April 6, 1998 I wasn't home for more than 5 minutes last Sunday evening, having just returned from the New York Press Association Convention in Albany, when my phone rang. It was Steven Gee, of Steven Gee's laundry. His shop had been burglarized and he called and asked me to come over and take pictures of his store. The police, he said, were just leaving. I met Mr. Gee several years ago when I was assigned to take pictures of his son, Jonathan and his date, who were going to a prom. I arrived outside Jonathan's apartment building where Jonathan and his parents were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Linda Eisenmann, Jonathan's date. The night was as special as the young couple, both of whom have Down's Syndrome. Several weeks earlier, a teacher had introduced them and they had taken an immediate fancy to each other.

Steven and Carol, Jonathan's parents were as excited as their son. As I photographed Linda's arrival, I noticed that Mr. Gee was videotaping and taking stills with a point and shoot. He was photographing ME photographing THE KIDS!

Mr. Gee was so excited he could barely contain his pride that The Riverdale Press would do a story on his son. He snapped away at me as I snapped away at the somewhat shy couple. The next day I dropped off a bunch of pictures to both families as keepsakes.

A few days later, when the story ran on page 1, everyone I met on the street approached me and told me how much they liked the picture, but also the "posters around town."

Posters?

Turns out Mr. Gee had made some posters with the Riverdale Press tearsheet surrounded by his own photographs of me photographing the kids. He not only put one of these posters in is own little shop window, but he persuaded several merchants in the neighborhood to put them in theirs as well! Handwritten were comments like, "Bravo to the nice photographer Susan B. Markisz and the writer Claudia Rowe for doing such a nice article."

The next day I received beautiful cards from both the Gees and the Eisemanns. The Gees had even written a letter to the Riverdale Press telling them how pleased they were by the article and photograph, but that the photo credit was far too small to read. (editors, please take note!).

I was very touched by Mr. Gee's obvious pride of his son, his exuberance, and the whole evening. The assignment has always been a memorable one. I hadn't had much opportunity to speak to either family recently, until Sunday night.

Distraught by the burglary, Mr. Gee showed me how someone had broken the window to his store, and then slipped in between one of the openings on the gate, which was still locked in place, gotten into his shop and ransacked it. Mr. Gee's shop has a quirky mix of tchatchkes (novelties), a keymaking machine, and of course, the laundry, that is his business. Strewn about the store, were shirts, once neatly packaged in brown paper, and a lot of the little gifts that he sells, as if a tornado had struck.

The cash register drawers were open and empty. Mr. Gee wanted me to tell the Riverdale Press that he has no money. "I came from China in 1959 and have been here in this store since then," he said.

"When I arrived from China," he continued in halting English, "I knew no English, but I learned it from my customers. I have no money. The thieves only got about $25.00 in coins. Can you believe it?" he asked. "All this for $25.00! I only have enough money for my son Justin to go to college, and for Jonathan, who helps me in the store."

The Gee family had spent the day in Chinatown and had come home to find that police had already been notified of the burglary and were guarding it until he arrived.

"Please tell the Riverdale Press how wonderful the police are," he added. "They waited all day for us to arrive."

As I carefully entered the store through the broken glass to see the extent of the damage, Mr. Gee's mood lightened a little."Look, Susan Markisz," he said, his once familiar excitement returning..."they did not get THIS," he added, opening a photo album to the pages of pictures of Jonathan's prom, and the pictures I had sent him. "They did not get this, they did not get this..." he kept repeating, laughing as if he'd beat the devil himself. Susan B. Markisz April 10, 1998

 

