Rick Clarkson Portfolio: http://www.richclarkson.com/
Photo Journal: Rich Clarkson / Part 1
Part One: He's Got Game
Rich Clarkson
Rich Clarkson:
In 1952 there were a total of eight photographers covering that
tournament and when the trophy was awarded after the game, I think I was
the only one left shooting as the others had left to make deadlines.
That year, I traveled with the team (Kansas University) to the finals in
Seattle. The 6 foot 9 inch center from Kansas, Clyde Lovellette…the
tournament's Most Outstanding Player… was accommodated at the hotel by
putting two beds together.
The night before the game,
the assistant coach, Dick Harp, took the team (myself included) to a
movie a block from the hotel in downtown Seattle and when it was over,
we were all walking back to the hotel and we crossed the nearly empty
street in the middle of the block. An officer jumped out of a police
car and stopped everyone. Harp trying to explain to the officer said,
"It's understandable, we're just a bunch of Jayhawkers." The cop
thought he said we're just a bunch of “jaywalkers" and was threatening
arrests brandishing handcuffs.
The next day,
Lovellette went out with a Navy buddy into the harbor in a small rowboat
and the fog suddenly rolled it and they had no idea which way to row.
He was late for a team meeting and meal and no one knew where he was
and they went into crisis mode. He finally resurfaced.
JC: I once heard you tell a story about finding tunnels or “non-traditional” access to the hoops gym at Kansas University?
RC:
Kansas University is located on a hill called Mount Oread. As kids
growing up there, we would ride our bicycles up the hill and began our
explorations which often ended up in the tunnels beneath which housed
the steam pipes from the central power plant to heat the campus
buildings.
We would try to remember which building each
doorway would lead to (our game would have lacked the approval of both
the university and our parents) but it was an exploration that always
produced twists and turns. One afternoon, we heard and followed the
sounds of a bouncing basketball and emerged in Robinson Gymnasium.
We
entered the double doors at the end of the room where the University of
Kansas basketball team practiced and sat down against the far wall to
watch. The practice was stopped for a moment while the players took a
water break. The coach, seeing these kids sitting at the room’s end,
walked over to talk with us and allowed us to stay and watch. Thus I met
the famous “Phog” Allen – Dr. Forrest C. Allen.
JC:
Over the 59 years you’ve covered the tournament a lot has changed with
technology, access and means of publishing. What do you wish hadn't
changed? And similarly, what has changed that that you are actually
happy about?
RC: In those first years,
I would photograph the first half of the game, race to my basement
darkroom, process the film and make prints and then run to the bus
station to make the 9 o'clock bus to Kansas City (for the Kansas City
Star, the Associated Press and sometimes Acme…the predecessor to UPI) On
the other end, they had copyboys at the bus station to pick up the
envelopes and rush them back to the newsroom for the morning papers.
That was how we "transmitted" back then. Bill Straeter, the AP staff
photographer based in Kansas City, would come to Lawrence with a
portable transmitter which he would set up in the basement of my house
and send pictures LD (Long Distance) over the phone-- his pictures and
occasionally mine.
When I began shooting for Sports
Illustrated, it was on the big strobes which two assistants would set up
in the catwalks two days before the games. Those big Ascors of 5000
watt/seconds enabled an exposure of about 5.6 on 100 ISO speed film and
you could hear them “pop” if there was not a lot of cheering at the
time. Photographs from those early days had this wonderful quality to
them. On wide angle shots, the arena's background produced this mystical
blue tint. That was from a combination of the strobes (two of the four
of which were always backlights) reflecting off the cigarette smoke.
That ended when smoking was banned in the arenas.
One
of the power packs and light head exploded in the catwalks during a
tournament in Philadelphia. Glass from the flashtubes fell right behind
me into the crowd. The assistants in the catwalks got to the power pack
right away, got it turned off and put the spare into place after just a
few minutes. But one of the media coordinators came over to me saying,
"Your strobe exploded and this stuff is falling on all those people
behind you! What should we do?" Everyone in those stands was watching
us, and I said, "Don't look up!" I think he had come to tell me to stop
using the strobes, but at that point, he was laughing so hard he just
left without telling me to pull the plug.
At the 1984
tournament in Seattle we were asked by Sports Illustrated to shoot 35mm
film instead of the large format for Hasselblads which we had used with
the strobes for ten years then. Barbara Henckel had just become the
picture editor at the magazine and I asked why and she said 35mm was
easier to edit. So I'm shooting one hand held Nikon and the other on the
floor with the tripper cord in my other hand (I've done this for years
to be able to shoot either camera instantly) and as the game progressed,
I thought to myself, this is going pretty well. With the strobes going
off, you have the image in your mind. I always had an assistant loading
the Hasselblad magazines, but with 35mm there was no reason. As the
first half wound down, the thought suddenly crossed my mind, "this sure
is a long roll of film.” I tried winding the spool and I realized there
was no film in the camera! When the photographers on either side of me
weren’t looking, I loaded my first roll of film.
