Photography enables me to discover, observe [and] understand things about people and their relationships, and it allows me to capture and hold them forever... It is by photographs, rather than by talking about experiences, that I communicate. —Raimondo Borea

“AFRICAN STUDENTS AT FRIENDS WORLD COLLEGE”, AUGUST 9, 1963, BY RAIMONDO BOREA. © THE ESTATE OF RAIMONDO BOREA, COURTESY GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

GME is proud to represent the work of photographer Raimondo Borea (1926—1982) who, over a four decade-long career, amassed an impressive portfolio that permeated all areas of fine art photography, television, music, publishing, and advertising. Borea’s work has experienced a recent renaissance, as evidenced by the appearances of his photos in two books and a documentary within the past year.

Most recently, Borea’s photograph "African students at Friends World College” appears in Darren Newbury’s new book COLD WAR PHOTOGRAPHIC DIPLOMACY, published this year by Pennsylvania State University Press. Newbury’s book chronicles the United States’ “campaign of photographic diplomacy, underpinned by a faith in the capacity of the medium to cross cultural boundaries” in the wake of the “emergence of newly independent African nations onto the world stage in the mid-twentieth century.” As noted in Newbury’s book, about Borea’s photo:

Photographs of positive interactions between Black Africans and White Americans were highly valued. USIA commissioned… photographer[s] to document African students at an experimental educational initiative by the Friends World College Committee in Long Island for a planned center-page spread in Outlook. The curriculum included topics such as disarmament, colonialism, and world education, but the emphasis of the photographic coverage was on the informal interactions between participants. Among the photographs selected from printing was one of an interracial couple holding hands as they wade in the shallow end of a swimming pool, an image with a very particular resonance in relation to desegregation struggles.

Starting in the mid-1950s, Borea was afforded exclusive behind-the-scenes access to The Today Show, as well as The Tonight Show and Firing Line. Borea’s photograph of the founding host and anchor of The Today Show, Dave Garroway, was used for the cover of Jodie Peeler’s 2023 biography PEACE: THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD OF DAVE GARROWAY, TELEVISION’S ORIGINAL MASTER COMMUNICATOR. Also included in the book is Borea’s photo documenting the 25th anniversary of the Today Show, which features Garroway with Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Gene Shalit, Jack Lescoulie, and Frank Blair.

SHARI LEWIS AND LAMB CHOP ON *THE TONIGHT SHOW* WITH JOHNNY CARSON, CIRCA MID-1960S. © THE ESTATE OF RAIMONDO BOREA, COURTESY GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

Also in 2023, Borea’s photograph of famed ventriloquist, puppeteer, actress, and children’s entertainer Shari Lewis, appearing on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with her beloved anthropomorphic sheep sock puppet Lamb Chop, was licensed for Lisa D’Apolito’s 2023 documentary SHARI & LAMB CHOP. D’Apolito’s critically-acclaimed film premiered at last year’s DOC NYC Festival.

GME is committed to furthering the legacy of this overlooked photographer through the licensing of his photographs, mounting curated exhibitions, republishing his out-of-print books, and identifying a long-term repository for this significant collection of photographic imagery.

Please contact GME’s Fine Arts Curator, David Deitch, at david@gartenbergmedia.com, for all inquiries related to the Borea photography collection.

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Raimondo Borea: A Recent Renaissance