So excited to share the New Yorker’s Q&A with Zadie Smith about her Reflection entitled “Crazy They Call Me: On Looking at Jerry Dantzic’s Photos of Billie Holiday” from my father’s upcoming book “Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill” !! #billieholiday #zadiesmith #jerrydantzic Grayson Dantzic#thames&hudson #jazz #newark
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Siiri Fernandez paints a picture of her husband, the photographer Benedict J. Fernandez, as a man who communicates predominately through his images. “On our very first date he showed up with a slide projector and a tray of slides of the Brooklyn Bridge at nighttime he wanted me to see. I was properly impressed because they were amazing,” she said in a joint interview with her husband.
Siiri and Ben were married in 1957. In the beginning, photography was a hobby for Fernandez, but it soon became his profession after he was laid off from his job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a wife and two kids to support. Fernandez credits New York Times photo editor Ursula Mahoney for giving him some assignments and supporting the way in which he looked at the world. From there he received more assignments and began finding his own stories as well, eventually focusing on the protest movement. When he began to teach, he was equally as invested; Siiri recalled many weekends when Fernandez was away with students on trips, helping them discover their own visions.
“He started photographing protest movements before they were protests,” Siiri explained about her husband’s curiosity and tenacity. “He would hear about something and start taking pictures, no matter what side of the movement. … He is a historic chronicler through pictures.”
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Fernandez created his most recognized body of work during the civil rights movements of the 1960s. Along the way, Fernandez also became friends with Martin Luther King Jr.; he documented some of King’s private moments with his family. Currently, a selection of Fernandez’s work from the 1960s is on view at the Bronx Documentary Center in an exhibit titled “The ’60s: Decade of Change.”
Fernandez’s love of photography and teaching led him to become the founder of the Photo Film Workshop at the Public Theater, which started with the goal to educate inner-city children about photography. He also established the photography program at Parsons The New School and built a curriculum that viewed the teaching of photography in a more holistic approach, rather than simply one that was technical.
“If you have a purpose in which to make a statement with photography … go out and start doing what your point of view is. The more you see your personal point of view, the better it is,” he said. “We don’t need repetition, we need your point of view. That’s what I try to teach.”
“The ’60s: Decade of Change” is on view at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York City until July 20.
Copyright Benedict J.Fernandez
Copyright Benedict J.Fernandez
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Copyright Benedict J. Fernandez
Original tape date: December 7, 2016. First aired: December 14, 2016.
In this episode of Black America we sit down with Visual artist and celebrated photo-journalist Chester Higgins, Jr. We talk about his style, his influences and look at examples of his beautiful work in photos.
Black America is an in-depth conversation that explores what it means to be Black in America. The show profiles Black activists, academics, business leaders, sports figures, elected officials, artists and writers to gauge this experience in a time of both turbulence and breakthroughs.
Black America is hosted by Carol Jenkins, Emmy award winning New York City journalist, and founding president of The Women’s Media Center
Facebook – facebook.com/BlackAmericaTV
Twitter – @blackamerica_tv
Instagram – @blackamerica_tv
We are sad to announce the recent passing of APAG member, Martin Elkort on 11/19/16 and send our deepest condolences to his family, especially to his daughter Stefani Twyford who made a wonderful film about him, AN AMERICAN MIRROR.
Martin Elkort, acclaimed documentary street phographer, thoughtful photography essayist and author, died November 19, 2016, at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his loved ones. He was 87.
People were important to Martin Elkort: Old and new friends and family, especially beloved life-mate, Edythe, who he lost just 4 months prior, and children, Stefani, Daniel and Alicia. When the end was inevitable, he gathered them all into his company and made time for each and every one; reminiscing, bidding farewell and sharing his boundless love of humor.
Martin was born in New York April 18, 1929 to Esther and Lewis Elkort. Growing up amidst the Great Depression, Martin developed a love of photography at a very young age, selling his first professional image at 10. At the age of 15 Martin contracted polio and spent four months in the hospital. When he returned home to convalesce, his parents bought him his first Ciroflex camera and he set out around Manhattan taking pictures. Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, Martin roamed the urban landscape of New York City in search of the perfect picture. His indelible images of simpler times remind us that the human experience can be a joyous one. Poignant and insightful, his photographs reflect the Great American Melting Pot in all its unpolished glory.
While studying painting at Cooper Union in New York City, Martin joined the New York Photo League, an organization of photographers that served as the center of the documentary movement in American photography. There he studied under masters and became adept at what he refered to as ‘stealth photography.’ He developed the skill of walking right up to a person and taking their photo without them even realizing it. After marrying the love of his life, Edythe in 1953, he realized he would have to support his family by means other than photography. He moved to New Mexico where he was an art editor and staff photographer for New Mexico Magazine. His family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s where Martin worked in the advertising industry. After a brief time in Alaska the family moved back to New York where Martin worked in the travel industry. In the mid 1970s he relocated to Los Angeles where he and Edythe operated a successful travel agency. After Martin retired in 1996 he wrote several books and magazine articles, worked as a food critic, and re-ignited his interest in photography. Martin Elkort’s work is widely exhibited and can be found in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Getty Museum, The Columbus Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, The Jewish Museum in Brooklyn as well as many corporate and private collections.
