WASHINGTON, D.C.- From his famous scowl to his monogrammed French-cuffed shirts to his legendary photographs, Arthur Ellis was a fixture at The Washington Post for 47 years. A longtime photographer for the newspaper, Ellis was known for his "get it first and get it best" attitude towards photojournalism.  Ellis’ photographs give a sense of the cultural history of Washington from the early 1930s through the early 1970s. On view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from July 2 through August 14, 2003, Front Page: The Photographs of Arthur Ellis presents a selection of images and related materials from the Museum’s remarkable collection of Ellis’ photographs.

"Working at The Washington Post for nearly half a century, Arthur Ellis documented the Washington, DC region during a period of considerable change," notes Philip Brookman, the Corcoran’s Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts. "This exhibition is a window into the history and culture of this community, as portrayed in the news media."

Featuring approximately 60 photographs and related objects, including Ellis’ scrapbooks and memorabilia, the exhibition explores the grand history, intimate moments and city news of Washington through photographs. One image, which ran on the front page of The Washington Post on February 16, 1954, shows a car precariously suspended above water. According to Ellis’ notation on the back of the photograph, the scene depicts a "man driving off the Seventh Street wharves." In addition to his hard news images, Ellis was also known for his human interest photographs. For instance, Ellis’ so-called "Boy Blue" story in November 1948 portrayed 13-year-old Claude Sine, who was awaiting heart surgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. (This image won the first prize of the Washington Newspaper Guild’s competition for front page photographs.)

Born in Washington, DC in 1912, Arthur J. Ellis began his career at The Washington Post in 1929 as a copyboy. He joined the photography staff in 1930. Ellis served as Photo Editor in the early 1950s and was the Post’s Chief Photographer when he retired in the late 1970s. He also served as a motion picture photographer in the Army during World War II. According to Post art critic Paul Richard, Ellis "was a specialist in ‘features,’ pictures from the streets, in images that had less to do with news than with life." Ellis consistently tried to photograph lightning as it hit the pointed tip of the Washington Monument; he was known for pointing his camera out a window of the former Post building every time there was a thunderstorm. His perseverance paid off - he did eventually get the picture, which was published in newspapers around the country in 1936. Ellis retired from the newspaper in 1977; he died in 1989 at the age of 77.

In addition to the photographs given to the Museum by Arthur Ellis’ estate, his widow bequeathed $1 million to the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 2001. Arthur J. Ellis Scholarships in Photojournalism are awarded to high school seniors applying to the College’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree Program in Photojournalism.

"This is an excellent opportunity for our students to learn about Ellis’ enduring contribution to photojournalism in this city." says Corcoran College of Art + Design’s Dean Christina DePaul. "We are honored that the Ellis family decided to support the education of new generations of photojournalists through the Arthur Ellis Scholarships."

Front Page: The Photographs of Arthur Ellis is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Drawing directly upon the resources of the nation’s capital, the Corcoran College of Art + Design’s Photojournalism curriculum is an ideal training ground for American news photographers. The faculty is composed of leading members of the White House News Photographers’ Association (WHNPA), one of the most distinguished groups of photojournalists in the world. These practitioner-teachers are renowned not only for their technical skills, but for their special understanding of the problems associated with creating images of national and world events and personalities – images that have meaning as historical documentation as well as art – and their awareness of the special responsibility such work entails.

Located across the street from the White House, the Corcoran offers photojournalism students access to the many newsmaking venues in Washington - those encompassed by the three major branches of the US government, the national headquarters of political parties, hundreds of embassies, and thousands of business and non-profit organizations that influence national and international policy.