Carmel Vitullo (born July 16, 1925) is an American street photographer whose imagery of Rhode Island have been acquired for a number of collections.
Biography
Carmel Vitullo was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 16, 1925, into the small Italian community of Federal Hill. After high school Vitullo enrolled in a major in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), but abandoned it for the medium of photography about which she was more passionate. In further study at the New York Institute of PhotographyNYIP Famous Alumni she discovered the work of Henri Cartier Bresson and she continued to be an exponent and practitioner of street photography. A majority of her photographs depict the neighbourhood of Rhode Island in the 1950s and the first Newport Jazz Festival. She ran a studio in a South Water Street warehouse in the 1960s. Her commercial practice was in portraitAdvertisement, Bristol Phoenix, (Rhode Island), November 21, 1969 and industrial photography and in her sixties after her retirement, and while living in North Providence, she was working as a producer in cable television."Local programming gies a shot at fame", North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) Saturday, 14 Dec 1991, p.5
Recognition
In the 1950s Vitullo approached Edward Steichen with her portfolio. He selected her photograph of displaced refugees at Grand Central Terminal en route to a relocation centre, for the Museum of Modern Art world-touring exhibition The Family of Man, which was seen by 9 million visitors. Her print was exhibited in the section ‘Rebels’ at the end of a row of six, hard against the adjoining wall,Hurm, Gerd, 1958-, (editor.); Reitz, Anke, (editor.); Zamir, Shamoon, (editor.) (2018), The family of man revisited : photography in a global age, London I.B.Tauris, , 133-156Madeline Ferretti-Theilig/ Jochen Krautz, 'Speaking Images of Humanity. »The Family of Man« Exhibition as an Exemplary Model of Relational Aesthetic and Pictorial Practice' in IMAGE, Ausgabe 26, 07/2017, p.20 in sympathy with the entrapment of the subjects who are seated, frieze-like, along a bench parallel to the picture plane. Stacked on a cart in front of them are their suitcases labeled with stickers of the NCWC (National Catholic Welfare Conference), the social Catholic organization helping immigrants relocate to the United StatesPetit, Jeanne: Our Immigrants Coreligionist. The National Catholic Welfare Conference as an Advocate for Immigrants in the 1920s. In: Buff, Rachel Ida (ed.): Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of Citizenship. New York [NYU P] 2008, cited in Madeline Ferretti-Theilig/ Jochen Krautz, 'Speaking Images of Humanity. »The Family of Man« Exhibition as an Exemplary Model of Relational Aesthetic and Pictorial Practice' in IMAGE, Ausgabe 26, 07/2017 and confirming their identity as immigrants. Disquieting, confusing spots of light from the skylight fall across the scene and add to the pervasive anxiety evident in the expressions of the men, women, and children. The inclusion in The Family of Man and its accompanying catalogue (which has never been out of print) came as a breakthrough for Vitullo. Since then she has exhibited alongside Harry Callahan, O. Winston Link and others and her work has been collected by major institutions.
Exhibitions
1955: The Family of Man, world-touring group exhibition, Museum of Modern Art. 1958, 26 November–18 January: Photographs from the Museum Collection, Museum of Modern Art. 1959, Jun 1-Jul 31: Photographs by Winfield Parks and Carmel Vitullo Rhode Island Museum of Art 2006, 1–31 March: Carmel Vitullo: Italian Sojourn 1966, Bert Gallery, Rhode Island 2006, 1 December–25 February: Urban America, 1930–1970, RISD Museum of ArtRISD Museum of Art exhibition “Urban America, 1930–1970,” Friday, December 1, to February 25, 2007 2009, June–August: Block Island Historical Society 2009, 14 July–28 August: Documenting a Moment, a Place, an Era - Photographs by O. Winston Link (Louisiana 1937-1941) and Carmel Vitullo (Rhode Island 1950 - 1960), Bert Gallery, 540 South Water St., Providence 2011, 28 September – 12 November: The Artist's Venice, paintings by Americans Mabel Woodward, Henry Kenyon, Gordon Peers and others, with street photographs by Carmel Vitullo, Bert Gallery, Rhode Island 2017, to 27 March: Carmel Vitullo: Italo-American, Bert Gallery, Rhode IslandJanet Butler, "R.I. art galleries, exhibits, May 18 weekend", Providence Journal, May 17, 2017 2017, 24 May - 30 June: Oakland Beach in the 1960′s: Art, Society, and Nature, Warwick Center for the Arts, 3259 Post Rd., WarwickChanning Gras, "Carmel Vitullo’s candid photos of midcentury R.I. on exhibit in Providence, Warwick", Providence Journal, May 10, 2017 2019, 4 May–18 July: The Providence Album, Vol 1, Carmel Vitullo and Harry Callahan, Carriage House Gallery, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, 357 Benefit Street, Providence
Collections
Museum of Modern Art Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Bert Gallery,Bert Gallery exhibition Carmel Vitullo: Rhode Island 1950 - 1960, July 14th - August 28th, 2009 Newport Art Museum Block Island Historical Society Château de Clervaux
References