Photojournalist - Susan Markisz - Behind the Viewfinder

December 27, 1998

At the risk of appearing like a copy cat journal-ist, but at the suggestion of my esteemed colleague Dick Kraus, I am relating this story about "girls, curls and slipjigs" as a kind of "me too" addendum on his Goldie Hawn story. Although my photograph and the outcome were quite different, the parameters of good taste were called into question on a photograph that I took for the weekly Riverdale Press last summer.

Thirteen year old Riverdale resident, Katie Roper had just placed fifth in the North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando, Florida, which made her eligible to compete in the world championship competition in Ireland. (All of the competitors who placed ahead of her were from Ireland and England). I was assigned to photograph her in the studio as she prepared for a performance. I had about 15 minutes with Katie before other dancers arrived to get dressed and rehearse before their performance at a local festival. The room was panelled in mirrors and there was no setting up lights for a real nice "stop action shot." There was only a short time for a portrait that showed off Katie's considerable talent, her costume and her gorgeous curly red hair. As Katie danced around the room it was all I could do to keep her in my viewfinder and keep me out of the picture. Keeping her sharp was another problem, which I solved for the most part by using 800 speed film and a little fill flash to freeze some of her incredible motion. My biggest problem was getting the perspective of height in her jumps. I knew if I photographed her from my nearly 6 bart perspective, even on bended knee, it wouldn't adequately convey the height of her jumps. So, I lay down on the floor and photographed her looking up. The constant movement during her slipjigs made her costume flounce up and down. Her purple bloomers showed clearly but even on stage, I figured, they'd be visible and so I really had no concerns about impropriety.

Thirteen year old Katie Roper placed fifth in the North American Irish Dance Championships held in Orlando last summer. Teacher Ellen Pike of the Margaret Pike Dance Studio in Yonkers, coaches Katie before a performance. I liked this shot a lot but the teacher wasn't sharp enough for me and I captured her with a somewhat odd expression on her face.
© Susan B. Markisz/The Riverdale Press

I had actually gotten some very nice shots of Katie the rest of the girls while they were getting dressed for the performance...mothers taking out the curlers of their daughters' hair, tying their shoes, body language, that sort of thing and I had hoped that it would possibly be a multiple picture story but was told it was definitely a one shot deal!

Katie Roper, age 13, who placed fifth in the North American Irish Dance Championships held in Orlando last summer, did a leap called "up, jump, down" at the Margaret Pike Dance Studio in Yonkers. Legend has it (one of several) that the reason the girls dance with their hands straight down by their sides, is that hundreds of years ago, a group of girls was asked to perform an Irish jig in front of the King of England. Rather than face beheading for not complying with the King's wishes, they kept their arms down in defiance. This is the photograph that ran on the cover of the Riverdale Press last summer.
©Susan B. Markisz/The Riverdale Press

So, I gave the editor of The Riverdale Press three choices of Katie and they ran the shot I liked the best. I never thought it was risque until the next day, I heard from a photographer, who said: "Underpants? You photographed her underpants?" And he went on to say that there had been some "comments" about the picture.

But the folks in advertising liked the photograph so much that they made subscription coupons with a full color copy of the front page of that issue, which had run my photograph way big, top of the fold, purple bloomers and all!

Susan B. Markisz

December 27, 1998

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Susan Markisz

< 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.

Contributor since 1998