Carmel Vitullo

From my review of photos by Carmel Vitullo of Warwick, Rhode Island, in “Documenting a Moment, a Place, an Era” at Providence’s Bert Gallery:

To some eyes, Carmel Vitullo's big moment came in the '50s when New York's Museum of Modern Art bought a few of her photos and included her shot of European refugees waiting at New York's Grand Central Station in its landmark 1955 post-war exhibition "The Family of Man." The wary, tired men, women, and children sit on benches, with their suitcases lined up before them, under a grid of shadows cast by the building's skylights. You can see why it was selected for the show — it's a dramatic moment dramatically composed.

Vitullo grew up in the Italian community of Providence's Federal Hill, and most of her photos here depict that neighborhood in the '50s...

Read the rest here (at the end).

“Documenting a Moment, a Place, an Era: O. Winston Link: Louisiana, 1937; Carmel Vitullo: Rhode Island, 1950-1960” Bert Gallery, 540 South Water St., Providence, July 14 to Aug. 28, 2009.

Pictured from top to bottom: Carmel Vitullo, “Grand Central Station,” Selected for the Family of Man Exhibition and in the permanent collection of MoMA; “Street Pose”; “Resting”; “Providence Waterfront”; “Narragansett Pier”; “Morning Meeting”; “Grandchildren” and “Street Market.” All copyright Carmel Vitullo.