Luckily,
the second half went well and Barbara called the next day to say that
my pictures dominated the issue including a two page spread of Patrick
Ewing with an epic slam-dunk. And she complimented me on such "a
disciplined take," as she didn't have that much film to edit. I never
told her until years later why.
Today, and at the Final
Four this year, the pictures will come right out of the camera on to
the internet to not only the media workroom in Atlanta but onto the
screen at the Sports Illustrated offices in New York, virtually the
second they are taken. That has resulted in my being more careful in
shooting, so not to inundate cyberspace with useless images that
everyone has to edit out.
JC:
Basketball is one of the most difficult sports to cover in so far as
getting something "different." After all those years, and all those
games, how do you keep it "fresh?"
RC: Getting
something different is what I used to do all the time and by midseason I
was trying everything from shooting from the catwalks, from the stands
high behind the basket, to exactly opposite the basket ten rows up in
the stands. Sometimes, this was dictated by a player (Wilt Chamberlain
with his classic finger-roll shots) or a team's strategy (Kentucky
driving the baseline). But at the National Championship games, I used
remotes for other angles. It was what I called the 'insurance" plan…to
insure that almost everywhere on the court, I was in position for it,
unblocked by cheerleaders or fans or other photographers. So to keep
it fresh, introducing all of those new various angles all applied. At a
regional tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska, where one end of the court
was a wall instead of stands, I brought in a 12-foot stepladder and
photographed from the top of it. As it turned out, it wasn't such a
great idea, but at least I was thinking.
JC:
As someone who has "Been there, done that," in the college hoops world,
what sage wisdom could you offer a young photojournalist that is
interested in covering future tournaments?
RC: A
fresh look often produces interesting pictures and young photographers
can bring that perspective. The only trouble is restrictions for photo
positions at major games and tournaments. So my first suggestion is, if
you want to make really great pictures, go to games during the regular
season where you can get less restricted access. We had a woman attend
our Sports Photography Workshop one year and when I looked at her
portfolio, it was all Little League games…but wonderful pictures! I've
used this example for many years. If you want to make really good
pictures, try going to the little leagues, not the major leagues. You
may think they don't sell. But she showed me a book of her Little League
pictures that was published by a major New York publishing house. As I
looked through the book, I understood how she pulled it off. All of the
captions were written, at her request, by major league players that she
cornered during spring training. Smart thinking!
JC: Any last thoughts about the NCCAA tournaments that may be of interest to our readers?
RC: My
access behind the scenes has been something I have always placed a high
priority on. From my early days traveling with the Kansas team to
getting access to locker rooms at halftime...and not just Kansas but
also at Kentucky and Indiana and Notre Dame among others. That is all
tied to trust with the coach, which you earn. And I have never made
promises to do or not to do something during those times of unique
access. I'm a journalist first and I don't make deals.
Part Two: The Clarkson Machine
By Jim Colton
Rich Clarkson: As
a teenager in Kansas, I started publishing a mimeographed bi-monthly
aviation newspaper which I did for a year and a half. When in high
school, I began taking pictures for the school paper and yearbook. By
the time I was a senior, I was very much into photography and in a small
town there are two newsworthy things to photograph other than yearbook
pictures…car accidents and sports. And in a college town, sports was
always big and thus, I was drawn to KU athletics.
But I
was always interested in everything else for subject matter and in
trying to insure my pictures were used well, I decided that editing was
as important as photographing. I seemed to keep running into breaks,
but one was how the Kansas City press photographers "adopted" me and
took me in on many of their activities. They included Bill Straeter of the AP, Eddie Hoffman of Acme, Sol Studna and Brooks Crummitt
of the Kansas City Star. Eddie Hoffman took me along to my first NPPA
convention, in Washington DC, and then to the first Rochester Conference
(hosted by Kodak) where I met other young photographers my same age.
It was there that I met another young photographer who immediately and
competitively showed me how much further advanced he was than myself.
His name was Eddie Adams.
Another "break," was when I received a phone call from an icon of photojournalism who I had never met at the time…Cliff Edom
at Missouri. He asked me to join the faculty of the Missouri Workshop.
(I thought he was calling to convince me to attend as a student). In my
opinion, Cliff was the greatest catalyst in American photojournalism.
Here was a university professor whose cataracts virtually prevented him
from seeing the picture yet attracted the best people in the profession
to Missouri and the Missouri Workshops. He and his wife Vi brought the
best people together and how I got included befuddled me but there I
was. This is where I met Bill Garrett and Bob Gilka and Gordon Parks and Earl Seubert and Angus McDougall and Chuck Scott and Dean Conger and everyone else who were the greats of the profession at the time….and since.
JC: After the Topeka Capital Journal, the Denver Post and the National Geographic,
three careers in itself, tell us what it was like to "give birth" to
your new baby, NCAA Photos and how has it grown since it was first
created?
