Obit of the Day
Looking at the famous, infamous, not-so-famous, and unique lives that have shuffled off this mortal coil.
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Obit of the Day (Historical): James Dean (1955)
On this date fifty-six years ago, James Dean died from injuries received in a car accident in his Porsche 550 Spyder. He was only 24 years old. Dean, who spent most of his childhood on his aunt and uncle’s farm in Fair Mount, Indiana, moved to California after high school and attended UCLA. He dropped out in 1951 to pursue an acting career. Good move.
Dean landed three starring roles in three films: East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956). Besides a few uncredited roles, that’s Dean’s entire filmography. However, he shone is all three roles and was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination, Best Actor for East of Eden. He received another Best Actor nod for Giant.
(Image copyright Dennis Stock from his collection, James Dean: A Memorial Portfolio, 1955/1979. A majority of the photos, including this macabre image, were taken in Fairmount, Indiana shortly before his death. The image is courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, which is located in Chicago.)
Obit of the Day: Taught Ken Burns Everything He Knows
Jerome Loebling liked to debate his father about politics and preferred to back up his arguments. So as a teenager he took his Kodak Brownie camera into the streets of Brooklyn snapping shots of social injustice he found as evidence for his point-of-view. Liebling never stopped shooting.
Becoming one of the “nation’s premier documentary photographers” Liebling would capture images of life as he found it. Whether it was a child in Brooklyn (“Butterfly Boy”, top) or U.S. Senators (Hubert H. Humphrey, D-Minn. at a baseball game based on add’l. input it may be a football game, center right) Liebling found the perfect moment, look, and framing and captured it forever.
“The work has never been flamboyant. It’s always been under control, beautifully made, and very deeply felt, without being in any way hyperbolic.” - John Szarkowski
His greatest success may have been as a professor. Teaching at the University of Minnesota from two decades (1949-1969) and then at Hampshire College (Massachusetts) for two more (1970-1990) Liebling’s students won Emmys, Oscars and Peabodys for their work. More than two dozen students became professional photographers or filmmakers. The most famous of his pupils is popular documentarian Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz).
(All four images copyright Jerome Liebling, courtesy of jeromeliebling.com)
Obit of the Day: Capturing Pure Joy
October 13, 1960. World Series. Forbes Field. Yankees vs. Pirates. Game 7. Bottom of the ninth. Tied, 9-9. No outs. No one on. Ralph Terry on the mound. Second baseman Bill Mazeroski at the plate.
One pitch. Mazeroski homers. The first World Series-winning walk-off home run. And James Klingensmith nearly missed it.
Klingensmith, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer, and his nine-year-old son, also James, were on the Forbes Field roof. They had climbed up a ladder to reach the secluded spot, taking the ladder up with them to keep other photographers away. (Although Klingensmith claimed it was for safety, his son called him out on it. Way to keep dad honest.)
When Maz homered, Klingensmith became a fan and cheered wildly until his son reminded him what he was there to do and he caught the Pirates newest hero rounding second base - an iconic moment. The photo was eventually used as the model for the Bill Mazeroski statue outside of the Pirates’ current home, PNC Park.
Klingensmith, who captured scenes of Pittsburgh for 42 years, passed away at the age of 100.
(Photo copyright James G. Klingensmith/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette courtesy of soncountry.net)
Obit of the Day: Birth, Black Women, and Basketball
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker could not have his work placed into a single category. His 1973 photo essay, Moment of Life, which documented his wife giving birth to his son, won him the Pulitzer. Later he worked with Sports Illustrated documenting all sports, including the Oregon track sensation Steve Prefontaine (above). His portraits of influential black women, an exhibit that ran in Washington, DC’s Corcoran Gallery, are stunning and can be found in a companion book, I Dream a World (the title is from a Langston Hughes poem). His obituary is short, but the breadth of his work will have a far larger impact.
(Image copyright Sports Illustrated)
Click on this link to see the Sports Illustrated’s tribute to Lanker. Gorgeous shots.
