News

“It Happened in Havana: A Yiddish Love Story” a film by Judy Schiller will premiere on 4/14/16 at 10:30pm on Channel 13!

The film will premiere on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 10:30pm on CHANNEL 13.

It will replay on Tuesday, April 19 at 4:30am.

It Happened in Havana:

A Yiddish Love Story

A film by Judy Schiller

He didn’t speak Spanish. She didn’t speak English. After 61 years of marriage he was still on his honeymoon.

In Forest Hills, Queens, a couple sits on their living room couch as the husband and wife each recount how they met in Cuba during the start of WWII.

In her cinematic debut, filmmaker Judy Schiller takes the viewer on two journeys: her mother’s, from Poland to Cuba, where she and her family were the only Jews in their town; and her father’s beginning on New York’s Lower East Side, where the street was the playground.

Equal parts romantic tale and history lesson, the film features poignant period footage and priceless home movies. The accompanying soundtrack intertwines Cuban and American music and enhances the couple’s affectionate dialogue.

How did they stay married for the 61 years? See their daughter’s tribute–and find out.

www.ithappenedinhavana.com

New US Postal stamp of Sarah Vaughan, photograph by Hugh Bell

Sarah Vaughan – USPS First-Day-of-Issue Forever Stamp Ceremony

March 29th at The Newark Symphony Hall, Newark, NJ

In 2014, Gartenberg Media Enterprises was engaged on an exclusive basis by the Estate of Hugh Bell to manage the collection of Hugh Bell’s photographs and to further the artist’s legacy. We are therefore proud to announce the featuring of one of Hugh Bell’s iconic photographs of Sarah Vaughan on a USPS Commemorative Forever Stamp. The United States Postal Service is hosting a First-Day-of-Issue Stamp Ceremony for the release of the Sarah Vaughan Commemorative Forever Stamp at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall in Newark, New Jersey on March 29th, 11am.

Above: Sarah Vaughan (Hugh Bell, 1955) and the Sarah Vaughan 2016 USPS Commemorative Forever Stamp

From The USPS Website:

“Sarah Vaughan was one of America’s greatest singers, successful in both jazz and pop, with a talent for improvisation and skillful phrasing and a voice that ranged over several octaves.

The stamp art is an oil painting of Vaughan in performance based on a 1955 photograph by Hugh Bell. A few lines of selvage text explain her importance as a Music Icon. The cover side of the pane features a larger version of the stamp art, a list of some of Vaughan’s popular songs, and the Music Icons logo. Bart Forbes was the artist and Ethel Kessler was the art director. The 11 a.m. First-Day-of-Issue dedication ceremony will take place March 29 in Newark, NJ, at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall.”

Article by Stefani Twyford in www.femininecollective.com

Creating My Father’s Legacy: Martin Elkort’s Photography

Martin Elkort 1950 ©Martin Elkort

In the spring of 2014, I stepped up to a podium in the Brown Auditorium Theater of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The place was full and the audience attentive, expectant. They had just seen my documentary, “Martin Elkort: An American Mirror” about my father, and I was unsure if I could make it through my speech. I had long focused my professional life on people’s life histories, on creating something they could leave as a legacy for future generations of their families. I had finally decided to do the same for my family while my parents were still alive and in good health. The process took eight years.

I began to record my parents sometime in 2006. They sat side-by-side on the sofa in my home as I interviewed each in turn. But when I turned the camera on my father, more often than not, my mother interjected, correcting him, and then Dad deferred to her “recollection of events.” Worse, my mother had a long history of embellishing facts, which made it difficult to figure out what was the truth in what she said, and what was fantasy. Two years later, they came back to Houston to visit, and I tried to continue with them, but, this time, I was determined to get my father’s story in his voice.

I asked to interview Dad alone.

We covered many topics: general family history, what he knew of his parents and grandparents, his recollections of childhood, and his hospitalization with polio at fifteen. He talked about his early start as an artist and falling in love with photography.

To appease my mother, I did a few more interviews of her with my dad. It wasn’t apparent to me at the time, but looking back at the clips now, I see the signs of her impending dementia.

By then I had ten hours of video footage. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it all, but in my work, all too often I have raced against fading memories. I was well aware of the need to chronicle these stories while I still could. I was satisfied that I had captured some of our family histories, but the seed was planted for something more; I found my father’s story compelling, and important beyond our little family.

After his hospitalization with polio in 1944, Dad’s parents asked him what he wanted as a gift. He chose a single lens reflex camera. Costing more than a week of his father’s wages, this gift encouraged my father to get out and do something he enjoyed.

