Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Gallerist Sidney Monroe discusses legendary photographer Mark Shaw



Kennedy family on beach, Hyannis Port, ©Mark Shaw/mptvimages.com
Courtesy Monroe Gallery


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Special Event
American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity
Saturday, March 1, 20144 pm — 7 pm
$5 MWPAI Members
$15 General Admission

Lecture • 4 p.m.
Mark Shaw:
The Kennedy Years and Beyond

Sidney Monroe
Monroe Gallery of Photography
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Followed by Exhibition Viewing

Reception • 5 to 7 p.m.
Festive Attire, Cash Bar
 
Gallerist Sidney Monroe discusses legendary photographer Mark Shaw, best known for his intimate portraits of the Kennedys (before and during John F. Kennedy’s presidency) and as a leading fashion photographer, having worked for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and others. Shaw worked for LIFE magazine from 1952 to 1968, shooting 27 covers and almost 100 stories with subjects ranging from Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly to the fashions of Christian Dior.
 
310 Genesee Street Utica, NY 13502
Phone: (315) 797-0000

Monday, February 24, 2014

Joe McNally: A Life Behind the Lens



Via The Annenberg Center
Joe McNally
A Life Behind the Lens
From Thursday, January 16th, 2014
 
 
 
As a globetrotting magazine photographer, Joe McNally’s creative use of light has been the most notable aspect of his approach to shooting. Whether covering an editorial assignment for magazines such as TIME, Fortune and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, or shooting ad campaigns and corporate work for Fortune 500 companies, McNally embraces the power that light plays on a photo subject.
 
The recipient of numerous photo awards, McNally has been a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated, a staff photographer at LIFE and is an ongoing 25-year contributor to National Geographic. He teaches his craft globally and has penned several best-selling photo books. McNally also created “Faces of Ground Zero – Giant Polaroid Collection.” The resulting exhibit and book raised approximately $2 million for relief efforts.

Watch Joe as he discusses the trials and tribulations of his career, the problems and personalities he dealt with and the overriding sense of humor that gets him through the day.

Joe McNally's photographs will be exhibited at Monroe Gallery of Photography October 3 - November 23, 2014
 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

"Michelle and Sidney Monroe are here to [s]cool you"




AV MAIN 2_12_14
The Monroes strike a cool pose. - ENRIQUE LIMÓN


Via The Santa Fe Reporter
February 19, 2014

It’s no secret that Monroe Gallery of Photography houses some of the coolest art around. Owners Michelle and Sidney Monroe are taking their edge to the next level with When Cool Was King, an exhibit focused entirely around the concept of cool, which graces their walls through April 20.

The Don Gaspar Avenue spot is centered on black and white photography, and as Sid puts it, “even more specifically on photojournalism.”

“It took a few years to put together,” Sid continues. “It was inspired from us meeting Alfred Eisenstaedt.”

“The Stars of Ocean’s 11 stage a fight, Hollywood, 1960” by Sid Avery.
© MPTVIMAGES
Eisenstaedt was the German-born LIFE magazine photographer responsible for candid photographs featuring the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, as well as the emblematic V-J Day celebration image that features a sailor passionately kissing a nurse in Times Square.

“There was a window in the late ‘80s early ‘90s when Eisenstaedt was in his 90s, he had no living relatives, and he still kept an office in the Time-Life building,” the gallery owner reminisces.

The encounter cemented the couple’s passion for photojournalism, and seeded what would eventually become Monroe Gallery.

“We were extremely passionate about his work and his colleagues’ work and he knew that we really got it,” Michelle says. “We left our respective jobs and decided to open a gallery and he agreed to join us—which was crazy because we were in our 20s.”

That same spirit lives on in When Cool, with shots depicting everyone from Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, to the Rat Pack, Jane Fonda as “Barbarella” and Steve McQueen relaxing at home while aiming a pistol.

The term “iconic” comes to mind, though it’s clear, at the time, the people behind the lens were just doing their jobs.

“It’s interesting,” Sid says of the images that compose the show. “Because we’ve spoken to these photographers and in the day, in the moment, it wasn’t iconic.”

He cites chatting with veteran newsmen covering the Civil Rights Movement and other major events across US history, who didn’t realize in the moment what the transcendence of the moments they were recording would one day have.

“They didn’t know those images would go viral, so to speak,” Michelle says.


Actress Jane Fonda in publicity still for "Barbarella," 1968
Carlo Bavagnoli ©Time Inc

“Cool was really a rejection of the paradigms that were available to men and women,” she continues on the show’s theme. “It was a rejection of either the white-collar job, the blue-collar job, stay at home, raise your family and go to church America..cool was a very dangerous rejection of those shapes and that conformity.”

