Oct 11, 2013

Iconic photography from seven Baltimore Sun photographers

Robert Hamilton 1 Comment From the Vault, Retrospective, The Baltimore Sun A. Aubrey Bodine, Baltimore Sun, Ellis Malashuk, Hans Marx, Richard Stacks, Robert Kniesche, Walter McCardell, William Klender

56 Photos

In the long history of photojournalism at The Baltimore Sun, there have been a number of great photographers. The new book, “Darkroom: Iconic Photography from Seven Baltimore Sun Photographers,” highlights some of The Sun‘s most talented visual artists and their body of work.

: A. Aubrey Bodine, shown here in the darkroom, worked at The Baltimore Sun as a staff photographer from 1920 to 1970.

: The flat terrain suggest Maryland’s Eastern Shore, but it’s not clear where the photographer stumbled upon this picturesque ruin of a house in his travels around the state in the spring of 1966. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: The foul weather seems a mere amusement to Warren Hudgins, who embodies the hardiness of all Chesapeake Bay waterman in this photograph from October of 1953. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: A man works on the construction on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in August 1964, shortly after the the 23-mile span opened to traffic on the northbound side, a project that took nearly four years to complete. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: The Baltimore City Hall may be unique as a civic edifice — it was constructed and furnished for less money than had been appropriated. The building is made of Baltimore County marble and has a cast iron dome. In the foreground is one of the horses which flank the entrance to the War Memorial. (A. Aubrey Bodine/1956 Baltimore Sun)

: This young fisherman is going to need a patch job as he’s snagged on a barbed-wire fence in September 1949. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: “Girl in a Hurry” was among a number of photographs by A. Aubrey Bodine that traveled to exhibitions in Moscow and Leningrad in September 1965. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: These teenage boys are getting a taste of sea life in August 1944 aboard American Engineer, a merchant marine training ship based out of Baltimore. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: Walter McCardell was 18 when he was hired at The Sun as a photographer. He would go on to have a 46-year career.

: Thomas Haynes, 13, wasn’t waiting for the traffic signal to read “swing” before going for a ride at the corner of Lombard and Schroeder streets in November 1975. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Skipjacks cross in the Chesapeake Bay near the Bay Bridge in May 1976. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Ethel Heartwell Pretlow arranges flowers on her husband’s grave in Baltimore National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 1983. Her husband, Edgar Melvin Pretlow, served in the Navy during World War II and died in 1964. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: This is an action shot of the March 1952 collapse of spectator stands in Baltimore’s Fifth Armory Regiment. (Walter McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Carol Poole gets a good soaking, and doesn’t mind at all, as William Webster Jr. sprays a hose on a hot day on Wyeth Street in Southwest Baltimore in 1981. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Baltimore County policemen carry anti-segregation demonstrators from Gwynn Oak Park in July 1963. Protestors numbered in the hundreds. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Always ready to try another hat, Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer dons goggles and helmet and gets behind the wheel of an Army M-1 tank during a visit to Aberdeen Proving Ground in August 1982. (Walter M. McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

: Ellis Malashuk develops a portrait between editions in 1968. He was a staff photographer at The Sun from 1947 to 1985.

: As the warmer weather of spring arrives in Druid Hill Park in April 1962, Ralph Willett, 14, celebrates the occasion by leap-frogging over Barrington Wood, 13, as “Duke” runs alongside. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: Barber Joseph Cherone puts the finishing touches on Charlie Mueller’s haircut in a chair moved outdoors for some open air tonsorial work in May 1959. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: A shopping cart becomes a go-cart for LeRoy Simon, 13, who pushes off with Jack Burris, 15 (seated), to provide steering and braking and Derek Brown, 9, along for the ride in August 1981. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was in town in May 1956, bringing elephants and an assortment of handlers parading down Pulaski Highway. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: Laymon Yokely pitched six no-hitters for the Baltimore Black Sox of the American Negro League and posted 42 wins for the Philadelphia Stars. In July of 1970, he posed for a photo at his shoeshine stand on Pennsylvania Avenue. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: Raymond McGrew, 13, leaps with joy outside Public School No. 47 at Fleet Street and Linwood Avenue in Baltimore in June 1963, as school is out and his report card shows passing grades. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: Teammates swarm winning pitcher Dave McNally, after he blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0, on Oct. 9, 1966 at Memorial Stadium, completing the Orioles’ four-game sweep in the World Series. (Ellis Malashuk/Baltimore Sun)

: William L. Klender joined The Sun as a staff photographer in 1946 and stayed with the paper until 1982. He considered it his dream job.

