The Real Photographer Has Now Died

You've probably heard me say before that all photojournalists work hard but the really lucky ones labor all their lives and also leave a legacy of one single shot that becomes iconic, world-famous, part of the Zeitgeist, the culture. For example, Sam Shere's picture of the crash of the Hindenburg, or Nick Ut's of the napalmed Vietnamese girl; Alberto Korda's endlessly reproduced "Guerrillero Heroico," or Joe Rosenthal's "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima." The one picture becomes a career compacted, like carbon into diamond; the precious transcendent pinnacle, symbolic of a lifetime of work.

That makes it especially heinous when somebody steals that one picture from you. That almost happened to Stan Stearns, who died last Friday, March 2nd, at the age of 76.

Stan was the one photojournalist covering the JFK funeral who got the poignant shot of 3-year-old JFK Jr., then known as "John-John," saluting his father's caisson and casket as it passed by.

The Washington Post tells Stan's story from that day. First, he asked around to see if any of the other guys had gotten the shot. None had (although television captured it). So he decided to detach from the proceedings and rush the picture back to the UPI's Washington bureau.

"The bureau chief almost had a hemorrhage," Mr. Stearns told the Annapolis Capital in 2009. "I never saw a man turn as white as he did because I was not with the entourage going to Arlington. Then the big boss from New York overheard that and he said, 'You better have it or you’re fired on the spot.'"

He had it.

The picture made the front pages of newspapers worldwide....

The Baltimore Sun quotes David Anderson, a friend of Stan's and founder of the Professional Photographers Organization of Greater Annapolis, who said Stan "was very proud of that photo and talked about it a lot."

Lifted!
Little did Stan know, though, that for years, another photographer was busy taking credit for his most famous shot. That story itself has become part of photography's lore now. Our coverage started in this post and most importantly continued here (with a bit of rare-for-us original reporting), and a follow-up here.

Stan Stearns with his most famous picture. Photo by
Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun

There's a good obituary of Stan at the Baltimore Sun, written by Mary Gail Hare. The picture above is by the Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.

The New York Times published an obituary of Stan Stearns too. But, fittingly, it also published a discussion of the O'Donnell affair that stands as its obituary editor's "worst nightmare," in Clark Hoyt's Public Editor blog.

Let's have no more of that, at any rate. Let the credit for the John-John picture belong to the man who took it:

Stan Stearns, R.I.P.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Reading the NYT Stan Stearn obit last week I could not avoid wondering which would be worse: having a single great photograph overwhelm and overshadow your professional identity for the rest of your life, or having that single great photo stolen from your identity.

Eddie Adams, as a separate example, was a devoted, accomplished, and respected photojournalist. But his 1968 photo of south Vietnamese general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a vietcong prisoner utterly overwhelmed everything else he ever did. He reached the point where he was selling workshops and would bitterly not discuss the shot with anyone.

Personally, I'd rather forget about such iconic shots rather than have them haunt me for the rest of my life.

[Roberto M.]

Small detail - "John-John" wasn't six years old; JFK's funeral was on John-John's 3rd birthday. That's why the salute was so poignant from such a young child.

[Mani Sitaraman]

Just a nitpick.

John-John (JFK Jr.) was a 3-year-old, not a 6-year-old, when he saluted his father's casket at the funeral. What made it even more poignant was that it was the child's 3rd birthday.

[Jeff]

And then there were photographers like A. Aubrey Bodine, who worked for the Baltimore Sun for 50 years (died in 1970), and who perhaps never had that iconic image, but who made a wonderful "portrait of Baltimore" in his body of work over that time.

Now another Maryland native deserves his due.

[Mike Johnston]

Mani and Roberto,
Thanks. Fixed.

Mike

[ctein]

Dear Ken,

Further complicating Eddie's feelings was that he felt the street execution was entirely justified, and he was not happy that it was viewed stateside as an atrocity of war.

(As an artist, I can fully empathize; as an anti-war activist, it's another matter.)

pax / Ctein

[M>B>]

Is there a full frame version of that photo available?

[Peter Rees]

I'm much more likely to be haunted by the iconic shot I missed than the one I got.

[Bob Rosinsky]

Thoughtful read. I'm looking forward to following the links embedded in the article. That's what Sunday mornings are all about.