Behind the Scenes of Collective Memory
Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York City presents the exhibition “Extra! Extra!: News Photographs from 1903-1975”, which gathers photographs of unforgettable moments in contemporary history, often in the form of their earliest known published prints.
Howard Greenberg and Dan Solomon selected more than 60 photographs for the exhibition, shot by unknown photographers as well as authors like Robert Capa and W. Eugene Smith, drawing from a collection of 250 prints. The front and back of the prints include notes that reveal the questions behind the decision to publish the photographs, crop lines, grease pencil markings, date stamps, original captions used by the newspaper.
The back of Robert H. Jackson’s photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, shot by Jack Rudy in Dallas police headquarters, November 24, 1963. Annotations in pencil, notations in pencil and ink and stamps with typed captions on labels affixed to print verso.
© Photographer Unknown. Sigmund Freud in Paris with U.S. Ambassador Wilson C. Bullitt and Marie Bonaparte, June 5, 1938.
The back of the previous photograph of Sigmund Freud. Annotations in pencil, notations in pencil and ink and stamps with typed captions on labels.
Collector Dan Solomon began collecting the images by working with publications like The New York Times or Time-Life as they were digitizing their archives. When he turned over a print of the 1963 image of a self-immolating monk in Saigon by photographer Malcolm Browne, he noticed stamps and information on the back. “The print had a presence and the aura of a powerful object connected to history and the dissemination of information. I immediately asked how I could see more.”
© Photographer Unknown. The atom bomb as it exploded during the test at Bikini, 1946
The back of the previous photograph of the atom bomb. Annotations and notations in pencil and stamps with typed captions on labels.
© Photographer Unknown. Mrs. Lloyd George, a suffragette, arrested for shouting, "I represent Tippeary", c.1913.
The back of the previous photograph of Mrs. Lloyd George. Annotations in pencil, notations in pencil and ink and stamps with annotations in ink and typed captions on labels.
The exhibition “Extra! Extra!: News Photographs from 1903-1975” will be on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York City until November 16, 2024
