The late Lee Bernard, seen here in 1997, poses with a photograph he took the night of the Silver Bridge disaster on Dec. 15, 1967. His photograph often moves around social media on the anniversary of the Silver Bridge collapse.
The late Lee Bernard, seen here in 1997, poses with a photograph he took the night of the Silver Bridge disaster on Dec. 15, 1967. His photograph often moves around social media on the anniversary of the Silver Bridge collapse.
For most of the past four-plus decades, IƵve made my living by writing news stories: covering events, person profiles, in-depth pieces and even a few sports-related stories. IƵve taken news photographs that have appeared in publications where IƵve worked, and IƵve sold a few freelance.
Thursday night, as I thought about some photos IƵd taken this year, this thought came to me: Of the journalism IƵve consumed over the years, I remember the great photos more than I do the stories I have read.
The Washington PostƵs coverage of the Watergate scandal is considered by many people of that era to be great journalism, but I cannot quote a single passage from any of those stories. But I can describe the most impactful photos IƵve seen. Here are 10:
The suspected Viet Cong operative being shot in the head on the streets of Saigon by the Saigon police chief.
The naked Vietnamese girl running from her village after it had been attacked with napalm. She was naked because she pulled her burning clothes off her.
The young woman at Kent State University kneeling over the body of a student protestor who had been shot and killed.
The Hindenburg explosion.
Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, who had shot and killed President John F. Kennedy.
Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office in the flight back to Washington, D.C., from Dallas, with KennedyƵs widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, standing beside him, still in shock.
Edwin ƵBuzzƵ Aldrin walking on the moon as photographed by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong.
W. Eugene SmithƵs photo of a woman in Minimata, Japan, bathing her daughter, born with birth defects caused by a local industryƵs polluting the waters of that town with mercury.
The sailor kissing a random woman he encountered on the streets of New York City on V-J Day.
And last for this listƵs purposes, the remains of the Silver Bridge as seen from the Ohio side the night of its collapse. The photo was taken by Lee Bernard of The Herald- Dispatch. ItƵs often circulated on Facebook on the disasterƵs anniversary but without any credit to him. ThatƵs a shame. He should be credited for the quality of his work that night and the effort it took to get the photo into the next dayƵs newspaper.
Some readers would include the 1984 photo of Sharbat Gula, the 12-year-old Afghan refugee girl in Pakistan who appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine. I can accept that.
Most of the photos listed above were taken in black and white because that was what was available in that era. Most of these photos benefitted from being shot in black and white because that form removes the distraction of color and strips the image down to its basics.
In recent times, former president Donald Trump has given us at least two images that are memorable. One was his mug shot. The other was him raising his fist defiantly before being taken off the state after the first attempt on his life.
George W. Bush standing on the rubble of the World Trade Center speaking into a bullhorn would count as memorable.
In this digital age, pictures are so easy to get and delete that they have lost the impact they had when making a decent photo took planning and patience. Film and developing could get expensive, and it could take a week to get your snapshots back from a lab. Ƶ phone cameras made photography easy to create and disseminate, they also diluted the impact of a good still photo.
But a great photo lives with you forever, whether you see it on a screen or hold it in your hand.
Jim Ross is development and opinion editor of The Herald-Dispatch. His email address is jross@hdmediallc.com.
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