Contact Press Images

Contact Press Images Contact Press Images is one of the most significant agencies and archives of late-20th-century in existence. Under the direction of Robert Pledge.

Contact Press Images was formed to give its journalists -- who are distinguished photographers -- a greater voice in the production and play of their stories and essays. Representing the work of two-dozen preeminent photographers, including:

Founding Members: David Burnett, Frank Fournier, Kenneth Jarecke, Annie Leibovitz, Dilip Mehta, Alon Reininger;
Senior Members: Kristen Ashburn, Alexandra A

vakian, Stephen Dupont and Lori Grinker;
Contributors: Juliana Beasley, Sean Hemmerle, James Hill, Edward Keating
Special Contributors: Jane Evelyn Atwood, Martine Barrat, Jonathan Becker, George Butler, Yunghi Kim, Li Zhensheng, Ken Light, Don McCullin, Sebastiaio Salgado and Alfred Wertheimer. Estates: Gilles Caron and Olivier Rebbot

This exceptional body of work spans the rise of the Berlin Wall to present day, and includes images of the major events, personalities, and social currents of the 20th century through present day. Contact was founded in New York in 1976, nine months after the end of the war in Vietnam, to facilitate the production of new, independent photojournalism. Photographer joined or were selected based on talent and commitment or area of specialization or interest. The agency maintained a consistent editorial direction: a documentary approach that valued depth over speed, pioneered the use of color film to cover the news, in addition to black and white, and primarily focused its collective lens on conflict, human rights issues, and important cultural trends. The agency has since documented the era that saw the end of apartheid, the fall of Soviet Empire, revolution in Central America, famine and genocide in Africa, ethnic violence in the Balkans, the AIDS pandemic, the birth of the Internet, and the War on Terror. Contact photographers have collectively gathered many of the industry’s most distinguished honors, including annual awards from the World Press Photo Foundation in the Netherlands, the National Press Photographers Association, the Overseas Press Club of America and the American Society of Media Photographers. One of the last independent international photographic agencies still in operation, Contact Press Images is unique among agencies of the period (Black Star, Gamma, Magnum, Rapho, Sipa, Sygma) in that its holdings and their contextual materials remain fully intact. As such, the collection represents much more than a gathering of pictures; it is a photographic time capsule, providing a one-of-a-kind insight into history, and into the industry dedicated to capturing it.

Jane Evelyn Atwood purchased her first camera in 1976 and moved to Rue des Lombards in Paris. There she began photograph...
06/05/2026

Jane Evelyn Atwood purchased her first camera in 1976 and moved to Rue des Lombards in Paris. There she began photographing male and female prostitutes in their dimly lit rooms, capturing the time they spent waiting, their moments of joy, and their fatigue. She won the first ever Eugene Smith Grant in 1980 for that body of work. Her early work already contained the essence of her photojournalistic approach, which shows us that to understand a country, one must be willing to step through the looking glass and venture into the shadows.

Atwood does not simply document, she immerses herself in the lives of the people she photographs. In 1987, she followed Jean-Louis, the first person in France with AIDS who agreed to be photographed, accompanying him until the end of his life. At a time paralysed by fear and stigma around the epidemic, Atwood gave a face to those who society tried not to see.

Atwood’s work also documents the lives of women in prison, victims of landmines, and the lives of visually impaired children in many different countries. Atwood has remained unwavering in her commitment to ‘go where she feels she has to be.’ She approaches each setting with sharp insight, sensitivity, respect, and intelligence.

After working in Lebanon, Chad, the United States, Haiti and on numerous other assignments, Atwood has turned her lens to a completely different subject: horses. From the island of Ouessant, off the coast of Brittany, to the Mongolian steppe, she is drawn to their power, their taut muscles, their calm gaze and their majestic, elegant presence.

In medicine, it is now well recognised that spending time with animals, and the sense of closeness they offer to patients, can have real therapeutic effects. After a life spent photographing the excluded and the marginalized, and much of the pain and tragedy in the world, Atwood seems to have found a form of calm in horses in motion, moving freely and shaped by the light.

Jane’s work on the Horses (and some of her other well known photographs) is on exhibit at the La Gacilly Photo Festival from this weekend until October 2026.

On June 3, 1992, just one day after securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Bill Clinton surprises viewers of T...
06/03/2026

On June 3, 1992, just one day after securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Bill Clinton surprises viewers of The Arsenio Hall Show by strapping on a saxophone, slipping on a pair of dark sunglasses and launching into Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” The studio audience erupted in applause, and the unexpected performance quickly became a media sensation. To many observers, it marked a turning point in American political communication, helping the Arkansas governor connect with younger urban voters in a way few presidential candidates had before.
In actuality Clinton had already strapped on the sax and played on the campaign in January’92, seen here at The 5th Column in Washington, DC, where David Burnett made this memorable frame.