Expect images that defined a generation and put cool front and center—images developed way before what she calls “an American pushback on free press.”

One that is “extremely frightening and shocking.”

Just don’t hold your breath for any twerking shots.

“Miley Cyrus is not cool,” Sid says. “She’s great. She’s pushing boundaries and making people feel uncomfortable, but that’s not cool.”

More than a stagnant time capsule, the Monroes hope the exhibit serves as a jolt of energy and a reminder that documentary photography, like any other branch of the arts, should be buttressed.

“It was supported,” Sid says of the photography of that time gone by represented in When Cool. “You had institutions like LIFE magazine or the institute at CBS News; these were trusted institutions that employed journalists both visual and reporters.”

“It was a source of great American pride,” Michelle points out. “Our press was free, our press was dynamic and revolutionary…where is that now?”

Expect for the black and white shots to be peppered with some equally cool color stills.
“Our younger photojournalists, of course, they have to work digitally and they have to work in color,” Michelle says of the sign on the times. “You can’t be a photojournalist now without being able to transmit your images immediately.”

She pauses and continues her reflection: “The black and white happens to represent the history of photojournalism, but that is not our singular devotion. Sid says we like to preach the gospel of photojournalism—not only as an art form—but frankly, as the hands that hold civilization together because most great photojournalism is revealing something you’re not meant to know.”


WHEN COOL WAS KING
Exhibition continues through April 20, 2014 
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar Ave.,
992-0800

Friday, February 14, 2014

Maybe it’s time to cultivate a little cool

Steve McQueen aims a pistol in his living room, Palm Springs, 1963, by John Dominis, copyright Time Inc. (Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography)


Via The Albuquerque Journal North
 By
February 14, 2014

Politics is heating up Santa Fe as the legislative session enters its final week and the municipal election approaches.

Maybe it’s time to cultivate a little cool

The Monroe Gallery of Photography offers just what the doctor ordered with a new exhibition opening tonight, “When Cool Was King.” Soak up the vibes of Brando, Sinatra, McQueen, Newman and the Rat Pack from the days when a certain aloof, impenetrable, unperturbed quality equaled desirability.

The opening reception is 5 to 7 p.m. tonight at the gallery, 112 Don Gaspar. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and admission is free. The exhibit continues through April 20.

And if the show inspires you to view more photography, check out “Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry,” which opens noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 710 Camino Lejo.

You’ll see another brand of cool with Native dance performances at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., Lee Marmon (Laguna) speaking about “Photography and the Pueblo Imagination” at 2 p.m., and Will Wilson (Navajo) setting up his portable portrait studio.

Valentine's Day: Photographs tell story of decades-long romance


Via CBS Evening News

Ninety-one-year-old Art Shay has been telling stories with his camera for 60 years. Working mostly for LIFE Magazine, he captured an amazing roster of subjects, from Kennedy to Ali; from Eleanor Roosevelt to Elizabeth Taylor. (Slide show here)


 The first photo Art Shay took of Florence.
Art Shay

Asked if Florence would ever say, “Would you put that camera away, for God’s sake?” Shay says, “Yes, many times.”
 
Art Shay CBS News
                                       
 “And, you know, the litany of all true photographers is, ‘Just one more,’” he laughs.
“A photograph is a biography of a moment.”

Strung together, they chart a lifetime.

The photos of their love story are now on display at Columbia College in Chicago. The exhibit is called “My Florence,” a tribute to their 67 years of marriage.



Shay says it makes him feel closer to Florence. He says the last picture he took of her that is featured in the show was captured four weeks before she died.

Florence would have been 92 on Valentine’s Day.


Art Shay's favorite photo of Florence.
Art Shay


Shay says that when she got sick, “I assigned myself to do her life as I remembered it -- with the joy, the happiness and only a touch -- a touch of her sickness.”

Florence passed away from cancer in August 2012. Art says gathering the photos for the show has helped him heal, though not entirely.

It’s very hard to do,” Art says tearfully as he looks at one of the photos. “She did like this picture a lot.”

“Florence did say, ‘Don’t cry for me when the time comes, because I had a wonderful life,’” he says. “And she did. And we did.”

The evidence is right there in the pictures.



© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved


Related: The Photography of Love


Art Shay's photograph of Hugh Hefner in His Office Bedroom at Chicago Mansion, 1967  is in the exhibition "When Cool Was King".



Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry photo exhibit combining both historical and contemporary images is returning to Santa Fe.


 
White Man’s Moccasins, Photo by Lee Marmon, Laguna Pueblo. Courtesy of Lee Marmon

Tuesday, February 11, 2014 6:00 pm | Updated: 10:16 am, Wed Feb 12, 2014.