RC: I had been doing a lot of the NCAA championships for SI and working with them I got to know Walter Byers,
who "invented" the NCAA. We worked together on the first book about
the Final Four (before it was called Final Four) entitled, "The
Classic." It was about that time that Walter was retiring so I
suggested we put something together that enabled all the NCAA
championships to be photographed, for their archives, their
publications, and ultimately for distribution and/or sale to the media.
We (Rich Clarkson & Associates) have expanded that original concept
and continue to manage that program which entails our staff
photographing some of the games and hiring freelancers across the
country for others. Their biggest championship is the Final Four and
this year, we will have seven people there photographing and editing.
One
of things I have felt strongly about is, while we have a responsibility
to the NCAA to produce high quality documentation and images, that we
also champion other photographers. There was a point several years ago
when the demand for credentials was so high, that the student
photographers from the teams were being excluded in favor of the major
newspapers, wires and magazines. I argued that this is an event for
student athletes and should be for student journalists as well. It took a
year but we got that done for both student writers and photographers.
Today, we are still in an advisory position on credentialing and it is
interesting as today's technology opens doors to photojournalists beyond
the major organizations (AP, New York Times, local dailies, etc.) I
have tried to suggest in their credentialing process (they include) some
new organizations and individuals who are significant players in the
digital arena.
JC: I understand that
book publishing has also been a major part of your illustrious career.
Can you talk a little about that, and specifically the book I Dream a World and the work of the very talented Brian Lanker, who we lost in 2011?
RC: On I Dream a World,
Lanker became one of my best friends and over Christmas years ago, he
told me of his plans to embark on a book about America's great black
women. That rang such an instant bell in my mind that I accepted Brian's
request to manage the project. I cornered Ray Demoulin
at Kodak (who was supporting all kind of great projects at the zenith
of the great Kodak days) and raised the initial funds. Before the
project was over, Kodak had about $1 million in it…quite a bit of money
25 years ago. It became obvious to me I couldn't do this very well on
the side while at National Geographic (where I was director of
photography at the time) so I resigned that position to take on I Dream A World
and start my own little company to do so (Rich Clarkson &
Associates). That led to other projects, the founding of NCAA Photos and
a series of high level workshops…which was pretty much a spin off from
all the days I attended the NPPA's Flying Short Course every fall.
JC: You
have also created extremely valuable workshops called the Summit Series
featuring photojournalism, sports and adventure photography where some
of the biggest names in the industry attend as faculty. After 20 some
years, how is it going?
RC: The
workshops are doing fine and we have no trouble landing the top talents
among photographers and editors. I actually get contacted every year by
people "volunteering" to join the faculty. I don't tell them but
landing on our faculty each year was often a matter of the recruiting of
speakers I did while I was on the Flying Short Course. I never
accepted anyone who campaigned to be on the program. My "choices" were
often those who I had to twist their arms to get from their busy
schedules. As the years have gone by, I no longer have to arm twist.
Our faculty include those looking for new talent, are all good teachers
and who understand a workshop is absolutely the best place to find
emerging photographers. You see not only their portfolio but you also
see how they work during the week.
And many of the
attendees at our workshops understand they could never get an
appointment with one of those editors in Washington or New York but have
them for a week at the workshop….even if it’s only at the bar at night.
And we have our workshops at one of the neatest places in the
country…with great restaurants. And thus, the faculty dines on all the
workshop profits.
JC: I see you have also just finished another exhibition and book called National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West. Can you tell us a little about that?
RC: One
of our workshops, "Photography at the Summit" is done each year at the
foot of the Grand Tetons in Jackson Hole where the National Museum of
Wildlife Art is located. We began our workshops there as the host site
in a beautiful and perfect location complete with the museum that
includes photography, classrooms, a fine auditorium for evening
presentation and an on-site restaurant. Two years ago, their new
director, Jim McNutt, came to me during the workshop with the news that
one of their benefactors was going to provide money for an exhibit which
he envisioned opening on the same day at all eight museums across the
country who are members of the Museums West group. That was intriguing
for nothing like that has even been done before. So Jim asked what we
could do for the content. I said, let me make a call.
I called Chris Johns,
the Editor at the National Geographic asking, “will you give us access
to all the Geographic archives for "The Great Photographs of the
American West." “ Their archives, which I knew well, go all the way back
to William Henry Jackson to Ansel Adams to William Albert Allard
today, as the definitive collection in America. Without hesitation,
Chris said yes. And Jim closed the deal for substantial funding from
the Mays Family Foundation from Texas. And we began the two year
project of curating, designing and publishing with the great assistance
of the talented designer, Kate Glassner Brainerd, who has been my go-to design partner for 25 years.
JC: Lastly, do you have any parting words for our readers?
RC: What
I tell all aspiring photographers is: Observe…and shut up! You can't
listen when you're talking. Don't hesitate to ask the veterans for
their help. Just not during play though.
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