On the weekend of June 6 and 7, David Burnett has invited to France, Normandy, to the opening of the second edition of t...
06/01/2026

On the weekend of June 6 and 7, David Burnett has invited to France, Normandy, to the opening of the second edition of the Deauville Sport Images Festival which will exhibit a selection of his photographs of the Olympic Games among the thirteen exhibitions presented this summer throughout the city. If you are near Deauville on June 6-7 and after (expo lasts until Sept) come and see!!
All photographs (c) IOC/David Burnett/Contact Press Images

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader and composer. He is amon...
05/26/2026

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Davis was at the forefront of several major stylistic developments in jazz, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, third stream, modal jazz, avant-garde jazz, and jazz fusion. His legacy extends into rock, funk, classical, and hip-hop.
Aram Avakian was an American film editor and director. Aram, brother to legendary jazz and classical record producer, George Avakian, was invited to photograph sessions that George coordinated for different LPs. These images of Miles were taken in June of 1956.

On this day in 1907, John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American West, was born in Winterset, Iowa.The Duke,...
05/26/2026

On this day in 1907, John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American West, was born in Winterset, Iowa.

The Duke, as he was known, embodied the simple, and perhaps simplistic, cowboy values of decency, honesty, and integrity.

Besides Westerns, Wayne also acted in war films. It was a small leap from the valorous cowboy or cavalry soldier to the brave WWII fighters of films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951). Deeply conservative in his politics, Wayne also used his 1968 film, The Green Berets, to express his support of the American government’s war in Vietnam.

By the late 1960s, some Americans had tired of Wayne and his simplistically masculine and patriotic characters. Increasingly, western movies were rejecting the simple black-and-white moral codes championed by Wayne and replacing them with a more complex and tragic view of the American West. However, Wayne proved more adaptable than many expected. In his Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969), he began to escape the narrow confines of his own good-guy image. His final film, The Shootist (1976), won over even his most severe critics. Wayne—who was himself battling lung cancer—played a dying gunfighter whose moral codes and principles no longer fit in a changing world.

A changing world and the transposition of elements that both reflect and deflect reality seen in some photographs from Contact Press Images Senior Photographer Frank Fournier’s insightful and tongue in cheek “New York Crossings” essay of Frank’s street photography.

Saluting my cousin Mel “Buddy” Friedman today, a Jewish American who conscripted, along with more than one million other...
05/25/2026

Saluting my cousin Mel “Buddy” Friedman today, a Jewish American who conscripted, along with more than one million other Jews who serve in allied armies in WWIl and died on July 6 of wounds sustained in the DDay landings. Dearly missed and humbled by your service and sacrifice.

Major League Baseball held its first ever night game, May 24, 1935.The first big league night game on this day in 1935 d...
05/24/2026

Major League Baseball held its first ever night game, May 24, 1935.
The first big league night game on this day in 1935 drew 25,000 fans, who stood by as President Roosevelt symbolically switched on the lights from Washington, D.C. To capitalize on their new evening fan base, the Reds played a night game that year against every National League team–eight games in total–and despite their lousy record of 68-85, paid attendance rose 117 percent. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 .
In 1981, “in reaction to the MLB strike”, Contact photographer David Burnett set off to document baseball “in it’s purest form - Guys who played for $100/month for the love off the game,” recalled David.
Images here show David’s self-started project documenting the spirit and emotion of minor league ball with Gastonia (NC) Cardinals, in 1981. David traveled the U.S. shooting and the work was published in American GEO magazine.

1883 - Brooklyn Bridge opens.After 14 years of construction, the over the East River opens, connecting the (then-separ...
05/24/2026

1883 - Brooklyn Bridge opens.
After 14 years of construction, the over the East River opens, connecting the (then-separate) cities of New York and for the first time in history.
Photograph by at the 100th anniversary n May 24, 1983.

On May 19, 2018, Prince Harry of Britain married Meghan Markle, an American actress, in St. George’s Chapel within the g...
05/19/2026

On May 19, 2018, Prince Harry of Britain married Meghan Markle, an American actress, in St. George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle. Some 600 guests attend the ceremony and nearly 2 billion people worldwide watch the televised event.

The 36-year-old bride and 33-year-old groom met in 2016 and announced their engagement a year later. Markle was born and raised in Los Angeles, the only child of Ragland, a yoga instructor, and Thomas Markle, a lighting director. After minor TV and film appearances, Markle landed a starring role in the legal drama “Suits.”

Soon after their engagement Contact began representing the Meghan Markle archive of Los Angeles photographer John Dlugolecki who, as a portrait photographer for the Immaculate Heart School where Meghan attended, photographed Meghan for years. Unlike most portraits studios, John retained all rights. John’s photographs of Meghan were (and continue to be) published the world over. They are all copyright registered.

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