Tony Vaccaro: "If I can do it, you can do it"

 Via Tony Vaccaro Photographer Instagram

" I am almost 98 years of age and I walked to vote today. Please if I can do it, you can do it. We are all in this together America."- Tony Vaccaro Picture by Frank Vaccaro

"Tony Vaccaro at 98" will be on exhibit in the gallery and on-line at www.monroegallery.com November 20 - January 17, 2021. Drafted into WWII at age 21, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days he photographed his personal witness to the brutality of war.

After the war, Tony remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look, Life, Harper�s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day. 

As an antidote to man�s inhumanity, Tony focused his lens on those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and the beauty of fashion. By focusing on the splendor of life, Tony replaced the images of horror embedded in his eyes. Nearing his 98th birthday, Tony is recovered from COVID-19, and is is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and COVID-19.

This exhibition illustrates his will to live and advance the power of beauty in this life.