abbott began visiting Atget regularly, buying as many prints as she could afford.


In 1927, Abbott asked Atget, then a widower, whom she described as "tired, sad, remote, appealing," to sit for a portrait. When she went to show him the prints, she learned that he had died, at the age of 70. Fearing that his work would be lost, she tracked down Calmettes, his de facto executor, and arranged to purchase about half of the thousands of prints and plates that remained. Later she brought on the New York dealer Julien Levy as a partner, and together they promoted Atget in the United States — Abbott, through articles and by showing the prints to friends, including Walker Evans; Levy, through exhibitions. In 1968, Abbott sold her trove of more than 5,000 prints to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for $50,000. To this day, most of the photographer’s works in U.S. collections can be traced to Abbott.

It is estimated that Atget produced as many as 8,500 images during his 35-year career. Given their vast numbers, it’s not surprising that they vary considerably in quality and desirability. "He took lots of photographs of door knockers and ornamental ironwork, and not all of that rewards a second viewing," says Christopher Philips, who curated "Atget, Archivist of Paris" at the International Center for Photography, in New York, last year. "But maybe 15 percent of this enormous output does seem to have remarkable lyrical and poetic quality, and that’s really what explains the long-term interest in Atget."

According to the New York dealer Edwynn Houk, who mounted his first Atget show in 1981, the typical collector is "someone who’s pretty sophisticated and certainly has an informed eye." Connoisseurship is key because Atget used three print techniques with mixed results. Generally, says Boston dealer Robert Klein, "the arrowroot prints are more valuable than the silver-chloride prints, and the silver-chloride prints are maybe more valuable than the albumen prints, depending on the condition."


Although Atgets regularly appear on the auction block, prices like those fetched by "Joueur d’orgue" last April and by the previous record holder — "Femme," a 1925 arrowroot print that earned €444,750 ($663,000), more than 10 times its high estimate at Sotheby’s Paris in November 2009 — are not the norm, resulting from the convergence of top print quality and desirable subject matter. "Femme," points out Simone Klein, head of photographs for Sotheby’s Europe, is from one of the artist’s smallest and most sought-after series, of prostitutes; is one of only two known prints; and had spent the past 80 years safely tucked in a book. "Joueur d’orgue’s" depiction of a dour blind organ grinder alongside a radiant singer captures a fleeting incongruity that appealed to Surrealists like Tristan Tzara, who commissioned the well-preserved print.

Those auction high-water marks also owe much to MoMA, whose former photography department head, John Szarkowski, brought Atget to the public’s attention in four exhibitions, accompanied by catalogues, mounted between 1981 and 1985. The museum also played a role in the last major spike in his market, in the early 2000s, when, to benefit its acquisitions fund, it deaccessioned duplicates in its Atget collection, beginning with 225 prints at Sotheby’s New York in 2001, which made a total of $4 million, and then by offering 1,000 more through an impartial middleman, the Upper East Side dealer David Tunick, well known for his trade in Old Master prints. Tunick examined the works and, with the museum’s approval, assigned each to a price category ranging from $3,000 to $150,000, based on subject, condition, and rarity.

"It was a feeding frenzy," says Tunick. "Scores, if not hundreds [of buyers] wanted a piece of the history of photography, wanted something by this great photography artist and documentarian." And, notes the New York dealer Charles Isaacs, "once MoMA opened its vault and people realized how few of the really great things there were, the top of the market was reinforced."

Indeed, the years since have seen six auction records for the artist. Only three of these, however, topped $200,000, and the bulk of sales have been for less than $100,000. Moreover, cautions Houk, "it’s strictly in the auction market that Atgets have gone that high. The gallery prices have remained the same." Here the spread is even wider, from $1,500 to $250,000. Within Atget’s much-published Saint-Cloud series, for example, Hans P. Kraus, of New York, says he has "some very nice studies" priced between $25,000 and $60,000, while Isaacs is offering the 1924 arrowroot print "Saint-Cloud, fin août," 6 1/2h. for $175,000.