 
The photo show, Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry, which originally was displayed at the New Mexico History Museum in 2012, will open Sunday at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and will be on display until January 2015. 
“The contemporary Native American photography in this exhibition explores, reclaims and recontextualizes historic Native American portraiture,” said the exhibit’s curator, Diane Bird. “They raise issues of colonialism, subjugation, spirit loss, blasphemy, identity and pseudo-cultural appropriation, as well as questions of veracity, historical fact and interpretation.”
 
The exhibit includes 75 photos, which is 10 more images than the original installation, said Steve Cantrell, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
 
Some of the images are self-portraits, while others portray the photographers’ family members, Cantrell said. Native American photographers such as Lee Marmon of Laguna Pueblo and William Wilson from the Navajo Nation photographed some of the added images in the show.
 
Among the historical images is a late-1800s tintype, taken by an unknown photographer, that portrays a member of the Chippewa tribe. The artwork is accompanied by a letter about the Chippewa Indian and the person’s family. The Chippewa tribe is in Minnesota.
 
“There are rare, unique vintage photos,” Daniel Kosharek, a photo archivist at the Palace of the Governors, said in a news release. “Very seldom do you see them displayed, not at the Smithsonian, or anywhere, and it’s very much a treat to see them here all in one place.”
 
During the opening day, organizers encourage patrons to bring a vintage heirloom photo to be scanned and included as part of a display in a community photo gallery at the museum, which will be part of a presentation by Marmon. Also, as part of the opening, American Indian dancers will perform.

 
If you go
What: Photo exhibit titled Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry
Where: Museum of Indian Arts and Culture,
710 Camino Lejo
When: Opening from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16
Cost: Free for New Mexico residents, others by museum admission.
 
Contact Uriel J. Garcia at 986-3062 or ugarcia@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ujohnnyg.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

SID AVERY IS COOL






Hollywood’s Private Eye
"Though he captured many of golden-age Hollywood’s greatest stars as the public had never seen them before—Marlon Brando taking out the trash, Elizabeth Taylor sunbathing, Anthony Perkins waxing his car—photographer Sid Avery slipped into oblivion, dying in 2002 without the renown he might have expected. Michael Callahan recalls Avery’s quiet mastery, his guileless charm, and his poignant final shot: a portrait of a new generation of movie talents" Full article here.










 
 
 
 

 






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Very Cool Valentine's Day


Sid Avery: Stars of "Oceans 11" Stage a Fight, 1960


Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present “When Cool Was King”, an exhibition featuring photographs from a time when cool reigned supreme. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14, from 5 - 7, and continues through April 20.

In their book "COOL: An Anatomy of an Attitude", Dick Pountain and David Robins ask "So what exactly is Cool? That is a difficult question to answer. Is it a philosophy, a sensibility, a religion, an ideology, a personality type, a behavior pattern, an attitude, a worldview?" The exhibition does not attempt to answer that question, but simply accepts Cool as a phenomenon that we can recognize when we see it.

Concurrently, an exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery, "American Cool", asks: "What do we mean when we say someone is cool? Cool carries a social charge of rebellious self-expression, charisma, edge and mystery."

The exhibition featuring portraits of iconic figures of Cool, such as: Steve McQueen, James Dean, Andy Warhol, the Rat Pack, 1960's-era Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Marianne Faithful, Nico and the Velvet Underground, Elvis Presley, each of whom has contributed an original artistic vision to American culture symbolic of a particular historical moment.





Friday, February 7, 2014

American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion and Celebrity Photographs by Mark Shaw Opens February 8

Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy at Hyannis Port 1959
©Mark Shaw/mptvimages.com
Courtesy Monroe Gallery


Via Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art
Exclusive Exhibition at MWPAI Captures Kennedy Era
American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion and Celebrity Photographs by Mark Shaw Opens February 8


Logo

UTICA, NY….Timeless images of John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy are showcased in the exhibition American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion and Celebrity, Photographs by Mark Shaw on view February 8 through May 4, 2014 in the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art

While Mark Shaw’s photographs have been critically acclaimed and featured in numerous periodicals and books, the exhibition at MWPAI will be the first museum show to exclusively feature his work. This exhibition will not travel and can only be seen in Utica. MWPAI worked with the Monroe Gallery of Photography, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Mark Shaw Archives to select 50 archival prints and to produce this exhibition.

