Reminders of the Past – Photos by Burt Glinn
Burt Glinn or Burton Samuel Glinn (July 23, 1925-April 9, 2008) was an American professional photographer who worked with Magnum Photos. He covered revolutionary leader Fidel Castro’s entrance into Havana, Cuba, and photographed people such as Andy Warhol and Helen Frankenthaler. Glinn’s photos show such things as the social scene of the rich, the dirtiness of politics, and the humorous flotilla that called itself the Seattle Tubing Society.
Montana, 1954. Life on an Assiniboine Indian reservation
Glinn, a Pittsburgh native, studied literature at Harvard University, where he edited and photographed for the college newspaper Harvard Crimson. He served in the U.S. Army and worked for Life magazine from 1949 to 1950. Glinn became an associate member of Magnum in 1951 along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock – the first Americans to join the agency – with Glinn becoming a full member in 1954
New York, New York. 1950. Gloria Swanson, Jose Ferrer and Judy Holliday at the Academy Awards
Glinn became famous for his color pictures of the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and California. At a New Year’s party in 1958, Glinn was notified that Fidel Castro had taken over Cuba. By dawn the next day he was covering the revolution in Cuba, making photographs “as everybody got whatever weapon they could get their hands on,” he once said. In 1959 the photographer received the Mathew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year, offered by the University of Missouri for a photo essay on the South Seas.
New York, New York. 1957. David Amram at the Five Spot Cafe
New York, New York. 1965. Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick and Chuck Wein
West Berlin. 1961. West Germans in Berlin try to make visual contact over the Berlin Wall with friends and family in East Berlin
New York, New York. 1972. Leonard Bernstein conducting the final rehearsal for "Carmen" at Lincoln Center
Cuba. 1959. Stopping on his way to Havana, Fidel Castro lifts a young admirer above the crowd.
Havana, Cuba. 1959. Crowds celebrating the liberation of Havana in the main plaza.
Santa Clara, Cuba. Troops passing through Santa Clara.
Havana, Cuba, 1959. A young soldier speaking to a woman during the revolution.
Havana, Cuba. 1959. New Years Day.
Washington D.C. 1968. Aftermath of the riots the morning after the assassination of Martin Luther King JR., leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
Sagaro, Spain. 1959. Elizabeth Taylor on the set of "Suddenly Last Summer."
Seattle, Washington. 1955. The head cheerleader and the captain of the football team embrace after a game. The team had just won a game for the first time in three years.
New York, New York. 1957. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Barney Rosset in Washington Square Park.
New York, New York. 1957. Helen Frankenthaler and David Smith in Frankenthaler's studio.
Chicago, Illinois. 1966. Hugh Hefner working at the Playboy Mansion.
Indiana. 1968. New York State Senator Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel campaigning in a small Midwest town.
McLean, Virginia. 1968. Robert Kennedy with nine of his children at their Hickory Hill home. It is the last weekend with his family before going on the campaign trail.
Washington D.C. 1959. Nikita Khrushchev in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
When asked in an interview which of his images he most closely identifies with, Glinn replied that without a doubt it is the picture showing the back of Nikita Khrushchev’s head in front of the Lincoln Memorial:
“ I was late and I couldn’t get to where everybody else was, in front of Khrushchev, so I came running up and I was in the back of him. And I looked up and there it was. I got two shots of that and then it disintegrated. If I’d been on time I would have gotten a very ordinary picture of Khrushchev and Henry Cabot Lodge looking at this statue of Lincoln but you couldn’t see the statue. The most important thing that a photographer like me can have is luck, you know.”
England. 1959. Ball for the debut of Lindy Guinness at Belvoir Castle.
Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957. On the first day of integration at Little Rock High School a group of girls gather during recess.
Chicago, Illinois. 1968. Two young protestors rest outside the convention hall during the turbulent 1968 Democratic Convention.
New York, New York. 1957. Merce Cunningham and Anita Huffington.
New York, New York. 1956. Marilyn Monroe and John Huston.
San Francisco, California. 1956. Richard and Pat Nixon stand next to Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower.
London, England. 1960. Opening of the Picasso Retrospective at the Tate Gallery.
New York, New York. 1957. Queen Elizabeth.
New York, New York. 1959. Sammy Davis Jr. dances across Madison Avenue after his last show at the Copa Cabana.
New York, New York. 1959. Sammy Davis Jr. looking out a Manhattan window at dawn.
London, England. 1960. Opening of the Picasso Retrospective at the Tate Gallery.
London, England. 1966. Twiggy.