The heftier prices, says dealer Klein, tend to go to "pictures that approach Surrealism or nudity or the forbidden," such as the uncanny images of shop windows or statues in Versailles and Saint-Cloud, the frank nudes of prostitutes, and the sweeping views of Paris. On the lower end are the architectural studies. "You can find very beautiful Atget images for $10,000," says Simone Klein, of Sotheby’s, who believes that abstract details of trees and blossoms are particularly undervalued, at between $10,000 and $25,000. The German gallery Kicken Berlin is seeing interest in these images from collectors of modernist and New Vision photography.

Klein, who expects to have some Atgets in the May sale at Sotheby’s London, sees room for growth in his market, particularly as owners of his works see how his images perform at auction. "There are some very high prices, and then there’s nothing, and then there are very low prices," she says. "I think this middle range will be filled in the next couple of years. I think there are a few surprises left."

February In History: Malcolm X Assassinated

Malcolm X Addressing Black Muslim Rally in Chicago, 1963
Gordon Parks: Malcolm X Addressing Black Muslim Rally in Chicago, 1963


After repeated attempts on his life, Malcolm rarely traveled anywhere without bodyguards. On February 14, 1965 the home where Malcolm, Betty and their four daughters lived in East Elmhurst, New York was firebombed. Luckily, the family escaped physical injury.


One week later, however, Malcolm's enemies were successful in their ruthless attempt. At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.


Cassius Clay and Malcolm X, Miami, 1964
Bob Gomel: Cassius Clay and Malcolm X, Miami, 1964

The Official Malcolm X Website

FEBRUARY IN HISTORY: NIXON IN CHINA, 1972

Chinese Premiere Chou En Lai and US President Richard Nixon toast each other, Peking, 1972
John Dominis: Chinese Premiere Chou En Lai and US President Richard Nixon toast each other, Peking, 1972  (Vintage print 10 x 8 inches)

From February 17-28, 1972, President Nixon visited the PRC and traveled to Peking, Hangchow, and Shanghai. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949.

On February 21, 1972, President Nixon met with Chairman Mao Tse-tung.  After a modest reception at Peking airport, the president was formally welcomed at a lavish banquet held in the Great Hall of the People and hosted by Prime Minister Chou En-lai. Using one of Mao's own quotations, Mr Nixon said it was time to seize the day and seize the hour "for our two peoples to rise to the heights of greatness which can build a new and better world". There followed an elaborate round of toasts, in which the 800 guests at the banquet wandered from table to table clinking thimble-sized glasses containing Chinese firewater.

Now, it is common to see the familiar tag: Made In China, but it wasn't always this way. After President Nixon’s trip, relations between the two countries continued to develop, eventually leading to a free-trade policy.


Related:
Listen to Nixon discuss his rationale for the trip, and his reasoning for the importance of restoring communications with the People's Republic of China.

"Nixon In China": The Opera

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE WITH OUT NEW YORK?


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


Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Boerse AG’s $9.53 billion all-stock purchase of New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext creates the world’s largest owner of equities and derivatives markets, and may spur additional mergers.

But one thing's missing: a new name for the $25 Billion exchange, and will New York still be in the name?

AN ATTEMPT TO HELP JOURNALISM FIGURE OUT ITS FUTURE IN AN INTERNET AGE

We just recently discovered a great website about "new" journalism: The Nieman Journalism Lab.
About the Lab: "The Neiman Journalism Lab  is an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age."

To that end: Eight trends for journalism in 2011: A Nieman Lab talk in Toronto
© Joshua BentonFeb. 14  /  11 a.m.



"Whereas I think a lot of news organizations this year are going to start seeing that if they want to be the one source of news for their customers, or the primary source of news for their customers, they’re going to need to present more of the world and more of the online world, and that aggregation of pulling things together will be something they will buy into more."

"... So when all is said and done, the new world is not going to look anything like the old world. And there will still be things that we used to get from the journalism industry that we’re not going to get anymore. But in the end, I think it’s going to be counterbalanced by all the enormous wealth of new information, including a lot of really great journalism, that’s going to be produced by this new ecosystem. And in the end, I think it’s going to end up doing a better job of serving the information needs of readers and viewers and listeners."


Full article here.

