Tag: WWII

Thomas Bangsted at Marc Straus Gallery

Danish photographer Thomas Bangsted’s WWII scenes at first read as strangely hi-res documentary images until revealed as masterpieces of reconstruction. Photographing objects and vehicles from war museums and collectors, building his own props (like the life raft in the foreground) and tracking down remaining ships, Bangsted pictures the maneuvers that won the war, including this episode in the Allied effort to sink one of the largest warships ever made. (On view at Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 10th).

Thomas Bangsted, Port of Embarkation (Lady Liberty SS Margaret Knight), pigment print, 85 x 115.8, 2012 – 2017.

Fons Iannelli at Steven Kasher Gallery

After serving in the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit during WWII, Fons Iannelli returned to the States to establish a successful career photographing for McCall’s, Life, Fortune and other magazines. Alongside striking images of naval life, and later photos of efficient housewives shot for commercial purposes, Iannelli’s scenes from his 1946 Kentucky Coal Miner series, now on view at Chelsea’s Steven Kasher Gallery reveal the difficult circumstances of family life in the mining community. (On view through August 11th).

Fons Iannelli, Boy Smoking Cigarette (from the Kentucky Coal Miner series), Harlan County, KY, vintage gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1946, 10 ½ h x 10 ¼ w, 1946.