DATE: August 24, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GETTY EXHIBITION SURVEYS RISE OF MODERN PHOTOJOURNALISM WITH NEWS-MAKING IMAGES FROM THE 1940s TO THE 1970s
Pictures for the Press At the Getty Center, September 20, 2005–January 22, 2006
LOS ANGELES—Many of the news-making events of the 20th century were documented by photojournalists, whose images helped to tell the stories of events that shaped our world. Pictures for the Press, at the Getty Center, September 20, 2005–January 22, 2006, presents a selection of memorable news images from the 1940s to the 1970s, depicting war, politics, and the civil rights struggle. Featuring many recent acquisitions, the exhibition examines the role of photojournalists in the recording of history and the way pictures are used by the press for making news. Newly acquired works by well-known press photographers like Robert Capa, Larry Burrows, and Charles Moore are included alongside pictures by lesser-known and, in some cases, unidentified makers. Pictures for the Press will feature about 35 photographs drawn from the Getty Museum’s growing collection of photojournalism. Acquired from a variety of sources, including the archives of The New York Times, many of the works on view were originally reproduced in newspapers or magazines and bear the stamps, captions, airbrushing, and worn quality typical of frequently handled archival documents. They include the actual prints used by the New York Times to reproduce images of the atomic explosion over Nagasaki and of the evacuation of Saigon 30 years ago. The exhibition also includes iconic images of the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach during -more- Page 2
World War II, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, and civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama during the 1960s. Covering three decades, the works in the exhibition come from a period when the printed page, rather than the television, dominated as the leading source of news for a majority of Americans. In 1935, the Associated Press launched their Wirephoto network, which accelerated the transmission of images over telephone lines, allowing them to be shared and seen around the world with greater ease than ever before. By 1940, photographs occupied roughly one third of news space in the average metropolitan newspaper. During World War II, Robert Capa, who insisted on being as close to his battle subjects as possible, accompanied the first wave of American troops who landed on the beach in Normandy in the D-Day invasion. His powerful pictures, blurred and grainy, captured the events from the soldiers’ point of view. Capa’s approach served as a model for later photojournalists willing to risk their lives to capture news pictures with the immediacy of an experience. Larry Burrows, who, like Capa, died on the job, carried Capa’s tradition into the 1960s with his images of the Vietnam War. He was among the first photojournalists to use color film to accentuate his bold images. Back in the U.S., photojournalists were busy capturing scenes of domestic conflict. Charles Moore’s pictures of attack dogs lunging toward Americans peacefully protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 were widely published by the press and helped to further the national dialogue on the topic of racial inequality. Due to the nature of news photography, some of the most famous images employed accident and chance as a powerful and creative force. On November 24, 1963, Dallas Times Herald photographer Robert Jackson was on hand for the prison transfer of accused Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald but ended up capturing a Pulitzer prize-winning image of Oswald’s grimace as Jack Ruby’s bullet penetrated his body. Also on view is a black-and-white still image copied from a 26-second color film shot on November 22, 1963, that is the only complete visual record of President Kennedy’s assassination. This now iconic film, recorded by Abraham Zapruder, is one of the most famous visual documents of the 20th century. A bystander among the
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crowd, Zapruder was making a personal film of the president and was perfectly positioned with his camera at the ready when history was being made. Pictures for the Press complements Scene of the Crime: Photo by Weegee, which runs concurrently, offering a focused look at the work of one photojournalist— the crime photographer Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee the Famous. Both Pictures for the Press and Scene of the Crime are part of American Visions, a sequence of four exhibitions featuring works by some of the country’s preeminent practitioners drawn from the Getty Museum’s renowned photographs collection. The series began in May with two exhibitions featuring the visionary work of Paul Strand and Frederick Sommer. Together, the exhibitions offer insight into 75 years of photographic innovation, exploring the medium’s versatility as a new creative language used to document reality and as a means for artistic expression.
RELATED EVENTS All events are free and are held in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, unless otherwise noted. Seating reservations are required. For reservations and information, please call (310) 440-7300 or visit www.getty.edu.
CURATOR’S GALLERY TALK Brett Abbott, Assistant Curator, Department of Photographs, the J. Paul Getty Museum, leads a gallery talk on the exhibition. Meet under the stairs in the Museum Entrance Hall. Thursday, October 27, 2:30 p.m. Museum galleries
FAMILY FESTIVAL Explore the 1930s and 1940s through the lens of Weegee. Swing to the sounds of jazz, blues, and big band and hear storytellers re-create the radio craze. Hands-on workshops let you edit your own newspaper or think like a photojournalist. Sunday, October 2, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Museum Courtyard
LECTURE On Being a Press Photographer Freelance photojournalist James Nachtwey reflects on his career. For three decades he has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts, and critical social issues around the world. Sunday, November 20, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
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PANEL DISCUSSION Making News: A Discussion of Photojournalism Moderator: Michael Parks, Director, School of Journalism, USC Annenberg School of Communications; Philip Gefter, New York Times picture editor; David Lubin, Professor, Wake Forest University; and Molly Bingham, freelance journalist and photographer. Thursday, December 8, 7:00 p.m.
POINT-OF-VIEW TALKS Talks are held at 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. in the Museum galleries. Sign up at the Museum Information Desk beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Based in Saigon for almost four years, award-winning photographer Barbara Gluck put a human face on the Vietnam War by recording the pain of civilian life on the periphery of war. Join her in a discussion about the exhibition. Friday, October 7
Luis Sinco, the award-winning Los Angeles Times photographer, who covered the assault on Falluja as an embedded journalist with troops from the Eighth Marine Regiment, leads a gallery discussion on the exhibition. Friday, January 6
RELATED EXHIBITION Scene of the Crime: Photo by Weegee Comprising approximately seventy photographs from the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition surveys the news photography of Arthur Fellig (American, born Austria, 1899–1968), who became known in the 1930s as Weegee. Named after the Ouija board game, he seemed to materialize wherever news was happening, covering all aspects of Manhattan nightlife and vividly documenting the police beat. Spanning two decades of Weegee’s freelance career, the exhibition is introduced with pictures by the pioneering Los Angeles news photographer George Watson and his nephew Coy Watson Jr.
RELATED PUBLICATION Publications are available in the Getty Museum Store, by calling (800) 223-3431 or (310) 440-7059, or online at www.getty.edu.
In Focus: Weegee, Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum By Judith Keller This volume presents approximately fifty of the ninety-five Weegee prints in the Getty Museum’s collection, surveying the photographer’s probing vision of life in New York—from Harlem to Times Square, Greenwich Village, and the Bowery. (Paper: $17.50)
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SEMINAR Like a New Comet: The New York Evening Graphic and the Tabloid Avant-Garde Luc Sante, general editor of the Library of Larceny, author of Evidence, Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, and other works on crime photographs, and a teacher of the history of photography at Bard College, discusses the New York Evening Graphic, an influential tabloid published from 1924 to 1932. Wednesday, September 28, 3:00–5:00 p.m. Museum Lecture Hall
UPCOMING PHOTOGRAPHS EXHIBITION Robert Adams: Two Landscapes February 7–May 28, 2006 Robert Adams (American, born 1937) has photographed the landscape of the American West for more than forty years, particularly in California and Colorado. His vision is inspired by both his joy in its inherent natural beauty and his dismay at its exploitation and degradation. This exhibition features about seventy photographs drawn from the Getty Museum’s holdings of more than one hundred prints by Adams.
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Note to editors: Images available on request.
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