Monday, February 14, 2011

NEW YORK: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S CITY





Washington Square, 2009
Stephen Wilkes: Washington Square Park, Day Into Night, 2009


The New York Times
Bookshelf
By Sam Roberts

Sunday, February 13, 2011

New York: A Photographer’s City,” edited by Marla Hamburg Kennedy (Rizzoli, $45). This lush collection, which includes works by Berenice Abbott and Stephen Wilkes, offers fresh perspective on the “physical uniqueness” of the city’s familiar venues, mostly captured in color. Though identifying less familiar haunts would have been a welcome addition, the images here do succeed in going beyond the concrete to capture what Elisabeth Sussman describes in her foreword as the image of the city, both permanent and transitory, that “haunts past and present photography of New York.”

More: NYC like you have never seen her before. This stunning book showcases an unparalleled compilation of mostly unpublished photographs of New York City and its boroughs taken by established and emerging artists. "New York: A Photographer’s City is a world-class collection, featuring artists from all over the
globe, offering views, cityscapes, and vignettes that are fresh and beautifully illustrate the city’s 5 ever-changing boroughs.

The 350 images capture the avant-garde spirit of New York and the city’s appearance in the twentyfirst century. While we immediately associate black and white imagery with NYC, this new look brings out the color in the big apple and reveals the magic that continues to inspire New Yorkers and visitors



Related: The City of New York

Saturday, February 12, 2011

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY 2011




Kirk Douglas and Jane Simmons, Spartacus 1959
Richard C. Miller: Kirk Douglas and Jane Simmons' Double, Spartacus 1959



The Kiss, Grand Central Station, NYC
Ernst Haas: The Kiss, Grand Central Station, NY, 1958


Berlin Kiss, Berlin, 1996
Harry Benson: Berlin Kiss, 1996




Mick Rock: Lou Reed and David Bowie, Cafe Royal, London, 1973




Jean Harlow kissing Robert Taylor,
Ted Allen: Jean Harlow kissing Robert Taylor, 1937



Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England. (History.com)




Friday, February 11, 2011

RICHARD C. MILLER EXHIBITION OPENS

Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Peter Ustinov,  Spartacus 1959
Richard C. Miller:  Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Peter Ustinov, Spartacus 1959


Pasatiempo
The Santa Fe New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment, & Culture
February 11 - 17, 2011

In his long and varied photographic career, Richard C. Miller covered the entertainment industry and did publicity work for 72 films - including portraits of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Steve McQueen. He documented work on the building of the Los Angeles freeway and took many photos of Edward Weston and his son Brett Weston. A retrospective of Miller's work opens at Monroe Gallery of Photography (112 Don Gaspar Ave., 505-992-0800) with a reception at 5 p.m. today, Friday, Feb.


Related: Richard C. Miller: A Retrospective

Thursday, February 10, 2011

RICHARD C. MILLER EXHIBITION PREVIEW ON GALLERY NEWS

Watching TV Fights, Nicholson's, Sunset Boulevard, 1949
Richard C. Miller: Watching TV Fights, Nicholson's, Sunset Boulevard, 1949



Gallery News is heard every Thursday and Friday at 8:55am on KHFM-Classical 95.9 FM and 102.9 FM. It is also available as a podcast at the iTunes Store.

Mid-February is fast approaching and that means Valentineʼs Day for galleries in  Santa Fe and Albuquerque. This is Gallery News for Thursday, February 10.

Monroe Gallery of Photography presents a retrospective exhibition of photographs by Richard C. Miller, who recently passed away at age 98. For decades, Millerʼs photos graced the covers of Americaʼs leading magazines. The opening reception takes place tomorrow Friday, from 5 - 7 PM. Monroe of Photography is located at 112 Don Gaspar in downtown Santa Fe.

Thanks for listening. Iʼll be back tomorrow with more Gallery News. For the Collectorʼs Guide, Iʼm Kevin Paul.
 
Related: Richard C. Miller: A Retrospective

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

FILM vs DIGITAL: A Conversation Continues



zodiac_1.jpg
Zodiac - © John Neel



Via Pixiq

Before I get too many people adding prejudiced comments about the pros and cons of digital imaging verses film, I want to emphasize that I am not putting digital down. Nor am I trying to make a point for film. I am a digital photographer as well as a film photographer. This is not a pro or con discussion about film vs. digital.


