Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibit
Acclaimed Photographer Celebrates 100th Birthday with Two New Exhibitions2022-11-25 - 2023-01-29
Two new exhibitions celebrate the 100th birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro in New York City and Santa Fe. A pop-up show in New York City presented by Monroe Gallery of Photography will be on view at 21 Spring Street from December 13 through 18, 2022. A second show will be held at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe from November 25, 2022, through January 29, 2023.
Tony Vaccaro passed away peacefully on December 28, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday. In late November, Tony had entered NY Harbor Veteran’s Hospital for emergency surgery for complications from an ulcer. He recovered and attended the pop-up Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibition of his photographs in New York City. The City of New York officially proclaimed December 20, 2022 “Tony Vaccaro Day”, and Vaccaro was feted by friends at a surprise birthday party at his favorite local Italian restaurant that evening.
Vaccaro is known for his photographs of WWII, which were the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary, and his editorial work for Life, Look, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and countless other publications. The exhibitions coincide with Tony Vaccaro 100! on view at the Museum für Photographie in Braunschweig, Germany. In both locations, Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition, will juxtapose the living legend’s powerful war images with the lyrical mid-century fashion, film, and pop culture photographs that came later. From the battlefields of Europe to the rooftops of Manhattan, Vaccaro trained his inimitable lens with a sensitivity derived from early hardship as an orphan in Italy. After the war, he replaced the searing images of horror embedded in his memory, by focusing on the splendor of life and capturing the beauty of fashion and those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and cultural figures. The exhibitions illustrate Vaccaro’s will to live against all odds and to advance the power of beauty.
“We call each other German, French, Italian. There is no Italian blood. There is no French blood. It's human blood. On this Earth there is one humanity. Let's do something about it. Let's live! In a way, photography was my way of telling the world, “We have better things to do than to kill ourselves.” –Tony Vaccaro