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< smarkisz@digitalstoryteller.com > Contributing Photographer The Riverdale Press, NY Freelance for the New York Times Other journals by Susan Markisz 334 November 10, 1999 I have a New Boss 328 Is Photojournalism Dead? Susan Markisz I am not a photojournalist here (at the U.N.) 322 September 20, 1999 The heavy artillery has arrived 321 September 21, 1999 My adrenaline was already running high when I was given today's schedule.   318 September 14, 1999 7:45 AM: I note as I arrive at St. Bartholomew's Church on East 51st Street for the Interfaith Prayer Service 317 September 13, 1999 Milton hands me two Nikon F4's and an assortment of lenses and assigns staff photographer Evan Schneider to accompany me on my first assignment in the GA 314 September 10,1999 Milton Grant, Chief of the Photo Unit, welcomes me to the department and takes me on an informal tour of the UN. 312 August 31, 1999 The Boy Who Fooled New York. 311 August 20, 1999 I Went Scuba Diving 310 August 16, 1999 The Junkie Priest 306 July 21, 1999 The relentless quest for (Kennedy) imagery 296 July 7, 1999 Hot Hot Hot 294 July 3, 1999 The Sleepovers 288 May 31, 1999 Bad Judgment / Good Judgment: The Picture That Never Was 285 May 27, 1999 Shut Out 281 May 17, 1999 I received a letter recently that reminded me that I'd been taking some things for granted lately. 278 May 7, 1999 A Mass for Littleton 250 March 15, 1999 It's been three months and I've finally developed the rest of my film. 245 March 11, 1999 The picture-taking took less than 10 minutes. 242 March 3, 1999 I don't want to get in a mudslinging contest about the future of photojournalism 235 February 24, 1999 Lately, I seem to be the queen of features and the environmental portrait. 219 February 9, 1999 Does Color Matter? 208 January 29, 1999 Let Me Take This Call 194 December 28, 1998 Last July on this website I wrote about an assignment I had had, to photograph a mother and her young son, both of whom were battling leukemia 193 December 27, 1998 Girls, curls and slipjigs 188 December 19, 1998 Around this time last year I wrote that one of my goals was to find out how photography fits into my life. 172 November 4, 1998 We've all had to do our share of one computer genius/computer programmer/computer innovator/computer geek photograph after another... and it begs the question: How many ways can you shoot a computer without taking out a double barreled shotgun? 165 October 28, 1998 Baseball legends 162 October 26, 1998 "Keep following the story, sounds like fun!" 149 September 17, 1998 Something about Harry 144 September 6, 1998 Photography enabled me to bring my own vision and interpretation to the canvas, at first fairly effortlessly, at least compared to what it had been like trying to eek out an image from a glob of burnt sienna to replicate a paper bag still-life. 136 August 21, 1998 A Day in the Life 134 August 17, 1998 What was startling was that one of the kids who used to play there not so long ago, now a young mother herself, was there with her 3 year old. 117 July 18, 1998 This story is not about a war on another continent. It's about a silent one being fought here...and in just about every corner of the world 113 July 15, 1998 I don't do wars... 112 July, 1998 Lighting 101 107 July 5, 1998 Hundreds of people would gather and watch as unscripted---and illegal---eye candy unfolded. 104 June 25, 1998 How many ways can you spell G-R-A-D-U-A-T-I-0-N ? 102 June 24, 1998 Simple Pleasures 99 June 22, 1998 Life Begins at 40 95 June 15, 1998 "I am woman, hear me roar..." ...Ok, so it's only a muffled "Yesssss!!!" 93 June 13, 1998 Pomp and Circumstance 88 June 9, 1998 Anything Goes... 86 June 3, 1998 Shooting for Stock 85 June 1, 1998 Baby, think it over... 79 May, 1998 Art.Rage.Us -- An Essay 64 April 19, 1998 Thursday I took the day off ... well, sort of. 60 April 14, 1998 Bernard L. Stein, Co-publisher of The Riverdale Press, wins Pulitzer prize. 57 April 10. 1998 A Homecoming of sorts 56 April 6, 1998 "I am not Julia Child" 54 April 5, 1998 The Photojournalism Roller coaster: Of Extremes and Insecurities 49 March 30, 1998 The dark side of humanity reared its head in one of our communities over the weekend. 48 March 29, 1998 A mitzvah is a good deed... 46 March 29, 1998 Today, it was over 80 degrees 45 March 28, 1998 "the (not really) begging phone call." 41 March 22, 1998 In Search of Art 36 March 12, 1998 And today's assignment is to photograph...real estate brokers. 26 February 23, 1998 I always breathe a sigh of relief when I edit my negatives after a basketball game. 19 February 18, 1998 Newsroom Decisions, Dilemmas and Cut Lines 15 February 10, 1998 These are the things about journalism that are truly joyful 4 January 23, 1998 One of the last photographs I took in 1997 was of firefighter John Usai. . . 2 January 14, 1998 My hope for 1998 is an ability to come to terms with what role photography plays in my life.

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