A documentary exploring his life and work, Martin Elkort, An American Mirror, is a heartfelt tribute created by his daughter, award winning producer Stefani Twyford in 2014. The film can viewed at http://martinelkort.com/.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=182986788
We are very sad to announce the recent passing of APAG member Art Zelin on November 3, 2016.
Art Zelin, one of the top paparazzi photographers in New York during the heyday of popular culture in the city, died unexpectedly on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 75.
Known for his cantankerous wit and unstoppable energy, Mr. Zelin amassed a voluminous and diverse collection of celebrity photography captured at hotspots in the 60’s and 70’s such as Studio 54 and the Paramount Theatre. Unlike other paparazzi photographers of the day, Mr. Zelin’s friendly approach endeared him to his subjects, who often went out of their way to accommodate his uniquely intimate portraits by posing when they spotted him nearby. Even the very private Jacqueline Onassis later autographed one of the most famous photos he had taken of her in gratitude.
Art Zelin Collection images have appeared on the covers of Life Magazine, Paris Match and other major publications. His iconic shots of famous people including the Beatles, the Kennedys, sports figures and movie stars, are licensed exclusively through Getty Images.
Mr. Zelin took a bad fall outside his home in Brooklyn this week and died as a result of complications suffered while being treated in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital. He is survived by his wife Myrna, son Steven and daughters Pamela and Susan.
Portrait of Fidel Castro by Yousuf Karsh on cover of TIME magazine 12/12/16
Wednesday Nov 30, 2016
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
POWERHOUSE [Brooklyn/DUMBO]
28 Adams St.
Brooklyn , NY 11201
For more information, please call 718.666.3049
RSVP appreciated: RSVP@powerHouseArena.com
Street photographer and documentary filmmaker Richard Sandler will be joined in conversation with picture editor Mark Bussell and Régina Monfort for an unforgettable event celebrating Richard’s stunning new book.
About The Eyes of the City:
Timing, skill, and talent all play an important role in creating a great photograph, but the most primary element, the photographer’s eye, is perhaps the most crucial. In The Eyes of the City, Richard Sandler showcases decades’ worth of work, proving his eye for street life rivals any of his generation.
From 1977 to just weeks before September 11, 2001, Richard regularly walked through the streets of Boston and New York, making incisive and humorous pictures that read the pulse of that time. After serendipitously being gifted a Leica camera in 1977, Sandler shot in Boston for three productive years
and then moved back home to photograph in an edgy, dangerous, colicky New York City.
In the 1980s crime and crack were on the rise and their effects were socially devastating. Times Square, Harlem, and the East Village were seeded with hard drugs, while in Midtown Manhattan, and on Wall Street, the rich flaunted their furs in unprecedented numbers, and “greed was good.”
In the 1990s the city underwent drastic changes to lure in tourists and corporations, the result of which was rapid gentrification. Rents were raised and neighborhoods were sanitized, clearing them of both crime and character. Throughout these turbulent and creative years Sandler paced the streets with his native New Yorker’s eye for compassion, irony, and unvarnished fact.
The results are presented in The Eyes of the City, many for the first time in print. Overtly, they capture a complex time when beauty mixed with decay, yet below the picture surface, they hint at unrecognized ghosts in the American psyche.
About the Author and Moderator:
Richard Sandler is a street photographer and documentary filmmaker. He has directed and shot eight non-fiction films, including The Gods of Times Square, Brave New York, and Radioactive City. Sandler’s still photographs are in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Historical Society, and the Houston Museum of Fine Art. He was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for photography, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for Filmmaking, and a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship also for Filmmaking.
Mark Bussell is the former Picture Editor of The New York Times and of The New York Times Magazine. He currently teaches at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Régina Monfort is a photographer and photo editor focusing on long-form narratives. Since joining FotoEvidence in 2010, she has edited a number of books including Daniella Zalcman’s Signs of Your Identity and Marcus Bleasdale’s The Unravelling.
21st Editions / Od Review is proud to present our newest book, Relativity: Wynn Bullock & Albert Einstein!
Relativity includes
– Einstein’s letters and his paper on special relativity (1905).
– (9) Bound Bullock platinum estate prints.
– (9) Loose Bullock platinum estate prints.
– (1) Vintage, signed Bullock silver-gelatin print (exceedingly rare).
– Binding by Peter Geraty
– Handmade paper throughout by TwinRocker and Hook Pottery Paper.
– Signed by all the artisans and Wynn Bullock’s two daughters.
Relativity is in a class by itself. It also marks a new era for 21st Editions. With this book, we begin a new collection and an even greater investment in the art of the book.
Saturday September 17, 2016 Jack Mitchell Archives Executive Director Craig B. Highberger and Associate Director, Dr. Andrew R. La Barbera attended the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Collection Donor Preview and Reception in Washington D.C.
In June 2016 the museum acquired twenty-five Jack Mitchell photographs of important African American artists and performers, a number of which were donations. But there is a previous acquisition that is also an important part of the museum. In August 2012 the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. purchased the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Jack Mitchell Collection.
Jack Mitchell was Alvin Ailey’s close friend and photographer of his dance company from the time of its founding until Mitchell’s retirement in 1995. Craig B. Highberger put together the collection acquisition in 2012 with (then) Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation Executive Director Sharon Gersten Luckman.
The entire Jack Mitchell Alvin Ailey collection is housed at the Smithsonian NMAAHC, where a wall of vintage Jack Mitchell Alvin Ailey Company photographs are part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. The museum opens to the public Saturday September 24.
