Oct 28, 2015

The Baltimore Sun has a rich history of photojournalism, employing a long line of award-winning photographers. One of the most notable photographers through the years has been A. Aubrey Bodine. A man known for his prickly personality, Bodine’s traits were only outdone by his beautiful photography.

From 1927-1970, Bodine’s pictorialist style earned him numerous awards and a worldwide reputation. In 1965, he had a show in Moscow that was the first exchange of one-man photography exhibits between the U.S. and Russia. In a 1949 contest by the magazine “Popular Photography,” Bodine’s picture of a Choptank oyster dredger was selected as first prize for best black and white photography, beating out more than 51,000 entries. He received a $5,000 savings bond for the award.

He was notoriously exacting, drawing on everything from seasonal light patterns to tidal charts to choose the right moments to shoot. He was fanatical, driving 30,000 miles a year in his car and dropping everything if he saw a good scene.

Bodine passed away on Oct. 28, 1970 after suffering a stroke in his darkroom.

: 1954 – Self portrait. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1934 – The “Philadelphia” (affectionately known as “Smoky Joe”), a ferry that traveled between Baltimore and Love Point on Kent Island, pulls in to Pier 5 off Light street during a 1934 snowstorm. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1957 – Bridge #7 halfway between Alvarado and Wautaga is 46 feet high and 635 feet long. The Virginia Creeper train is heading West from Alvarado toward Abingdon. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1946 – Serge N. Benson landing a rainbow trout in Hunting Creek. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1957 – Harvey Ladew trims up a swan in his garden. Ladew Gardens consists of 15 formal gardens spread over 22 acres. Experts have praised his topiary as among the best examples in the United States. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1948 – The longest block in Baltimore, 2600 Wilkens Avenue, is known as the Mill Hill Deck of Cards. When the numbers approached 2,700, the builder had to resort to half numbers. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1948 – Raking Clams. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1949 – October fields in Baltimore County. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1944 – Mrs. Emma Robinson prays at Parkside Methodist Church. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1944 – Training of Merchant Seamen. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1946 – Eclipse photographed in a time lapse sequence shown with the Washington Monument in the foreground as it passes over Baltimore. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1941 – Mount Vernon Place. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1936 – Straw hats on display at the Charcol Club gallery, 853 Linden Ave. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1954 – Lafayette Courts housing development from Central and Fayette Streets looking West. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1963 – Dorothy Lamour at her home in Parkton, MD. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1957 – The Great Wye Oak. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1957 – Willia Hoffman, the last lamplighter, 49 years of service. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1959 – The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visit Maryland. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1949 – Misty morning duck hunting on the Patuxent River. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1970 – There are many decorative lions through the city, some of which probably look familiar to you. These lions once were in the 1100 block of St. Paul’s Street. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1966 – Down by Crisfield docks, Dewey London opens clams for the Ward brothers. A lifelong friend, London sells souvenirs as well as clams from his store. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1948 – Tonging oysters by hand from the bay bottom is tough, cold, rugged work. Men go out in small boats with rakes on the ends of handles which sometimes measure twenty-four feet in length. Most of the tonging is done in the cold weather when ice frequently forms on the handles. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1946 – The City Dock in Annapolis. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1936 – Head Coach Charley Havens is shown conducting a skill session for members of Western Maryland’s Green Terrors squad. The Terror coach is pointing out an off tackle play. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1936- Bethlehem Steel Company: Sparrows Point. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1950 – St. Clementes Island – location where the first colonists landed on what is now known as Maryland. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1945 – VE DAY – Newspapers sold for 5 cents at Park Avenue and Lexington Street. Headline: “All Germany Surrenders.” (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1959 – A view from the bridge of the Liberian tanker African Queen, which on December 31 struck a shoal nine-miles off Ocean City and broke in two. The ship having been formally abandoned, it may legally be stripped. Maryland and Delaware watermen are making hauls. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1935 – Fishing at the Thomas Viaduct in Relay, Maryland. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1935 — Construction of the Orleans Street viaduct is seen from the Standard Oil Building in 1935. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1962 – One of two identical apartment houses at 20th street after the storm. The two were valued near $150,000, but were so badly wrecked that the owner sold them to a salvage firm for $1,200. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1959 – Left to right: John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil J. Grissom, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Malcolm S. Carpenter. They are looking at model of capsule. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1953 – Warren Hudgins steers a boat to fishing grounds. