Category: On Assignment
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The Army Wants Me! (1961-1963) Part One
SIXTY STRANGE DAYS (October – December 1961) It didn’t take much to convince Don Moser, or his bosses, at Life to invest in the Basic Training project. It wouldn’t cost them any money so they agreed to supply the film and to process it. I brought with me two Nikon SP rangefinder cameras…
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Do You Believe In Baschert? (beloved destiny)
GATHERING AT THE U.N. (September 1960) I was among hundreds of photographers, TV crews and print journalists, covering the historic event at the United Nations in the fall of 1960. It seemed every head of state had converged on New York to attend the meeting of the General Assembly. Chairman Nikita Khrushchev from the…
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The Forgotten Man
THE ROCKEFELLERS – ANNE-MARIE RASMUSSEN AND HER FORGOTTEN UNCLE – THE COP (July 1959) The floodgates didn’t exactly open after Bob Soth’s collapse was spread across two pages of Paris Match. Though Roger Therond now knew who I was, he wasn’t calling Stephane or Slade to put me to work. Two weeks…
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John Collins – Man Who Lost Everything
HERE’S SOMETHING SO MOVING IT MOISTENS MY EYES JUST POSTING IT. Mary Rapoport posted this comment on Facebook: “This coming October will mark the 50th anniversary of the mining tragedy in Aberfan, Wales. So it was almost 50 years ago that Chuck spent six weeks there photographing the aftermath that touched everyone in that…
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Nightmares of a Disaster, Part 3
ABERFAN The Days After (Part Three) The nightmares began a few weeks into my assignment. I had spent the first ten or twelve days immersed in the “story” I was about to tell with my photographs. As a photojournalist, my task was not merely to wander the village looking for striking images, though I did…
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Nightmares of a Disaster, Part 2
ABERFAN The Days After (Part Two) The Mackintosh Pub became my friend. My only friend. As a journalist, I was an outcast and in some cases a despised one. Thanks to the hundreds of newspaper and TV reporters who came through Aberfan before me, a very bad taste was left in the mouths of the…
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Nightmares of a Disaster, Part 1
ABERFAN The Days After Part One (November 1966) It was on all the news stations that October morning. First reports: A mountain had fallen on an elementary school in Aberfan, Wales. Hundreds of children were dead or missing along with some of their teachers. It was Friday, 21 October 1966. The children had gone off…
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A Day with Joseph Pilates
JOE PILATES – The Assignment That Would Last a Lifetime (October 4, 1961) October First arrived. We counted the days. Only two more weeks together. I had already given up hope of some sort of reprieve. Besides, I had worked hard to make the transition from civilian…