He took to walking the streets of New York City documenting the post-war boom. He loved to watch recent immigrants on the Lower East Side celebrate rebuilding their lives. Years later, reviews of his photography would point to the optimism of these photos during the post-depression period when it was easy to see only despair and decay.

Puppy Love 1951 © Martin Elkort

Martin Elkort documentary by Stefani Twyford and new book about children

An American Mirror: The Movie

Children: Behind The Lens

Street Photography Capturing the Essence of Childhood

by Martin Elkort

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Martin Elkort roamed the streets of New York City with his camera in search of the perfect picture. His indelible images of simpler times remind us that the human experience can be a joyous one. Elkort was particularly drawn to the raw innocence of the children inhabiting the streets of New York, and later his current home, Los Angeles. Poignant and insightful, his photographs capture their curiosity and vigor as they explore the urban landscape. With an introduction by Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator Emerita of Photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this 69 page study of childhood features 62 of Elkort’s most intriguing black & white images of children punctuated with his eloquent reflections on photography and his creative process. This 9 x 9” offset print book will make a wonderful addition to any photographer’s book collection as well as anyone who enjoys experiencing the world through a child’s joyful eye.

“A beautiful photograph, like a beautiful poem, always contains a mystery, an elusive and haunting nucleus that makes us return again to probe its depths, hoping to winnow yet another insight.” – Martin Elkort

Educated at The Cooper Union, Elkort was also a member of the renowned New York Photo League where he studied under, and shared darkrooms with Aaron Siskind, Lou Stoumen and Sid Grossman, among others. He became adept at what he refers to as ‘stealth photography.’ With his camera strapped around his neck, he walked peering down into the 2×2 inch ground glass of the camera. He developed the skill of walking right up to a person and taking their photo without them even realizing it.

After marrying in 1953, he moved away from street photography in order to support his growing family. He journeyed back to it when he retired and found a growing interest not only in the Photo League, but in his own work as well.

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 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The US Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jewish Museum in Brooklyn, The Columbus Museum of Art as well as many corporate and private collections.

Books

Esther Bubley’s photos featured on NBC Open House in Erin Heatherton’s stylish NYC pad

OPEN HOUSE NYC features model Erin Heatherton’s stylish NYC Pad which includes her cousin Esther Bubley’s photographs

Supermodel Erin Heatherton is known for her work with Prada, Victoria’s Secret, and pretty much everyone else. It turns out she also has a knack and real interest in interior design. She completely redesigned her West Village apartment to maximize space, light, and of course comfort.

“One of the favorite things in my home is these photos on the wall taken by my cousin Esther Bubley, and she kinda put the cherry on the top for me!”

-Erin Heatherton

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/open-house/Erin-Heatherton-Shows-Us-Her-Stylish-NYC-Pad.html

Arlene Gottfried

Photographer Profile – Arlene Gottfried: “It takes a lifetime to be a new discovery, I guess”

By David Schonauer Tuesday March 1, 2016

Arlene Gottfried has been investigating life on the clamorous corners of New York City for four decades.She’s photographed lovers caressing on park benches, the homeless sleeping on subway seats, and choirs belting out gospel songs. She’s captured warm moments of daily life and those odd urban juxtapositions — a muscle-bound Puerto Rican man in a tiny swimming suit standing next to an elderly woman in Brighton Beach; a Hassidic man among the crowd at a nude beach in Far Rockaway — that make the city a smorgasbord for street photographers. As a photojournalist she has worked for Life, Time, Newsweek, Fortune and other magazines and been admired by generations of photo editors. Yet in all those years of taking pictures and all the miles of New York sidewalks she has trod upon, she has never had the kind of attention she is getting now.

All of a sudden, Arlene Gottfried is hot.

“It takes a lifetime to be a new discovery, I guess,” she says.

Gottfried has recently been dubbed an “NYC treasure” by theGothamist and “a quiet storm of power” by Glitterati. Britain’sGuardian newspaper has praised the “intimacy and wry humor” of her work, while the AnOther blog described her photography as a “candid and captivating ode” to New York. Last fall she had a solo exhibition at the Hardhitta Gallery in Cologne, Germany, followed by a solo show on view now at Les Douches gallery in Paris. New York’s Daniel Cooney Fine Art gallery showed her street photography in a 2014 show that drew television crews and newspaper reporters from around the world and on March 3 will open another exhibition, this one featuring Gottfried’s photographs of New York’s Puerto Rican community. That work was originally collected in her 2011 book Bacalaitos & Fireworks.

read the entire article here:

http://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/16918/photographer-profile-arlene-gottfried-it-takes.html

Ilon Gallery Music show opens on March 3, 2016

M U S I C

a group photography exhibition

Ilon Art Gallery

204 West 123rd Street, Harlem

OPENS MARCH 3 FROM 6-9PM

RSVP le@ilon.com

Loni Efron and ilon Art Gallery invite you to view the opening of “Music” a group photography exhibition on March 3 from 6-9pm. The exhibition runs from March 3, 2016 – June 3, 2016. There is a lot to cover when talkin’ about music so this a part of that story in 65 images. Featuring artists Albert Watson, Alfred Wertheimer, Andrew Haagen, Annie Leibovitz, Bob Gruen, Chad Murray, Claude Gassian, Darien Davis, David Burnett, Deborah Feingold, Don Hunstein, Gabe Kirchheimer, Jane Rose, Jesse Frohman, Gered Mankowitz, Kevin Mazur, Leonard Freed, Martin Schoeller, Pari Dukovic, Robert Whitman, Roxanne Lowit and William Claxton. * APAG MEMBERS

The venue for this exhibition is in a classic 1890’s Harlem brownstone located in the heart of Harlem. We are proud to have Harlem Brew (Harlem Brewery) and Sol Cacao (Harlem Craft Chocolatier) sponsor our show. Come experience Harlem.

Gallery is by appointment please call 917-270-4696 or email le@ilon.com

Chester Higgins Jr. photo featured in March 2016 Architectural Digest for feature on Khloe Kardashian’s new house

Photo by Chester Higgins Jr. Kourtney Kardashian Home

Just out in March issue of Architectural Digest on Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian; Realizing Their Dream Homes in California.
The niche in Khloé’s bedroom is marked by a mix of exotic touches, among them a star-shaped lantern, a photograph by Chester Higgins Jr., and a side table inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/kourtney-khloe-kardashian-house-tour

Fred Stein exhibit in the Wall Street Journal

Fred Stein, Knitting Circle, New York, 1948, gelatin silver print, 11.13 x 13.13 in.

Photos: Where Art Lies in Ruins and in the Streets

Fred Stein’s son, Peter, was in the gallery when I was there, and he told me that his father was a great conversationalist. To be one, you not only need to speak well but to have something to say; it also helps to have a talent for listening. Stein exhibits the visual equivalents in his photographs: clarity, curiosity and sympathy. Stein was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1909; left that country in 1933 to avoid the Gestapo; lived in Paris until 1939, when he was interned as an enemy alien; and escaped and made his way to Marseilles, France, where he embarked for the U.S. In New York, as he had in Paris, he practiced street photography and took portraits of cultural figures. He died in 1967.

Rosenberg is showing 51 prints from Germany, France and New York. Still-lifes, such as “Fish Platter, Brittany” (1935), and streetscapes, such as “Wrought Iron Staircase, New York” (1945), show a refined Bauhausian modernism. But most of the pictures are of people shot in public, such as the “Vendor, Paris” (1935) sitting outside with goods in her hand; the five women in a “Knitting Circle, New York” (1948) intent on their needles; and the two geezers having a “Chess Game, New York” (1947) on a park bench. Their mundane activities are invested by Stein with enormous dignity. There are wonderful pictures of children, and his photograph of two girls in swimsuits and sun hats caught on a “Swing, Paris” (1934) at its apogee is pure joy.

— William Meyers
The World of Fred Stein is on view at Rosenberg & Co. through February 12.

Bern Schwartz website launched!

Photos: Twiggy, David Hockney and Larry Adler by Bern Schwartz

After a successful career in business, Bern Schwartz (1914–78), returned to his hobby of photography at the age of sixty. Within just four years, he established himself as a renowned portrait photographer attracting famous sitters from across the globe. These included prominent members of the British establishment of the time—actors, dancers, artists, writers, politicians and royalty—as well as international luminaries. His portraits were first exhibited to great acclaim at the Colnaghi Gallery in London in 1977. Further exhibitions followed including more recently at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2008-09, and at the Mishkenot Sh’ananim and the Naggar School, Jerusalem in 2012. His work is represented in public and private collections worldwide.

Thirty years later, these portraits still engage the viewer. Their immediacy and often informal style are due, in part, to Schwartz’s approach. He usually captured his sitters at home or at work. And, with his wife and collaborator Ronny, he conducted extensive research before each sitting. This allowed him, instead of standing behind the camera, to engage in animated conversations with his subjects who barely noticed his click of the shutter release kept in his pocket.

“He caught us when we weren’t posing,” recalled the journalist and broadcaster, Alistair Cooke, one of Schwartz’s subjects, “which is how he captures so much life and animation. It was as if we weren’t even having our picture taken, just talking with a friend.” Schwartz recorded each sitting in his journal, excerpts from which are included in some of the labels that accompany the photographs on this website.