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1966 – To a photographer, the picturesque scene justifies itself. So, happened upon during Maryland travels, this striking ruin was taken by Bodine. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1964 – Construction on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1960 – Longshoremen unload rubber at the B&O Railroad’s pier at Locust Point in 1960. It was once a familiar sight to see workers carrying hundred-pound stems of bananas off boats in the harbor. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1942 – Light Street at Pratt as it looked during a flood in 1942. In the background is the Ericsson Line’s pier. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1933 – J. Benjamin Ayres, left, and H.G. Murray, right, are busy repairing toys at the Good Will Industries shop in Baltimore in this scene. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1952 – “Gentle People” Amish girls in St. Mary’s County. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1955 – A housing development in the Dundalk area, seen from the air. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1930 – Everything from ham and beans to beef stew and hot dogs were available at the coffee house. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1945 – The cigarette line at Guilford and Fayette Streets line extending to Baltimore Sun. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1927 – Machine gun spread of the 58 Brigade headquarters at Camp Ritchie. Charles Skyrock and Michael Huntly. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1959 – Their unusual shapes accentuated by the snow striping their sides, these trees make a picture that has won prizes in shows all over the world-Australia, France, South Africa, Brazil, Hong Kong, to name only a few of the places. The trees grow on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, the highest point in Maryland at 3,340 feet. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1951 – Alice Carter admires Black-Eyed Susans growing in the Green Spring Valley. Although not native, but introduced here from the West, this has since 1918 been the Maryland State flower. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1939 – Bethlehem Steel Company’s Sparrow Point plant. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1955 – Bow Canada from Oslo in the upper Patapsco Basin Sugar Refinery and Procter and Gamble in background. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1938 – The Baltimore Harbor as seen from the Emerson Tower. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1950 – Training for Maryland amateur steeplechase is a 365-days-a-year job to Danny Brewster, gentleman jockey. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1936-The “Edna Hoyt” is pictured in the lower harbor. She is the last five-master vessel. This photograph was made in Baltimore harbor from the four-masted “Doris Hamlin.” (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1956 – Come darkness, electric light takes the place of the sun and the port’s work goes right ahead. Here, sections of the harbor tunnel are being put together at the Maryland Ship Building plant, Fairfield. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1960 – These ribbons, many of them blue “firsts,” are some of the 250 to 300 Eugene Offutt’s horses have won in shows. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1928 – Handling produce on Light street. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1942 – Bethlehem Steel workers celebrate a triple launching. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1957 – Mrs. Marguerite Creighton culls oysters aboard her husband’s Honga River tonging boat. At the time almost 200 women regularly work with the fleet. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1960 – The net that is being mended is a fyke – a long, bag type held open by a series of hoops. This type produces most of the State’s catch of yellow perch, which are abundant in the upper bay area. It is little used for taking other commercial species. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1953 – One of Melvin Collier’s employees works on an oyster dredge. Melvin Collier, a Deals Island blacksmith, was famous for his oyster dredges. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1960- The B&A engine that pulls all the trains. Engineer Howard Willett, a railroader for 42 years, can couple cars so smoothly that his cigar ash won’t drop. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1947 – The Henn quads have their picture taken at St. Angnes Hospital when they are nine months old. From left to right are Tommy, Donald, Bruce and Joan. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1952 – The Bay Bridge nears completion in March 1952. Soon, motorists would no longer have to take the ferry across the Chesapeake Bay or make the long trek around it. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1936 – Baltimore Museum of Art. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1948 – Greenspring, (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1945 – Arabber, (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1948 – Oyster Dredgers on the Choptank. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1954 – Locust Point. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1944 – Edward and Jean Corues with their daughter, Doris Jean, 3, walk through one of the few remaining covered bridges near their home. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1938 – Not even the hard times of the Great Depression could kill the dreams of children. Here, two young girls, take in a display of dolls in a downtown department store. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1951 – Contour Plowing on York Road farm in Baltimore County. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1965 – “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. Bodine, probably the most noted Sun photographer, had a national reputation for his picturesque photographs of Maryland. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

: 1952 – The 2600 block of Wilkens Ave., is the longest row of houses in Baltimore. (A. Aubrey Bodine/Baltimore Sun)

A. Aubrey Bodine: Baltimore Sun pictorialist

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