Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Parabola Optica, 1931
Unidentified Photographer, [Jack's Saloon], ca. 1940s
Russell Lee, Sign, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941
Weegee, “Wartime New York: Our Little Businessmen Bounced Around by War… Vacant store becomes baby carriage depot,” January 18, 1943
Aaron Siskind, Chicago 59 (Storefront), 1952
Gideon Mendel, Hlabisa AIDS Educators at Work, 1995
World AIDS Day was established on December 1, 1988 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The 2009 World AIDS Day theme is “Universal Access and Human Rights.”
World AIDS Day on 1 December draws together people from around the world to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic. The Day is one of the most visible opportunities for public and private partners to spread awareness about the status of the pandemic and encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in high prevalence countries and around the world.
There are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, according to 2007 figures released by WHO. An estimated 2.5 million were newly infected with the virus and 2.1 million died of AIDS the same year. Eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa now account for almost one-third of all new infections and AIDS deaths globally.
World Health Organization, 2009
Gran Fury, The New York Crimes, March 28, 1989
The Yes Men, The New York Times, November 12, 2008
W. Eugene Smith, Oops Girl and daughter Shana, Loft Stairwell, ca. 1958
W. Eugene Smith, Dave Young, ca. 1960
The photographs and audio recordings that W. Eugene Smith made from 1957–65, inside 821 Sixth Ave., are the subject of a radio series on WNYC, an exhibition, a book, and a website.
The building is still there, the white building with black windows, behind the tree…
821 Sixth Ave., New York, NY, 2009
Abraham Zapruder, [Frames 238, 312, 313, 314 and other stills from 8mm home movie of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr.], November 22, 1963
The morning after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, LIFE purchased Abraham Zapruder’s home movie of the event and the rights to publish it. LIFE published thirty-one black-and-white stills in the November 29, 1963 issue, which focused on the President’s assassination in Dallas the previous week.
From “Split-Second Sequence as the Bullets Struck”:
On these and the following two pages is a remarkable and exclusive series of pictures which show, for the first time and in tragic detail, the fate which befell our President. The caravan had just passed through the downtown area of Dallas and made a sharp left turn at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets, where it headed down an incline into an underpass. First came the police motorcycle escort (above) and then the big Lincoln bearing the Kennedys and Texas Governor John Connally and his wife. The crowds were thin at this point, but the President and Mrs. Kennedy were smiling and waving as their car passes the brick building where the assassin lurked, and disappeared momentarily behind a highway sign.
Then came the awful moment. In these pictures, which run consecutively from left to right, it begins as the car comes out from behind the sign (fifth picture). The President’s wave turns into a clutching movement toward his throat (seventh picture). Governor Connally, who glances around to see what has happened, is himself struck by a bullet (ninth picture) and slumps over (tenth picture). As the President’s car approaches a lamppost Mrs. Kennedy suddenly becomes aware of what has happened and reaches over to help (larger pictures below) while Governor Connally slumps to the floor. The President collapses on his wife’s shoulder and in the last two small pictures the First Lady cradles him in her arms.
The following spread, titled “Jackie Crawled for Help”:
“Oh, no!, Oh, no!,” Mrs. Kennedy cries (top row of pictures) as she sees the blood flowing from the President’s head. But the convoy keeps going, past the onlookers and photographers who stand frozen or fall to the ground as they hear the shots.
As the President lies dying, Jackie scrambles out of her seat and crawls onto the truck of the car in a pathetic search for help. As she crouches on hands and knees, the President’s head presses against her, staining her skirt and stockings with blood. A Secret Service man [Agent Clinton Hill] leaps on the bumper to protect the First Lady and get her back into the car.
Weegee, [Party], ca. 1953
Fans in a Flashbulb turns one year old today! Thanks to everyone who visited our site over the past year. We hope you keep coming back!
Weegee, Billie Dauscha (left) and Mabel Sidney (right), Bowery Entertainers, December 4, 1944
Dan Weiner, El Morocco New York City, 1955
Tod Papageorge, Studio 54 with Balloon, 1978
Ormond Gigli, Girls in the Windows, 1960
In 1960, while a construction crew dismantled a row of brownstones right across from my own brownstone studio on East 58th Street, I was inspired to somehow immortalize those buildings. I had the vision of 43 women in formal dress adorning the windows of the skeletal facade.
We had to work quickly to secure City permissions, arrange for models, which included celebrities, the demolition supervisor’s wife (third floor, third from left), my own wife (second floor, far right), and also secure the Rolls Royce to be parked on the sidewalk. Careful planning was a necessity as the photography had to be accomplished during the workers’ lunch time!
The day before the buildings were razed, the 43 women appeared in their finest attire, went into the buildings, climbed the old stairs, and took their places in the windows. I was set up on my fire escape across the street, directing the scene, with bullhorn in hand. Of course I was concerned for the models’ safety, as some were daring enough to pose out on the crumbling sills.
The photography came off as planned. What had seemed to some as too dangerous or difficult to accomplish, became my fantasy fulfilled, and my most memorable self-assigned photograph.
Vu, March 12, 1930, no. 104, p. 203 (photos by André Kertész)
Vu, March 12, 1930, no. 104, cover (photo by Alban)
