Lot 81: MIETH, HANSEL (1909-1998) "Santiago Island, Caribbean (Mad Monkey)."

Name: MIETH, HANSEL (1909-1998) "Santiago Island, Caribbean (Mad Monkey)."
Brand: Swann Auction Galleries
SKU: 6hami0new1

Est: $9,000 USD - $12,000 USDSold:

Swann Auction GalleriesNew York, NY, USFebruary 07, 2008

Item Overview

Description

MIETH, HANSEL (1909-1998)
"Santiago Island, Caribbean (Mad Monkey)." Silver print, 13 1/4x10 1/4 inches (33.7x26 cm.), with Mieth's signature, in ink and her hand stamp on verso. 1939; printed 1940s

Artist or Maker

Hansel Mieth

Condition Report

All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries'' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

Notes

Acquired directly from the photographer; to the present owner in 1990.
This image was reproduced in LIFE Magazine in 1939.
LIFE Photographers: What They Saw, 74 (here the image is dated 1938).

Hansel Mieth, the second female photographer on staff at LIFE Magazine (Bourke-White was the first), worked for the publication from the 1930s until the 1950s. Mieth was sent to Puerto Rico to photograph a rhesus monkey colony established by Harvard University for scientific and behavioral research. This iconic photograph originated as part of an important scientific story, but its meaning was altered and somewhat trivialized by the magazine''s editors when it was removed from its original context and morphed as a novelty entitled, "The Misogynist."

Mieth recounts, "I call him the monkey on my back . . . One afternoon all the doctors were away, and a little kid came running to me and said, ''A monkey''s in the water.'' I came down, and that monkey was really going hell-bent for something. ''He is not coming back,'' I said. ''I better go in and get him.'' I don''t know why I was such a policeman, but I threw my Rolleiflex on my back and swam out. I''d stand on the coral reef every so often and then swim again. Finally, I was facing the monkey. I don''t think he liked me, but he sat on that coral reef there, and I took about a dozen shots . . . To me it looks like the monkey''s depicting the state of the world at the time. It was dark and somber and angry. There were a lot of dark clouds swirling around. I heard from many people that they were scared when they looked at it."

Auction Details

FINE PHOTOGRAPHS

Swann Auction Galleries

February 07, 2008, 02:30 PM EST

104 East 25th Street, New York, NY, 10010, US

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