My Day with Tony
I met the utterly charming photographer Tony Vaccaro[1], a spry and debonair 94-year-old with a shock of silver hair, at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, on June 29, 2017. I was to give him a tour of the galleries with one of our summer interns, who was filming Tony for the O’Keeffe’s ongoing oral history project. He had just flown from New York to Santa Fe for the opening of his exhibit “From War to Beauty” at the Monroe Gallery of Photography[2], featuring over 50 of his photographs from images of war to portraits of Pablo Picasso, Sophia Loren, John F. Kennedy and several that he made during his 1960 visit with Georgia O’Keeffe for Look Magazine.
These were exciting times for Vaccaro as HBO Films had just released the documentary, Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro[3], the Italian American kid who had begun his photographic career as a battlefield photographer in World War II, developing film in his helmet.
As we strolled through the galleries, he affectionately intertwined our arms and said “This is how I walked with Georgia.” We talked about her paintings and photographs taken of Georgia by other photographers. He made it very clear that Georgia preferred symmetry in photographs and not chaos. When I asked Tony if Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstraction of form may have been influenced by the camera he said, “Of course, she was married to Alfred Stieglitz[4], but she had her own mind.”
One of my favorite photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe was taken by Tony Vaccaro entitled, Georgia with the Cheese, 1960. As Tony tells it, he and Georgia, and Charlotte Willard, the Art Editor for Look Magazine[5], were driving to the Taos Pueblo for a picnic. They stopped at Bode’s General Store in Abiquiú across the way to pick up some swiss cheese. Georgia didn’t like cheese in nice slices only chunks. By the time they got up to Taos the wind was blowing so hard that it almost cracked the windshield, so they decided to have the picnic in the car. Tony was cutting the cheese in the front seat and handed Charlotte a slice to give to Georgia in the back seat. Georgia immediately put the cheese to her eye like a viewfinder with a sly smile. Tony simultaneously snapped the shutter, capturing this iconic moment on film. What about her smile, I asked. Tony’s face lit up as he cocked his head and reminisced, “She was flirting with me!”
A month later on my birthday, I received a package from my 85-year-old mom, who when she visited in July, went to see Tony’s exhibition with me at the Monroe Gallery. In the package was a note saying “For your 70th birthday, which I will probably not be around to see, I want you to enjoy this now.” It was Tony’s photograph of Georgia with the Cheese.
Tony Vaccaro lives and works in Long Island City and spends his days organizing his pictures in the Tony Vaccaro Studio.[6] He shares a lot of his work on his @tonyvaccarophotographer Instagram account.
For a closer look
Check out the Tony Vaccaro photographs in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Collection on Collections Online.
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[1] Tony Vaccaro (born Michelantonio Celestino Onofrio Vaccaro) (born December 20, 1922), is an American photographer who is best known for his photos taken in Europe during 1944 and 1945, and in Germany immediately following World War II. (Sourced from Wikipedia.)
[2] The Monroe gallery lists this exhibition as Tony Vacarro: War and Peace, Friday, June 30 through September 17, 2017. A press release published on artnet lists the title as From War to Beauty with the same dates.
[3] Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro, 2016. HBO Documentary Films.
[4] Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was married to Georgia O’Keeffe.
[5] Look Magazine was running a story on the “Women of American Art”, by Charlotte Willard, Look, v. 24, no.20 (Sept.27, 1960), p. 70, 71. Photographer, Tony Vaccaro and Charlotte Willard, the Art Editor of Look Magazine, arrived in Abiquiú in April of 1960 to photograph O’Keeffe for the magazine publication.
[6] Tony Vaccaro Studio is the photographer’s website.