: This March 1965 photo of a red cap at Union Station in Washington D.C. won first place in the Portrait and Feature category of a Baltimore press cameramens’ competition. It was called “Vanishing Occupation.” (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: A group of Amish men make short work of a barn raising in March 1965. With this image, Klender won first place in the Features class of a photo contest held by the Baltimore Press Photographers’ Association. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: A host of turkeys congregates at C. Ellsworth Iager’s Maple Lawn Farm in Fulton in November 1954. In the foreground is a grim reminder of the fate awaiting them at this time of year. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: Klender noted that the coin return in this phone booth on Market Place was frequently checked for stray change by those down on their luck. The photo was titled “Skid Row” and was taken in October 1961. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: As much as anything, the rowhouse defines the Baltimore way of life. A February 1963 article in The Sun noted that it was easier for “a man of modest means” to buy a home in this city than almost anywhere else. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: This photograph entitled “Thirsty” shows a dog drinking from a hose with the remains of a fire in the background in February 1961. The picture took first place in a contest. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: William L. Klender got a jolt when he saw this hand gripping the window of his fourth-floor apartment in August 1963, but his first impulse was to grab his camera. The fingers belong to a workman just below the ledge. (William L. Klender/Baltimore Sun)

: Robert F. Kniesche joined the newspaper at age 18 and would go on to become the photography director at The Sunpapers . Kniesche was a pilot from an early age and used aerial photography at The Sun.

: Replica cannons stand in a line at Fort Carroll in this Oct. 1961 photograph. The original guns had been forged at a foundry built specially for that purpose on the the island. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: A pair of tugboats pull a cargo ship safely to its destination at the port of Baltimore in September 1949. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: A guard is posted on the wall at the Maryland Penitentiary in February 1958. The penitentiary opened in East Baltimore in 1811 and was Maryland’s first prison. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: Even seven decades later, no Baltimorean could fail to recognize this photo of the Washington Monument as it towers above Mount Vernon Place. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: The Jones Falls Expressway curves near 29th Street in this photo from July 1967. Efforts to get the highway constructed began in the mid 1950s. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: While most of the horses at My Lady’s Manor near Monkton stand in the winter cold as patient silhouettes, one of their number frolics gleefully after a 10-inch snowfall in February 1964. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: This photograph from May 1965 shows the play of light and shadow on a column of bay windows in downtown Baltimore. Near the top of the building, an early riser sticks his head out of a window to check the weather. (Robert F. Kniesche/Baltimore Sun)

: Hans Marx worked at The Baltimore Sun from 1937 to 1955. He first picked up a camera as a teenager in Overlea and was entirely self-taught.

: In a city park, a bocce player reacts to his throw – apparently with dismay. This photo, titled “Mind Over Matter,” won third place in a 1951 NPPA Photo Competition Sports Class. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: In a timeless image, a group of men and their horses – accompanied by a dog or two – gather in the dawn light at Chincoteague Island, Va., in Nov. 1948. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: Ben Zawadski takes a break from his dredging work on the Chesapeake Bay in this photo from April 1950. “Mudhawks” were a tough bunch, and Hans Marx notes that Zawadski had a reputation as one of the toughest. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: Startled pedestrians look on and firemen prepare their equipment as fire engulfs a city street in Canton in Feb. 1953. This photo bore the title, “The Start of 18 Alarms.” (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: In an impressive balancing act, hunting guide Charles Bias pushes a marsh boat through the water as Set Fitchett keeps a lookout for railbirds during an Oct. 1954 hunting trip. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: Under the watchful eye of the new parents, an unidentified country doctor gets acquainted with a young patient during a house call on the Eastern Shore in May 1952. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: The wind is high but the view is fantastic about the Chesapeake as Fil Horton inspects cable being pulled from reels to a distant pier of the Bay Bridge in April 1952. (Hans Marx/Baltimore Sun)

: Richard Stacks worked at The Baltimore Sun from 1951 to 1969. He was a Baltimore native and attended City College.

