November 2, 1998
I'm so excited, I won't be able to sleep tonight.
I lied to you in that first sentence. The reason I'm so cynical this
evening is that Jim Slosiarek and I have assignments tomorrow that
are really going to be nothing more than a pain in the butt. They
are assignments that I used to be excited about, because they used
to be challenging and fun, but they aren't anymore.
Al Gore is coming to town tomorrow. As a photo editor I know it is
a big story, but as a photographer, I say, "Big Whoop!" I could care
less whether it were Al Gore or Dan Quayle (who also visited here
when he was vice president), because I long for, well, pardon the
expression, but the good old days.
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A
police officer in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, watches as President
Richard M. Nixon campaigns for Bob Smith, who was running for
the U. S. Senate, in October, 1970. photo (c) Mark Hertzberg
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If you've read Dick Kraus' October
20 journal and one I posted January
27, you know the drill. Jim and I have to be in place (he
at a union hall in Kenosha; I will be at the airport in Racine)
at least an hour before the scripted and stage-managed-event
begins. That is so we can be cleared to take predictable, scripted,
stage-managed photos.
I remember my glorious days at Lake Forest College (near Chicago)
from 1969-1972 when there was none of the crap we have to put
up with today to get photos of national leaders campaigning.
Oh, I'm not thinking only about the Secret Service, I'm also
thinking about campaign workers who are often more difficult
to deal with than the Secret Service. As Dick wrote, those bozos
don't understand that it is in their interest for us to get
good pictures of the VIP; no, they'd rather throw their weight
around, not return phone calls, and tell us what we can't do.
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I remember cutting classes one fine fall day in 1970 to photograph
President Nixon in a nearby suburb working the crowd on behalf
of Bob Smith, a Senate candidate. I was just a college kid,
but it was easy to get decent pictures. Actually, today it's
sometimes easier to get decent photos of the candidates if you
are not credentialed as being part of the working press and
hop in the crowd as a spectator. The problem, however, is that
you are gambling and may not get any kind of photo from that
vantage point. Boring as it is, at least the press photographers'
stand guarantees a photo.
(Time Magazine took the Nixon photos to look at, but they never
ran because someone egged him at another campaign appearance
that night. "Guess what, Mom, Time Magazine..." I said on the
phone that night. She wasn't as thrilled as I was. "You can
do that when you get out of college; you're there to study."
)
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I
cut a morning's worth of classes in college to photograph President
Richard M. Nixon campaigning for Bob Smith, who was running
for the U. S. Senate, in October, 1970. photo © Mark Hertzberg
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| Those days are long gone. It'll only get worse, as the electorate
seems more satisfied with mad-for-TV campaigns. They'd rather
not have to study the issues, it seems, no, not when they can
be spoon-fed via slick ads and quick sound bites on the boob tube.
There's a Brownie Starflash camera on top of my desk with an M2
flashbulb stuck in it. It's my first real camera, and I got it
for my 10th birthday. About a year and a half later, on June 10,
1962, I announced to my parents that I was going to take President
Kennedy's picture the next morning at his base in New York, a
hotel near our apartment. |
President
Richard M. Nixon campaigns for Bob Smith, who was running for
the U. S. Senate, in October, 1970. photo © Mark Hertzberg
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| I drank a glass of milk, brushed my teeth, and maybe even scrubbed
behind my ears, and trotted over to the Carlyle. I walked into
the lobby, sized up the lighting by the elevator, and popped a
flashbulb into the camera. The elevator opened...the President
walked out...a cop happened to walk past and blocked my view.
I didn't say "Oh, shit!" in those days, but I'm sure I thought
something like that. I ran outside, walked up to the Lincoln Continental
sedan that was parked in front of the hotel, and took a picture
of Kennedy through the open door. |
This
is the photo I took of President Kennedy with my Brownie Starflash
when I was 11 years old.© MARK HERTZBERG
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Gov.
Tommy Thompson arrives at Batten Field Thursday morning, October
28, 1998, to begin a day of campaigning in the Racine area.
Photo by Liana J. Cooper ©1998 Racine Journal Times
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A few days ago we heard that Governor Tommy Thompson
was coming to the area, campaigning for an unprecedented fourth
term. We had a shopping list full of things he was doing, and
I wondered how to cover it. We generally aren't real keen on covering
ceremonies, and Tommy was going from one ground-breaking to another,
with other stops in between. |
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I suggested that we do a light look at Tommy's visit not as
a bunch of news events with The Governor, but, rather, as a
feature package showing the variety of things a guy does as
he comes down the home stretch of the campaign. The idea passed
muster, and a writer was assigned to it.
I called Liana Cooper at home, filled her in, and asked her
to be at the airport at 8:30 the next morning. That was it.
No clearance, no nothing needed.
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Gov.
Tommy Thompson looks over notes for a speech and talks with
his office enroute from an appearance at Carthage College in
Kenosha to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday, October
29, 1998. Photo by Liana J. Cooper © 1998 Racine Journal
Times
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Gov.
Tommy Thompson high fives with Emmanul (cq) Williams, 3, at
a ground breaking for the Next Generation Now Child Development
Resource Center Thursday, October 28, 1998. Photo by Liana j.
Cooper © 1998 Racine Journal Times
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The Governor asked her what was going on when he
popped out of his plane and saw her, and the story was underway.
She rode with him for awhile between his appearances, and photographed
him in the back seat of his State Patrol car talking on the phone,
as he went over the notes for a speech. She also showed him "high-fiving"
pre-schoolers at a ground-breaking. We offered a three-picture
package (quite a bit, actually, given our space limitations).
Unfortunately the copy desk dropped the phone photo -we were competing
for space with the Glenn Space Shuttle launch story- but Liana's
work showed what covering a campaign can, and should be, like.
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Epilogue...the man at Kennedy's side in the back
seat was Dave Powers, a close friend and aide. A couple of months
later Time did a profile on him. I sent them my photo, which they
returned with a polite note. I dunno. This 11 year old kid was sure
they'd want to run his Brownie snapshot of Powers two weeks after
their story ran.
November 2, 1998
Mark Hertzberg
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