Depths of winter: 'Frozen in Time' brings images of joy, despair to Monroe Gallery

November 24, 2024 | Source: Monroe Gallery of Photography

 Via The Albuquerque Journal

By Kathaleen Roberts

November 24, 2024

sreenshot of Albuquerque Journal article on Monroe Gallery exhibition "Frozen In Time"

 

 

 

Winter brings both beauty and brutality.

Open at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography, “Frozen in Time” brings images of both joy and despair by some of the most renowned American photojournalists. The photographs cover the 2016 protests during the Standing Rock pipeline construction, a skating waiter at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the early 1900s, and images of the grim winter conditions during World War II.

Several of the photojournalists worked for Life magazine.

"It always makes for a beautiful, serene, contemplative experience,” said Michelle Monroe, gallery co-owner, of the frosty season. “We know it’s cold, we know it’s quiet, we know there is a veil of light.”

 

 

black and white photograph of a waiter on ice skate and wearing a tuxedul skating with serving tray and drinks in St. Moritz, 1934

 

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection: Ice Skating Waiter, St. Moritz, 1932

 

Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “Ice Skating Waiter” encapsulates the grace of skating while balancing a tray of glasses and liquor.

“He had a very rudimentary camera with glass plates,” Monroe said. “He said the whole thing was a technical challenge.”

The photographer focused on the chair until the waiter swanned by.

 

 

black and white photograph of 3 US soldiers in snow covered forest with guns aimed during the Battke of Hurtgen Forest, 1944
Tony Vaccaro: Battle of Hurtgen Forest, Germany, 1944

 

 

Tony Vaccaro’s photograph of soldiers partially buried in snow during the 88-day Battle of Hürtgen Forest captures the longest fight on German ground of World War II. An estimated 24,000 were killed, wounded or captured.

“There was no one more uncomfortable than the other,” Monroe said. “You couldn’t even find any comfort being together. (Vaccaro) said there was a lot of dark humor.”

In 2023, Navajo photographer Eugene Tapahe took “Ancestral Strength” in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.

 

 

color photograph of 4 Native women with colorful blankets wearing Jingle Dresses" in front of the Teton mountains, Wyomig
Eugene Tapahe
Ancestral Strength, Teton National Park, WY, Cayuse, Umatilla, Newe Sogobia and Tséstho’e, 2023

 

 

 

Tapahe was studying at Utah’s Brigham Young University when the pandemic hit. He decided to take four Native jingle dancers (two of whom were his daughters) across the country.

“The jingle dress has always been used for healing,” Monroe said. “Since the schools were closed, perhaps he could heal the country. They went all over performing. It had a tremendous effect on people.”

Those stops included Mount Rushmore, Yosemite and New York’s Central Park.

Ryan Vizzions photographed the protests over the Standing Rock pipeline in 2017, including a portrait of a medicine man.

 

 

Native American wrapped in colorful blanket with tipis behind him durng a snwo storm at the Standing Rock protestes in North Dakota in 2016
Ryan Vizzions: Standing Rock, Winter, 2016

 

 

 

“He was a spiritual counselor and guide for everything there to keep people in focus,” Monroe said.

“(For) a lot of the older photographers, in order to be put on the front page, it was to get out there and get a shot of this latest snowstorm,” Monroe said. “She was part of the Photo League (cooperative.) They were shut down by the Red Scare movement for being subversive.”

 

black and white photo of design made from snow in a wrought iron railing in New York, 194556
Ida Wyman: Wrought Iron Design in Snow, New York City, 1945

 

 

 

The photographs also include images of the 1939 Russo-Finnish War, harsh winter conditions in the northern Soviet Union taken during its collapse in the 1990s and several ice skating scenes, including Truman Capote at New York’s famed Rockefeller Plaza in 1959, as well as tranquil snow scenes of the American West.

 

long line of Japanese soldiers in training snaking through deep snow in Hokkaido, Japan, 1951
Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection: The newly created 'Japanese Police Force' moves out of camp for winter training, Hokkaido, Japan, 1951

 

 

 

Monroe Gallery specializes in photojournalism. It was the recipient of the 2010 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photojournalism.

 

'FROZEN IN TIME'

WHEN: Opening Reception on Friday, Nov. 29, 4-6 pm; exhibition continues through Jan. 19, 2025

WHERE: Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe

MORE INFO: monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800

Tags: history new exhibit photography photojournalism snow scenes winter winter pictures frozen snow