72 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2017 72 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 72 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
ENTERTAINMENT
Long behind the camera, now in front
Tony Vaccaro’s storied photographic career gets big screen treatment
By ALAN CAPPER
Special to LIC Courier
“I want a great person. Somebody
who gives something to humanity.”
That’s how Tony Vaccaro chose his
subjects for his photography in a
career spanning more than 70 years.
He has used this criteria to capture
the essence of some of the 20th century’s
most iconic figures.
They include Pablo Picasso (“I
wanted to see if what his wife had
written about him was true. It
wasn’t”), Salvador Dali (“He kept
me waiting for two hours, and I
scolded him for it”), Jackson Pollock
(“I teased him that he would be
known as a paint dri pper so he
painted me a face”) and Frank
Lloyd Wright (“He was simply one
of the greatest men I knew.”)
His work is the subject of Underfire:
The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony
Vaccaro, a documentary screening
as a part of the Gold Coast Film
Festival. Immediately after the
screening, viewers are invited to
the Gold Coast Arts Center for the
opening reception of the gallery exhibition,
Tony Vaccaro: An American
Photographer. The event will feature
a Q&A with Vaccaro, Writer/Director/
Producer Max Lewkowicz and
Producer/Writer Valerie Thomas.
The film offers a tantal izing glimpse
Career lensman Tony Vaccaro will also have his photos exhibited on Long Island.
of Vaccaro’s career, which began in
the U.S. Army during World War
II. His first major assignment was
to photograph the impact of the
Americans in Germany. These magnificent
photographs formed the
basis of a Taschen published book
Entering Germany.
After returning to the U.S. and
dropping out of college – “I felt l ike
I knew everything,” he said – Vaccaro
travelled around the country in
a 1943 Chevrolet. One day he saw
a copy of Business Week magazine
with Fleur Cowles on the cover. He
approached her for work and she
hired him straight away. He started
with Flair, and was quickly booked
for photographic assignments by
Life, Look and the other great publ
ications of that period.
During this time Vaccaro moved
from Long Island to Greenwich Village
and regularly hung out at the
Cedar Tavern with Pollock, Rothko,
De Kooning and others.
At the same time, and for the next
three decades, he began to photograph
an extraordinary array of celebrities,
and of course, some of the
most beautiful women too; Marilyn
Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Liz Taylor,
Maria Callas, Al i McGraw and the
Europeans, Sophia Loren (“one of
the greatest women I ever met”),
Gina Lollabrigida (“she cooked for
me”) Anna Magnani, and Anita Ekberg,
the star of “La Dolce Vita.”
“Marlene Dietrich tried to seduce
me,” Vaccaro recalls. “It was in a
hotel in Monte Carlo, and when I
came into the room she was nearly
naked, and threw herself into my
arms. I had a young female assistant
with me and this upset her.
“She told us both to get out because
she was not going to get a simple
one-on-one seduction,” he continues.
“I was 37 and she was 73.
She had a habit of giving a watch to
every man she had an affair with. I
did not want that watch.”
One of his most remembered
assignments was to photograph U.S.
Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
at home for Look magazine, just
before his presidential run.
“First impressions mean a lot to me
and my impression of him when
we met was a man of great personal
warmth and humanity,” said Vaccaro.
“I also found, surprisingly, a strong
expression of humility. We stayed
friends until that terrible day in 1963.”
Vaccaro has been honored around
the world, but especially in France
and Germany, which put on an
exhibition in major cities of
photographs from Entering Germany.
France presented him with
the Legion D’Honneur for his war
photography, particularly one of a
GI kissing a l ittle French girl.
“For me it summed up l iberation,
and I want to have three memorials
made from this image, two in Europe
and one in New York,” he said.
Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc.
Tony Vaccaro is screening 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 5 at Bow Tie Great
Neck Squire, 115 Middle Neck Rd,
Great Neck. Tickets are $15. For
more information, visit tonyvaccarofilm.
com
Sophia Loren With Hand Up, New
York City, 1959, Digital Archival
Print, 120mm color. (Courtesy of
Tony Vaccaro Studios)