GME News
Now in theaters, director Phyllis Nagy’s CALL JANE, stars Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Mara, in a drama about a 1960s housewife (Banks) who joins the Jane Collective to fight for women's rights as she struggles to cope with her need for an abortion during a time of limited social or political support.
Read MoreThe University of Minnesota gallery will present two photos by Hugh Bell in their upcoming fall exhibition, a group exhibition of over 100 Black American artists whose work incorporates the photographic medium.
Read MoreThis photo for the cover of The Shangri-Las debut album from 1965 is one of many commercial photos by Hugh Bell, whose photographs appeared on dozens of album covers throughout the period. They primarily featured jazz artists, including Sarah Vaughn, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderly, Houston Person, Bill Hardman, Larry Coryell, and the Nat Dixon Quartet. Director Nagy included this cover in her upcoming Roadside Attractions release CALL JANE, starring Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Mara, about a 1960s housewife (Banks) who joins the Jane Collective to fight for women's rights as she struggles to cope with her need for an abortion during a time of limited social or political support.
Read MoreJean Genet ’s 1959 play, THE BLACKS, uses the framework of a play within a play, to expose racial prejudice and stereotypes while exploring black identity. It was the longest-running Off-Broadway non-musical of the 60s and was photographed by Hugh Bell.
Read MoreTHROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE, probes the recesses of American history through images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost. Directed by Thomas Allen Harris. The film features the late photographer Hugh Bell.
Read MoreBILLIE, directed by James Erskine, is a portrait of legendary singer Billie Holiday based on more than 200 audio interviews conducted by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl in the 1970s. A compelling look at the jazz legend who should never be forgotten. The film includes rare photos of Billie Holiday taken by Hugh Bell, licensed to the production by Gartenberg Media, the exclusive representative of the Estate of Hugh Bell.
Read MoreHugh Bell, born and raised in Harlem, was an American photographer of Caribbean descent. He became most well-known in the 1950s for his photographs of jazz musicians. Bell also influenced a generation of photographers, most notably of the Kamoinge Workshop. In the 1980s and 1990s, Bell photographed Gay Culture, creating stylish portraits of individuals and couples in both candid and posed moments of self-expression. Particularly noteworthy was his singular effort to depict African-Americans who participated in these celebrations, which include Gay Pride, Wigstock, and the Greenwich Village Halloween parades.
Read MoreWorking Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop, a groundbreaking exhibition of overlooked Black photographers, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, establishes the importance of Hugh Bell's photography. While not a member of the Kamoinge Workshop, Bell is recognized by the curators of the exhibition as follows: “The Workshop’s artists have variously cited the influence of fellow photographers such as Roy de Carava, E. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Hugh Bell, and Dorothea Lange, all of whom combined observation with their own personal impressions.”
Read MoreBuzzFeed News features one of Hugh Bell's classic images from his series of Afro-Caribbean photos in their glowing tribute, "The Black Photographers Who Paved The Way For The World We Live In Now," appearing in the online magazine's Black History Month section.
Read MoreNow available on DVD and via streaming services from Kino Lorber, BILLIE (2020) is a documentary about the singer who changed the face of American music, and the journalist who died trying to tell her story. Directed by award-winning filmmaker James Erskine, the documentary is based on 200 hours of interviews conducted from 1970 to 1978 by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl. Kuehl had intended to write a definitive biography of Holiday, and her research comprised interviews—taking up 125 audio cassette tapes—with Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus, and Sylvia Syms, among many other colleagues in the jazz world. She also spoke to Holiday’s cousin and childhood friends, as well as to her attorneys and the FBI agents who kept her under surveillance, due to both her drug use and her outspoken antiracism.
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