: Barker Joe Martin lures customers into the Oasis cabaret on The Block in May 1967. The Oasis, along with Kay’s, the Miami, the Two O’Clock Club and other establishments, did a booming business. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: Charles Thompson greets his new classmates at Public School No. 27 on Sept. 1954, less than four months after the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was unconstitutional. Charles was the only African-American child in the school. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: As a postal carrier delivers the mail, careful choice of angle and shading creates an unusual pattern on the rowhouses lining the 1500 block of S. Hanover Street in June 1962. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: Snow blankets a row of houses on West Fayette Street near Charles Street in Feb. 1956. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: With this April 1955 photo of a woman in a Baltimore park titled “A Drink in the Rain,” Stacks won Best in the Pictorial Class in the Baltimore Press Photographers’ Association contest for that year. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: Wearing his characteristic papier-mache headpiece, William Andrews, aka “Willie the Rooter,” cheers on the Baltimore Colts during a Nov. 1957 game. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

: In this photo from May 1959, nine-month-old William Kerbe, a grandson of city police Sgt. William Kerbe, shares his playpen with Kirke, a police dog, in his Howard County home. (Richard Stacks/Baltimore Sun)

Having been at The Sun for 30 years, I have had the pleasure of working with several of these photographers. Others I have gotten to know through reputation and seeing their photography in our archives.

Each of the photographers featured in the book brought a unique vision to their subjects.

A. Aubrey Bodine, probably the most noted Sun photographer, had a national reputation for his picturesque photographs of Maryland. But Bodine did far more than just pretty pictures, such as covering life in Baltimore during World War II.

Walter McCardell was the quintessential news photographer, whose career at The Sun spanned 46 years. His coverage included important events such as rioting in the streets of Baltimore following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Ellis Malashuk, who worked at the newspaper for 36 years, had a keen eye for chronicling everyday life in Baltimore. His talent with the camera made Malashuk the logical successor to Bodine as the Sun Magazine photographer.

William Klending was a well-rounded photographer, capable of covering any number of topics with equal dexterity. He photographed sports, fashion, portraiture and more for the newspaper.

In the 1930s, Robert Kniesche recognized the value of aerial photography as a newsgathering tool and often took aerial photographs himself. He was also a charter member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).

Hans Marx had a fascination with Baltimore’s shipping industry and documented those who made their living on the docks. He was fearless in pursuit of a picture. He would go wherever it was necessary to get his picture, such as climbing to the top of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as it was being constructed.

Richard Stacks had the shortest tenure of the seven, having worked at The Sun for a “mere” 18 years, but his impact was equally felt. He liked to travel the streets at night and capture unique views of Baltimore. He also was a great portrait artist, gaining his subjects’ trust and capturing real moments that provided insight into who they were.

ALSO SEE

Celebrating 175 years of Baltimore Sun photos

A. Aubrey Bodine photos

Hans Marx photos

Robert Kniesche photos

Richard Stacks photos

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Blue Note Tech Blog » This Week in Photography: Women and Photojournalism, the Most Gorgeous Leica Ever, and Food Porn
Oct 12, 2013 @ 15:10:16

[…] mean the newspaper hasn’t had its fair share of highly talented shooters. In the new book, Darkroom: Iconic Photography From Seven Baltimore Sun Photographers, we get a decades-long look at some of the best photographs to ever appear in the paper. And for […]

Iconic photography from seven Baltimore Sun photographers

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