Rather, I am asking if there is a difference between the kinds of images that used to be taken with film in comparison to what we are seeing with digital from a spiritual point of view. I am not alone in asking the question.

In looking at the offerings of new technology photography, I am finding very few images that have a specific quality that dominates the works of the great film photographers of film technology. Most of what I see today seems sterile, vapid and trite, by comparison. There seems to be something significant that is missing.

Somehow there is a difference that many of my contemporaries as well as myself feel is missing from the current process. I want to find out what that something is.

When we look at the works of great photographers such as Robert Frank, Mary Ellen Mark, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Friedlander, Gary Winogrand, Ansel Adams, Atget or any of hundreds of photographers who have given us amazing images produced with film, there seems to be a magical or mystical presence that is missing from most of what I would call rather trite and unimaginative images being produced by digital means today.

When a photographer really connects with his subject, there is a transformation beyond the obvious, beyond the likeness of the subject. There is a sense of something else, which is somehow conveyed in a surprising or magical manner. A metamorphosis takes place that we as a viewer can see, feel and understand because the subject has been transformed into something bigger and more profound. The subject becomes a metaphor or symbol for deeper consideration. For me this is a necessary step in the creation or capture of a powerful image. It is photography at its finest. There is much more to the image than appearance. A deeper message is formed. Communication and learning takes place. We become bigger and smarter because the image speaks to us in a deeply articulate way.

Yet, I find this quality scarce in the digital images that I have seen of late.

Is this because there is an - difference between the two technologies, which allows the magic to be captured more easily with one medium over the other? Here again, I am not discussing the differences in technique as much as I am in the ability of the photographer to capture the essence of the subject through either process.

Surely, digital allows a more economical workflow in terms of time and effort. But is there a difference in how a moment is captured. Does film allow the capture to be more transcendent? Is there a higher possible spiritual attainment with a film camera than with a digital camera? Does one technology provide a better capability to transport us to a higher level of understanding beyond the mere representation of a subject?

Personally, I believe that there is a major difference and worth an investigation. For many photographers, film seems more genuine as a medium because to them, it has the ability in the right hands to capture something we could refer to as soul. To me, soul is an essential part of a higher form of image making. It makes the difference between a simple rendition of a subject and one that rises beyond the subject. To capture soul means capturing something deeper and much more meaningful.

It may be possible that with digital, we have not yet made the leap to a spiritual connection with our subjects. If so, could it be because we are still in the early phases of digital imaging and that "thing" will become more evident to us as we become better digital photographers? Is the task of digital imaging too easy or possibly too difficult or distracting that we fail to connect with the subject? Do we pay more attention to the camera and the technology of digital rather than the subject itself? Is it possible that we are better able to become “one” with our subjects with a less complicated medium such as film?

I believe that it is a combination of these and perhaps other circumstances that results in a failure to touch the soul of the subject. And I should say here that film alone does not produce the magic. But, there may be a valid reason that the magic is more prevalent with film.

Personally I think that it is a matter of connecting with your subject in a meditative manner. Awareness and anticipation as well as having genuine concern for the subject matter allows for a better opportunity of becoming one with your subject. I believe that this can happen with either media. It just seems to be less prevalent and more difficult to achieve with digital.

I sense a difference.

© John Neel

Is any of this important to you? If not, why not?
How do we get soul into an image? This will be a topic for another post.

RICHARD C. MILLER: A RETROSPECTIVE



James Dean takes a break from filming

James Dean taking a break from "Giant", 1956


Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition of photographs by Richard C. Miller, who passed away at age 98 on October 15, 2010. The exhibition opens on Friday, February 11, with a public reception with members of the Miller family from 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition continues through April 24.

Born in 1912, Richard C. Miller's interest in photography grew from toying with his father's 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" folding roll-film camera. In 1935, Miller showed his photographs to Edward Steichen who praised and encouraged him to work in photography. Beginning in the arly 1940's, he would shoot celebrities for the Saturday Evening Post, Family Circle, Parents, American Weekly, Colliers, Life and Time.




