Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 24, 2004 Taking credit where credit is due By Kurt Hartmann Tidings Correspondent Just recently, when I showed the photograph that accompanies this article to a young student at Southern Oregon University, she exclaimed: "Oh! That's President Truman!" President Franklin Delano Roosevelt captured on film in 1942 by retired Ashland newspaperman Kurt Hartmann. Kurt Hartmann | Ashland Daily Tidings There is no intent on my part to ridicule the student, but rather it is my aim to begin this article with an illustration, as it were, of how quickly the passage of time befogs not only memory of events but similarly, throws into question our ability to recall faces and the names that attach to them. But so much for amateurish psychology and a host of other would-be enlightenments. The photo, of course is of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was taken in 1942 when I was a high school student and taking my first halting steps toward my goal of becoming a newspaperman. In those days your best chance of being hired by a newspaper was if you could function both as a reporter and occasional photographer. Our high school in upstate New York couldn't afford a journalism instructor; so some imaginative soul contacted one of the reporters on the local daily and made an arrangement by which he would drop by the school with some regularity and become and advisor and mentor to the students with an interest in his profession. As it happened I also emerged as his principal press photography student. And, of course, newspaper photography over the decades in question has changed no less than the transition from Underwood typewriters to high-speed computers for men and women in the newsroom. In those days the standard photographic tool was the "Speed-Graphic," an ungainly, large format camera that needed to be reloaded after every exposure. It was capable of producing superbly detailed pictures, but operating one was a cumbersome and relatively time-consuming process. But it is that camera on which I was taught my trade and it plays the pivotal role in the telling of this tale. The time in question was 1942; I was a junior in high school, chafing to join my older brother in helping to fight the Germans and Japanese. Our President, of course, was Franklin Roosevelt, and it was an announced visit by him to meet his successor as governor of New York, Herbert Lehman, at the Victorian style state capital building in Albany. The press would be there in force, naturally, my mentor among them. Considerate teacher that he was, he not only invited me to accompany him but promised to provide a Speed Graphic Camera for me so that I too could take some historic photos. In his rattle-trap pre-war Chevrolet he picked me up at school and together we headed for the capital grounds where his press pass easily gained us a parking space near the site where the President's limousine was expected to draw up. Being among the early arrivals of journalists covering the event, we were able to occupy space on one of the steps closest to the elliptical driveway on which the President's car would arrive. Without a word and certainly no design between us, my teacher and I stood virtually shoulder-to-shoulder, our bulky cameras propped precisely on that portion of our anatomies - waiting and ready to "fire away" when the back door of the Presidential limousine would open. And it was only a few minutes later, as though by precisely planned arrangement that preceded and flanked by police motorcyclists the presidential vehicle began its measured approach to the curved steps ascending to the capitol building's entry doors. And precisely on cue, at the identical instant, Governor Lehman came bounding down those steps, his arm already extending in preparation to shake the hand of his predecessor and warm friend. As though in rehearsed precision, a dozen or more flashbulbs exploded, those mounted on my teacher's and my cameras in the forefront, as the seated president, a polio victim unable to rise or stand without assistance, extended his hand in preparation to shaking the governor's. A short time later my mentor and I were in the newspaper's darkroom unloading the Speed Graphic's single-shot film plates and immersing the generous-sized film sheets in one developing tray following the next. Astonishing! What greeted our eyes were two identical photos, both showing a smiling FDR, his hand extended in preparation to consummate a greeting. Who took which photo? Over all these years I could not be absolutely sure, although a precise measurement probably would have supported the conclusion that one shot was taken from an angle marginally closer to the President than the other - mine. But not a syllable on the issue passed between teacher and student and I voiced no objection when that afternoon's edition, the photo prominent on the front page, above the fold, bore the credit line with my teacher's name. Although I must confess to a degree of chagrin all those decades ago, several larger and more enduring considerations won out the day for me: In brief, they included the reality that without my teacher I would never have been allowed near the scene; it was he who made his living by photographing and writing about such events and personalities; by countenancing his name below the photo, perhaps I was paying back the many debts I owed him as a teacher and friend. Not a word ever passed between us on the subject, and it was not until quite recently when I learned of his passing that I have mentioned or written about the incident. And in the same vein I saw - and still see - no purpose in mentioning his name. Still - now that I am the lone survivor - and there is little doubt that I did stand closer to the Presidential limousine, though by no more than two inches or so - and I am now far, far away from the scene - in Ashland, for the first time I have affixed my name to the photograph. Amen. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams