Congrats to fellow Mizzou photojournalism alum, director Louie Psihoyos for his Oscar nomination and Directors Guild win for ‘The Cove’. As an old friend, I still remember Louie getting his film debut appearing in a Sylvester Stallone film in Dubuque, Iowa before going on to J-School…well look who’s invited to the Red Carpet this year…
Just learned the very sad news that my high school journalism advisor Tom Rolnicki died December 20th. After inspiring and challenging me and many of my classmates to strive to be the best, Tom went on to become the executive director of the National Scholastic Press Association and co-authored “Scolastic Journalism“. I was honored that he brought me in a couple times to speak at their annual conventions. Tom was truly an inspiration in many careers and will be missed.
“Whenever anyone asks me how I got the photographs I did, why I was often the only photographer present or got such unique access I reply simply, ‘Trust’.” – Jim Marshall
Even if you don’t know legendary rock photographer Jim Marshall – you know his photographs. Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire onstage at Monterey, Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison and flipping the bird onstage, Miles Davis boxing at Newman’s Gym, Jim Morrison taking a puff…
Last week while I was in New York I stopped by The Morrison Hotel Gallery and Loft to check out Marshall’s show from his his book ‘Trust’
The Morrison Hotel Gallery
124 Prince Street
New York, New York
October 22-November 13, 2009
If you hurry you might even be able to snag an autographed copy of ‘Trust’ Jim Marshall’s book ‘Trust’ is available on Amazon if for some strange reason you can’t make it to The Morrison Hotel Gallery before they run out.
Every year at PhotoPlus I have dinner with a bunch of photographers including Jim at Cafe Loup. I’ve always like Jim and dinner with Jim is always entertaining .Be sure to check out Jim’s website Marshall Photo.
Two of my favorite images from the show were Leonard’s photographs of Miles Davis an Frank Sinatra that were among the prints that were damaged when Leonard’s New Orleans home was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – proving that out of tragedy sometimes comes beauty.
Fortunately for history, none of Leonard’s negatives were lost in the flood as they were safely stored in a different location. Don’t miss this show by a true Legend. Leonard’s work is the finest photography of the Jazz age.
Herman Leonard’s Jazz at Lincoln Center is up through February 14, 2010.
Jazz at Lincoln Center • 33 West 60 Street • New York, NY 10023
There’s a fabulous exhibit of Irving Penn’s portraits of workers with the tools of their trade in the The Small Trades exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles though January 10, 2010.
Initially created in 1950 and 1951 in London, New York, and Paris, The Small Trades show consists of 252 portraits of radespeople in their work clothes and carrying the tools of their respective trades. The Small Trades was Penn’s most extensive body of work, involving 215 subjects from three cities, and he returned to it over many decades, producing ever more exacting prints, the show spotlights the evolution of Penn’s printing techniques by pairing his earlier silver and later platinum prints.
The show features six decades of Avedon’s fashion images, it encompasses his magazine work from Harper’s Bazaar to Vogue through the New Yorker as well as the work he did for top fashion designers . Even if you’re familiar with Avedon’s work (and who isn’t?) this show is a must-see and truly inspiring.
The fashionable exhibition is the second installment in the International Center of Photography’s Year of Fashion. It includes 175 prints organized chronologically throughout ICP’s many galleries and includes a rare behind-the-scenes look at the magazine layout process showing many of Avedon’s original prints submitted to Harper’s Bazaar marked up with notes and crop marks.
One of the highlights of the show was seeing three versions of Avedon’s Dovima with Elephants. Be sure not to miss the scratched vintage print horizontal version downstairs..
Richard Avedon ‘Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, France‘ – 1955
The last time America was mired in an economic crisis like the one we face today, the Works Progress Administration was created to put America back to work. The Works Progress Administration brought us The Federal Arts Project (FAP) maintained more than 100 community art centers which produced 2,566 murals, 17,744 sculptures, 108,099 paintings and 240,000 prints from 1936 to 1943 creating a new awareness of and appreciation for American art.
Not only did the WPA put artists and Artisans back to work, it left lasting symbols of civic pride.
During The Creative Coalition’s May 2009 visit to Capitol Hill, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) mentioned the Timberline Lodge was built as part of the WPA and is an enduring source of pride in the community. A WPA mural by Grant Wood graced the wall of the college library of the small town where I grew up.
The Works Progress Administration was also responsible of the Farm Service Administration which resulted in some of the best photographs of the 20th century from the FSAphotographers Dorthea Lange, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Carl Mydans and Gordon Parks.
"Migrant Mother" by Dorthea Lange/FSA - Nipomo, California 1936
“Foreclosure of the American Dream” Merced, California 2008
The Creative Coalition Executive Director Robin Bronk writes in the foreword of Art & Soul:
“When faced with a collapsing economy, President Franklin Roosevelt tried to put Americans in all lines of work back on the job. Instead of singling out artists as somehow frivolous and unimportant to our nation’s economy, he instituted a host of programs designed to put federal funds into the arts, employing America’s creative talent and leaving a cultural legacy that endures still today.
“The highpoint of this commitment was the Works Progress Administration’s Federal One program, which put thousands of Americans to work in the arts. The government program was a lifeline for Jackson Pollock, Burt Lancaster, Sidney Lumet, Ralph Ellison, Studs Terkel, John Cheever, Saul Bellow, and thousands of other artists across the country.
“These programs created much-needed jobs in the immediate term, but they did much more. They fostered great talents that otherwise may have been lost. The work of the many great artists supported by the government in the 1930s still benefits us today. Their contributions to our culture endure, and their successful careers resulted in employment for many others in the years that followed.
“We cannot forget this lesson of our not-so-distant history. Faced with an economic downturn of staggering proportions, some attack any help for the arts as waste, ignoring the millions of Americans who earn their livings and support their families through their artistic endeavors and arts-related enterprises.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith has been creating bold, graphic portraits of celebrities, athletes and executives for magazines and advertising for more than 25 years. Smith's photographs of famous and infamous faces of the noteworthy and notorious have graced the covers and pages of hundreds of magazines.
Brian Smith's first magazine photograph appeared in LIFE Magazine when he was a 20-year-old journalism student at the University of Missouri. Just five years later, Smith won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for his photographs of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was again a finalist for the Pulitzer for his photographs of Haiti in Turmoil. His photograph of Greg Louganis hitting his head on the diving board at the Seoul Olympics won first place in both World Press Photo and the Pictures of the Year competitions.
He's been featured on the cover of the Photo District News Portraiture Issue and in the Communication Arts Photography Annual, American Photo Magazine, After/Capture and Pop Photo magazines.
Smith is a Sony Artisan of Imagery and a X-Rite Coloratti and has appeared on Fine Living Channel teaching a Little League Mom how to become a Big League Sports Photographer. His photography career began as a high school swimmer clearly not destined for the Olympics in the pool, yet this provided him with the opportunity to photograph swimming and other sports as a stringer for the Ames Daily Tribune.
Smith is President of Editorial Photographers, an organization of 2,000 of the top magazine photographers and newspaper photojournalists from around the world. He is frequently a speaker at photography seminars and to photo students at colleges, universities and art institutes around the country and can often be found on a flight headed to the Caribbean, Latin America or the American South from his home in Miami Beach, Florida.
There’s a fabulous exhibit of Irving Penn’s portraits of workers with the tools of their trade in the The Small Trades exhibit at the 
Los Angeles, 2009
Richard Avedon ‘Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, France‘ – 1955