In 1941, Miller made a carbro print of his daughter, Linda, sitting at a table set for a Thanksgiving Day’s meal. He sent the picture to The Saturday Evening Post and it was selected to be on the cover of the November 22, 1941 issue. Miller’s picture was the first photographic cover used by the Post that captures the type of scene from everyday American life made famous by the painter and illustrator, Norman Rockwell. Miller began by photographing his daughter sitting at a table set with only a plate and spoon. He photographed the other elements such as the turkey, the dish of cranberry sauce, the glass of milk, and the candlestick separately. He printed them, cut them down, and then added them into the original composition. This ‘cut and paste’ method allowed him to construct the picture one element at a time, carefully balancing form and colour.




Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Peter Ustinov,  Spartacus 1959

Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Peter Ustinov, Spartacus 1959


From 1955 to 1962, Miller was on retainer at Globe Photos, covering the entertainment industry and more than seventy films. After this stint he returned to freelance and became friends with celebrities such as James Dean. Never one for self-promotion, Miller rarely exhibited his work; the work, he figured, should speak for itself. In the spring of 2009, Richard C. Miller's photographic career was given long overdue recognition with an exhibition at the Getty Museum.


Betty McWilliams, c. 1940s

 Betty McWilliams, c. 1940s

In addition to his Hollywood photographs, the exhibition includes a trove of vintage pictures from the 1930s-50s of Los Angeles. When Miller documented the construction of the four-level freeway interchange in mid-20th century downtown Los Angeles, he was overwhelmed by its man-made beauty.


Freeway Construction, 4 Level, 1949

Freeway Construction, 4 Level, 1949

"I saw it and just went out of my mind," he later wrote. "I thought, 'My God, this is how people must have felt when they first saw the cathedrals in Europe."


In 1946, Dick photographed a model: Norma Jeane Dougherty. He would later photograph her as Marilyn Monroe on the set of "Some Like It Hot".



The exhibit also includes a selection of striking portraits including some of his best friends Edward Weston and Brett Weston.


Brett and Edward Weston, Garapata, California, August 3, 1953
Brett and Edward Weston, Garapata, California, August 3, 1953


Although he was shy, Miller was known for his warmth and eagerness to share his knowledge. A younger generation of photographers have worked to bring Miller recognition. "He was like 007 with a gun over his shoulder," family friend Michael Andrews told The Los Angeles Times in 2010. "The camera went everywhere."
 
 
Nude, 1949 #3
Nude #3, 1949

PORTFOLIOS





The Westons portfolio contains 19 16x20 signed prints, 6 of which are digital color and 13 are Silver Gelatin Black & Whites.


There are 8 16x20 pages of text, including introduction and notes, a centerfold of 39 images, plus 2 images on the title and colophon pages.
There are 4 15x20 pages of reproductions of original letters, printed on mouldmade rag, comprised of 4 separate letter sets.
There are 19 Interleaves which contain reproductions of 46 groups of letters, postcards, envelopes and notes from Brett Weston, Neil Weston, Merle Armitage, Erica Weston and Richard C. Miller’s notes.






The Norma Jeane portfolio contains 12 17x22 signed prints.

There are 8 17x22 pages of text, including introduction and notes, a centerfold of 35 images, plus 2 images on the title and colophon pages.
There are 12 Interleaves utilizing 17 Richard C. Miller photographic images, plus 4 model releases.

"I had no idea when I was taking these pictures that she would become famous and that the pictures would become valuable. She was just a nice, sweet, attractive girl with outrageous ambitions known at the time as "Nonny".  I just had no idea." In the years that followed, Dick occasionally took picturesof Norma Jeane as she evolved into Marilyn Monroe. Later, when Dick was employed as a freelancer for Globe Photos, he was assigned to shoot photographs on Some Like It Hot. He recalls walking onto the set his first day when Marilyn Monroe was an established movie star, and all of Nonny's dreams had become reality. When she passed him and said, "Hi Dick," he merely stared at her, dumbfounded that she even recalled who he was. He said nothing in return, not knowing which of her names he should use. By then Marilyn Monroe was no longer Nonny or Norma Jeane, the subject of this portfolio. Fame and success had changed her.



Related: Exhibition Preview in The Santa Fean Magazine

                             James Dean Would Be 80 On February 8, 2011