Weimar, Germany, May 21, 2020: The exhibition “Tony Vaccaro – Images from the everyday life of a US soldier during the second world war”, curated by Paul Oechsner, is set to open this Thursday, 10:00 am., in the Municipal Museum of Weimar. After a coronavirus pandemic lock-down delay of seven weeks, Weimar has been opening in stages for about ten days, and the exhibition has the green light to run through July 26. An extension of the show is in discussion.
The event celebrates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Weimar by allied forces, April 11, 1945. The Tony Vaccaro Studio provided 43 prints, including five from the Monroe Gallery of Photography collection: “Kiss of Liberation”, “Firing Line”, “Running Soldier (fog)”, “Death in the Snow”, and “The Defeated Soldier” shown above. Although the Monroe Gallery of Photography can arrange for any Tony Vaccaro image to be produced as a signed, limited edition print, most of Tony’s surviving 2,000 war images exist mostly for students of history.
This is Tony’s first war photography exhibition since the massive 90 photo show in Caen, France, Summer 2016. Prior to that, Tony’s war photography was exhibited 63 times from an original show created in 1994 for the Ville de St Briac by Tony’s great friend Dominique Monsaignon. Later, this exhibit was reorganized under “Entering Germany”.
Tony was to make an appearance in Weimar for the reception of the exhibit, but due to COVID-19, Tony is quarantined at his Long Island City, NY, residence. Tony also refrained from making appearances at this year’s Photo LA, earlier this year; AIPAD – The Paris Photo New York Photography Show – and the Denver Arts Festival. Tony’s Studio has been shuttered since February 15.
