The Long View

inToledo  |  04/23/2009 7:00 am

Herral Long caught the photography bug early and has not been far from a camera, or a subject to photograph, ever since. After 60 years as a staff photographer for the Toledo Blade, Long recently decided to retire. The decision didn't come about because he was tired of the work, but because staff layoffs at Toledo's flagship newspaper were imminent. With six decades of seniority under his belt, a sharp eye for composition and a boyish enthusiasm for the art and craft, he was in no danger of losing his job. Instead, Herral stepped aside in order to let a younger colleague keep his job. That's the kind of man he is-kind, generous, and conscious of his role in achieving the common good.

Long was born in Toledo in 1929, the year that marks the beginning of the Great Depression, to parents of modest means. "I'm the oldest of six kids. We lived in a house with my mom and dad, my Uncle Herbert and my grandmother and grandfather. My bedroom was the pantry. We had two tenants upstairs. It was a little bitty house and we were packed in like sardines. I really don't know how we did it."

One day, young Herral was sledding on a hill near his house. "A man came up to me and offered me a job selling magazine subscriptions," he said. "If I sold six, my pay would be a camera. There was no other way I could get a camera; we didn't have anything. So I took the job. I took other jobs so I could buy film, then I set up a little dark room in my bedroom and learned to develop the film. Eventually, I moved on to better cameras. In high school, I shot prom photos and weddings to earn a little money."

After graduation from high school in 1948, Long used a family connection to wrangle an introduction to a Blade photographer. He began hanging out at the newspaper's photo department and waiting for his chance to become a newspaper photojournalist. He even bought his own 4X5 Speed Graphic camera just like the real "shooters" used at the time.

Long's big chance came a year later when the newspaper hired him to operate the International News Pictures wire photo machine. It was no glamour job, but he had his foot in the door. Then came a two-year sting in the Army. Upon his return, the Blade finally let him work the streets.

"When I first started out with an old-time shooter, he wanted to stop and get a shot of booze after every shoot," said Long. "I would have a beer and he would get mad because a beer took longer. During holidays, we would have at lease three half-gallon bottles of bourbon, gin and scotch in the darkroom. We'd get regular visits from other departments. Those were the two-fisted drinking days. I thought drinking was a part of the business. Things have changed, now."

His first major assignment: the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. "I remember it snowed the night before; only about three inches which isn't much by our standards, but this was Washington. It brought the whole city to a standstill. They called out the Army to shovel Pennsylvania Avenue. Lots of people couldn't get to the galas the night before."

Other highlights of Long's career include photographing Eleanor Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Louis Armstrong and Alan Ginsberg. He was the Ohio News Photographers Association's first Still Photographer of the Year in 1967. The Association gave him its highest honor, the Carson Memorial Award, in 2000. One of his photos, an image of Toledo's Paramount Theater undergoing demolition, was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's fifth annual international exhibition.

But Long is best known and appreciated for his photos of everyday life. What others might consider mundane subjects, Long would capture as works of art. In the forward to his new book, The Long View: 50 Years as a Photojournalist, Long's good friend and colleague, Bruce Dale, wrote," News photography certainly has exciting moments, but by and large, most of the work involves recording everyday community life. Herral is a master of this. He is the news photographer's news photographer, and he is adept at making interesting photos out of mundane situations."

The Long View is a journey, of sorts, a progression of news photos that begins back in the old 4x5 Speed Graphic days, through the transition to 35mm photography and into the digital age. "The book is a birds-eye view the changes in different cameras and different techniques," said Long. "There was a big progression from film to digital, but the transition from the Speed Graphic to the 35mm was, in some ways, more dramatic. In the Speed Graphic days, we had only one lens and taking four pictures in a shoot was a lot."

Through all the transitions in technology, the one thing that has remained the same is the photographer's eye. Long may have retired, but he's not quitting the profession he's pursued since that first darkroom in his pantry/bedroom. The energy and enthusiasm are still there, and Herral Long has things to do.

In upcoming issues of inToledo Magazine, watch for his new column on the tricks and secrets of art photography. He'll share his ideas about equipment, lighting, the interplay between light and shadow, practice exercises and a wide array of other topics to help make you a better photographer.