Reception for the publication of WATER TOWERS BY RONNIE FARLEY
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
6 – 9 PM
SUPERFINE
126 Front Street
Dumbo, Brooklyn

Think of the movies, think of any photographic image of the New York skyline and there will undoubtedly be water towers; features that are as much a recognizable part of the city as the yellow taxi cabs and the street signs. Ronnie Farley has documented these New York monoliths for over 20 years from every angle and time of day; a beautifully photographed and original collection.

Info@ronniefarley.com
www.newyorkwatertowers.com

A 1977 assignment for Look magazine took award-winning photographer Stephen Shames to the Bronx, where he began photographing a group of boys coming of age in a neighborhood of the borough that at the time was among the toughest and poorest in the United States. The boys Shames documented lived on streets ravaged by poverty, drugs and violence. They bonded together and raised themselves in “crews” – adolescent families they created for protection and companionship. Shames’s empathy for the boys earned their trust and respect, and over the next two decades, as the crack cocaine epidemic devastated their community, they allowed him extraordinary access into their lives on the street and in their homes.

Bronx Boys (University of Texas Press, October, 2014) presents a collection of 123 duotone photographs made by Stephen Shames from 1977-2000. Shames captures the brutality of the period — the fights, shootings, arrests, and drug deals — that eventually left many of the boys he photographed dead or in jail. But he also records the joy and humanity of the young men, as they mature, fall in love, and have children of their own. Challenging perceptions of a place that was dismissed by many as irredeemable, Bronx Boys reveals that hope and redemption is possible everywhere.

Bronx Boys will have its official New York launch next week with an exhibition opening and book signing at Steven Kasher Gallery and a book party and signing at BronxArtSpace.

Bronx Boys was originally published as a digital photo monograph and e-book by FotoEvidence Press. The photo editing and sequencing for both the digital and print version of the book is by Regina Monfort.

www.stevenkasher.com
www.bronxartspace.com

Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library Acquires Arthur Rothstein Photographic Collection
NEW YORK, October 16, 2014 –

Columbia University Libraries/Information Services’ Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection, 1848-2000, a collection of photographic prints and negatives, personal and professional papers, printed material, videos and ephemera, donated to the library by his wife, Grace Rothstein.

Rothstein Arthur Rothstein. Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936). Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection, Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library.

Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985), one of the most prolific and influential photographers of the 20th century, produced a broad scope of work that captured American life from the Great Depression through the Reagan years, as well as international events from post-War famine in China to May Day in Moscow’s Red Square at the height of the Cold War. From Welsh coal miners to the Reichstag in ruins, to the unique documentation of the Jewish refugee population in Shanghai after World War II, it was said of Arthur Rothstein that he went everywhere, saw everything and brought his camera.

“Because powerful images are fixed in the mind more readily than words, the photographer needs no interpreter. A photograph means the same thing all over the world and no translator is required. Photography is truly a universal language, transcending all boundaries of race, politics and nationality.” — Arthur Rothstein

The collection includes materials spanning Rothstein’s entire career as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration, Look magazine, the United States Army Signal Corps and Office of War Information, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Parade magazine, and the Utah Oral History Institute. The majority of photographic material consists of black and white silver gelatin prints, and some color negatives and prints. Among the works in the collection are Rothstein’s iconic Dust Storm Cimarron County and Gee’s Bend – both of which are widely recognized defining images of the American landscape and experience.

“The Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection is stunning in its power, scope, technical prowess and beauty. We are thrilled to receive this important body of materials and we look forward to intensive study of this archive by the research community.” said Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Library. “We are particularly indebted to Dan Rothstein, one of our Columbia alumni, and his wife Lori for their many years of work in helping to facilitate this donation.”

One of Arthur’s four children, Dan says, “My mother, Grace Rothstein, and our entire family, is dedicated to seeing my father’s legacy of photojournalistic insight and integrity preserved as an example for future generations. Establishing a home for this collection at Columbia, where he studied and taught for many years, is a satisfying realization of that goal.”
rothstein2 Columbia University Camera Club, George Washington Bridge (1933). Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection, Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library.

Arthur Rothstein was a graduate of Columbia College; as a chemistry major he developed an interest in photography from the technical side, working with film development techniques and eventually becoming a founding member of the camera club at Columbia. Upon graduation he was offered a job by Columbia economist Roy Stryker, who had been asked by colleagues in the Roosevelt administration to form a group of documentary photographers to work within what eventually became known as the Farm Security Administration. In addition to Arthur Rothstein, the FSA photographers included Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, John Vachon and Marion Post Walcott, among others.

Throughout his life Arthur Rothstein sought to combine his prodigious technical and compositional skills in the service of compelling visual communication. He frequently referred to a quote from one of his influences, the photographer Lewis Hine, that the purpose of a photograph is “to show what needs to be appreciated and to show what needs to be changed.” The Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection is evidence of his abundant success in advancing that ideal.

Avery Library will host “Celebrating the Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection at Avery” on October 28, 6:30-8:00 pm. The event will include a lecture by Noam Elcott, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Media in Columbia’s Department of Art History and Archaeology; reception following in the Avery Library Wallach wing where exhibit of a selection of works from the Rothstein collection is on display.
RSVP to attend: Avery-Friends@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

Ron Sherman’s 1970s Silver Gelatin Print Collection acquired by Manuscript,

Archives and Rare Book Library at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia.

http://ronsherman.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Silver-Gelatin-Prints/C0000zRPtUG7e5GE

Last October Sherman started to digitize his 1970s silver gelatin print collection with the plan to find a permanent home for his print archives. Most of the prints made during that decade were sent to his New York photo agency to be licensed to magazines, book publishers, and advertising agencies. The prints were returned when the agency closed and were stored in Sherman’s office for the next 30 years.

The 1970s coverage included political figures, business leaders, civil rights personalities, sporting events, and everyday people from all walks of life. Sherman’s assignments were for Life, Time, Newsweek, US News, Business Week, New York Times, and the Washington Post.

His next project is to edit the 500,000 black and white negatives and color transparencies made in the 1960s to the 1990s that were not printed in the 1970s and to digitize the selections so they can be added to his web site photo archives. The web site showing Sherman’s portfolio is at www.ronsherman.com. Click the Archives on top of page and the click All Galleries to see current stock photo archives.

Ron Sherman

Photographer

E-mail: Ronsphoto@live.com

APA/EP, APAG, ASMP, ASPP

www.ronsherman.com

Publications

New Atlanta Hard Cover Book

770-993-7197

PHILIP TRAGER NEW YORK IN THE 1970s to be published by Steidl in November, 2014.

www.jackmitchell.com

Please take a look at the new Jack Mitchell website that his friend and archivist Craig Highberger has just launched. Craig was given Jack’s archive last year, and has been working hard to inventory and promote the photographs. There will be some upcoming exhibits announced soon!

Managing and Assessing A Photography Archive, and what you need to know to successfully maintain it.

Panelists: Howard Greenberg/Founder and Owner of the Howard Greenberg Gallery, Mark Lubell/ Executive Director, International Center of Photography, Penelope Dixon/ President of Penelope Dixon and Associates, and Mary Engel Founder and President of APAG.

Howard Greenberg, Penelope Dixon, Mary Engel, Mark Lubell

Audience listening to panel

Nancy Crampton, Chester Higgins Jr., Cynthia Dantzic

Managing and Assessing A Photography Archive (Part 1)

Managing and Assessing A Photography Archive (Part 2)

Nancy Crampton photographs of writers appear in the May 2014 issue of Popular Photography Magazine, on the “I, Photographer” page.

popphoto.com/Crampton