Contact News

Don McCullin - The Impossible Peace

With a career that spans over half a century Don McCullin has become one of the most influential photographers of his generation. This exhibition at C/O Berlin presents over 160 images from 1958 to 2008. Curated by Robert Pledge, this is the first full retrospective of McCullin’s work in Berlin. The exhibition includes many of his most iconic images as well as early images that have never been exhibited before and a selection from his most recent work on Roman ruins, from his forthcoming book Southern Frontiers (March 2010, UK). Opens on December 11, 2009 and runs through February 28, 2010.

Robert Pledge Curates Lianzhou 2009

Robert Pledge will be curating the headline show at the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF) with a special ode to documentary photography entitled "Windows on Western Journalistic and Documentary Traditions and Styles in Photography, Photo-editing, and Curating."

Here is Pledge’s introduction to the show: Since its inception, dedicated documentary photography as presented in the West has primarily fallen into three major categories: war, revolution, and social ills. This section of the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival draws upon the work of some of the form’s greatest practitioners to illuminate these three strains and the ways in which the Western world has utilized documentary photography as a means of understanding and coping with human conflict and suffering twenty years after the end of World War II and onwards.

44 Days: Book Tour

David Burnett lectures and presents his work at the ICP, Oct. 14, 2009

David Burnett has been busy giving lectures, slide presentations and participating in panel discussions as part of his book tour following the release of 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World.

Most recently, Burnett participated in a panel discussion and slide presentation on Iran at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism in Manhattan. Before that he presented and lectured at the International Center of Photography.

For more information on upcoming events, check the book tour section in our special 44 Days website.

Avakian & Burnett - Visa Pour L’Image

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This years Visa Pour L’Image festival in Perpignan, France, will feature two exhibitions by Contact photographers. David Burnett presents 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World, his record of the 1979 Iranian revolution from the fall of the Shah through the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic. Alexandra Avakian presents Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, compiled from two decades of work in places such as Gaza, Iran, Somalia, Lebanon, the former Soviet Union and the USA. Both exhibitions are based on books published by Focal Point / National Geographic Books.

Burnett and Leibovitz In Motion

Tom Pappas 27, Azalea, Oregon, June 2004 © David Burnett

David Burnett and Annie Leibovitz will each have images appearing in a special outdoor exhibition July 23 - August 23 entitled “In Motion / In Bewegung. Athletics and Photography 1884–2009″. The Exhibition will be on view - open air - on the Boulevard Unter den Linden on the occasion of the Athletics World Championships in Berlin. It will continue - indoor - in the passage of Akademie der Künste Berlin (Academy of Fine Arts Berlin). A catalogue (172 pages, 104 images) will be available.

Exhibition Catalog

David Burnett - To The Moon

VSD, July 15, 2009, France

As the 40th anniversary of the July 1969 Moon landing approached, David Burnett unearthed a set of images he took as a 22 year old photographer for Time Magazine that focused on the crowds gathered in Florida to watch the launch of Apollo 11. The images (most of which had not been seen since 1969 and never published) present a record of the mood and styles of the era that resonates today. Below are links to several multimedia pieces that showcase the work, some with narration by Burnett:

The New York Times

Time Magazine

Smithsonian Magazine

Contact Gallery

New York Times, July 14, 2009, USA