 Shaw (1922-1969) recorded an era and produced exquisite and unforgettable images that symbolize 1960s America. Shaw originally photographed Mrs. Kennedy for LIFE magazine in 1959 and he subsequently developed a close friendship with her and the family resulting in extraordinary access to their inner circle. During the following four years, Shaw captured the Kennedy family at their most relaxed: in Nantucket and Hyannis Port, at Jacqueline's family home, on the campaign trail in West Virginia, at their first proper family home in Georgetown, and in the White House. Shaw became the Kennedys’ unofficial family photographer and his timeless images that are included in the exhibition capture some of their most intimate and candid moments. 

Only two weeks before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Jacqueline Kennedy wrote a note to Shaw, one of many, thanking him for photographs of her with her three-year-old, John F. Kennedy Jr.: "They really should be in the National Gallery! I have them propped up in our Sitting Room now, and everyone who comes in says the one of me and John looks like a Caravaggio—and the one of John, reflected in the table, like some wonderful, strange, poetic Matisse. And, when I think of how you just clicked your camera on an ordinary day in that dreary, green Living Room. I just can't thank you enough, they will always be my greatest treasures. Anyone who puts a finger-print on them will have his hand chopped!" Images from this photo shoot will be on view at MWPAI.

 As a leading fashion photographer who began working for LIFE in 1952, Shaw spent 16 years with the magazine and is credited with 27 cover photographs. His images were included in more than 100 stories showcasing the magazine's European fashion collections. Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle all featured Shaw’s photographs, and he was one of the first photographers to capture fashion on the runways and backstage at the couture shows. The fashion photography in the exhibition ranges from models in glorious gowns to behind-the-scenes images of the embodiment of high fashion, Coco Chanel.





 Decades after his death, Shaw’s photographs continue to be published regularly in books and magazines. Many of the celebrity icons Shaw photographed will be included in the exhibition: Pablo Picasso, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, and Yves St. Laurent. Also featured in the exhibition are candid photographs of Audrey Hepburn, originally shot for LIFE in 1953 during the filming of Sabrina. These images, which show a carefree and relaxed Hepburn, had been lost after Mark Shaw’s death, and were only rediscovered in 2005.

American Royalty: The Kennedys Fashion and Celebrity, Photographs by Mark Shaw is sponsored by New York Central Mutual Insurance Company.


Exhibition programs


MUSEUM HOURS
Tuesday - Saturday
10 am to 5 pm
Sunday
1 pm to 5 pm
General Admission-$10
Students-$5
Children 6 and younger Free

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MARK SHAW

Mark Shaw (1922-1969) was born in New York's Lower East Side, the only son of a seamstress and an unskilled laborer. As a student at New York's Pratt Institute, he majored in engineering. Shaw was a highly decorated World War II Air Force pilot who flew Russia's famous tank commander General Zhukov to his meeting with the Allied Command, and flew General MacArthur and his staff to sign the surrender papers in Tokyo. After the War, Shaw began working as a professional photographer and soon became a freelancer for LIFE magazine.

After JFK's death, a selection of Shaw’s photographs were published as the book "The John F. Kennedys: A Family Album, " which sold over 200,000 copies when it first came out. In 2000 Rizzoli published an updated version, featuring many never-before-seen color and black and white photographs. Most recently, Mark Shaw’s images of the Kennedys were widely used in the exhibition “Jacqueline Kennedy—The White House Years,” originating at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and later traveling around the country.

In his later years, Shaw filmed commercials for television. He was the winner of many awards from the American TV Commercial Festival for his work and from the Art Director's club for his earlier still photography. Mark Shaw's Vanity Fair Lingerie and Chase Manhattan Bank's "Nest Egg" campaigns are print advertising classics. Mark Shaw worked as a top print advertising photographer until his untimely death in 1969 at the age of 47. After his death, most of his work was hastily put into storage. All but a small number of photographs remained unseen for almost 40 years.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Killing The Messenger: The Deadly Cost of News









February 2, 2014 – North American broadcast premiere on Al Jazeera America – America Presents – 9:00pm Eastern/6:00pm Western.

About the Film

Murder is the leading cause of work related deaths for journalists as censorship increases worldwide. In addition to those who have been killed, dozens have been attacked, kidnapped, or forced into exile in connection with their coverage of crime and corruption.
Journalists reporting from Mexico, Russia and Iraq tell their own stories of kidnapping, intimidation, and beatings. They’ve experienced the loss of colleagues in the field and have been close to death themselves. Their stories are heartfelt, captivating, engaging and at moments – unbelievable.
In December 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously passed landmark Resolution 1738 which demanded greater safety for journalists in conflict areas and called for an end to impunity for their killers. Since the UN resolution was passed, over 300 news media workers have been killed, while more have been imprisoned or have simply disappeared while on the job. Countless others have been intimidated into self-censorship or have gone into exile. If no story is worth a life, then why is murder the number one cause of journalists’ deaths worldwide?