Atlanta photographer Ron Sherman on documenting the city for the last 50 years
Photographer Ron Sherman has been an essential fly on the wall in Atlanta for the last 50 years. He has photographed everyone from Hank Aaron to President Jimmy Carter to Coretta Scott King. His works have been featured in major publications such as “Time” and “Forbes” magazines.
Collections of Sherman’s prints are in the archives of Emory’s Rose Library, and an exhibition of Ron Sherman’s photos will open Monday and be on view through Sept. 21 at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center.
Sherman joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about his storied career spent capturing moments in time.
Interview highlights follow below.
How photography skills advanced Sherman as a second lieutenant in Vietnam:
“I was assigned to an organization called the Aerial Reconnaissance Battalion and shipped to Vietnam there with a group of men who were actually photo darkroom workers, who ran the lab in Vietnam for the pictures that were made by the Air Force,” recounted Sherman. “The problem with the Air Force photography is that it took, sometimes, a day or more for the commanders to get these pictures. So I was asked as if I had an understanding of how to quicken up the process, and Pentax had come out with a camera that was easy to use, and [I] came up with what I called the ‘handheld camera program.'”
“We were able to acquire these cameras and lenses for each of the aerial observers to use these cameras, and each division had a darkroom. So the pilot would go up, and the observer would take pictures, bring them back to the division’s darkroom — they all had one — process the pictures and make the print, and the commanders could have pictures within a couple hours of requesting the mission, and not maybe up to a day or so.”
Sherman recalls favorite photos from his career:
“Of course, the Hank Aaron picture stands out as probably, I guess, my most famously known photo. It’s also in the Baseball Hall of Fame now in a five-by-eight-foot picture that they put up. But the other picture that I really cared about, that I like, was the Coretta Scott King portrait,” said Sherman. “What’s unique about the King portrait is that … I was surprised when I looked at the contact sheet on that particular day that I photographed at Ebenezer Baptist Church. There was only one that stood out … and it was sort of reminiscent of a photo that a Miami photographer shot at the King funeral with Coretta’s daughter in her lap. The lighting on it was pretty much the same. This picture was without her, but the lighting was the same. And I said, ‘Wow, that that sure reminds me of the picture that was taken years before.'”
“A third one is the fireman from the Doraville fire. He had just ‘exhaustion’ pictured on his face,” Sherman said. “He was down there fighting the fire along with the other people, and that was actually my first, what I call, ‘big assignment.’ Most of my work I do on my own, finding stories to tell, and this one happened to be in my neighborhood. I lived off of Stone Mountain Boulevard, and saw the smoke in the morning, went over there, and way back then; there were really no media lines. I was able to wander around, actually got too close to the gasoline fire and backed off, and spent the day there shooting. There’s just some amazing pictures of amazing people. So he stands out to me.”
Adapting a professional career through changing technology and tastes:
“When I came to Atlanta, I had started working for corporations for their annual reports for businesses … But the bottom line, and even today, is my editorial background. So if I’m doing work for an advertising agency, they’ve hired me because they liked the editorial approach, the same thing with corporations. So one art director says, ‘Well, you’re not the usual corporate photographer.’ I said, ‘Well, thank you. I hope that’s a compliment.’ He says, ‘It is because you have that little different view as an editorial photographer.'”
“Then digital came along, which totally changed everyone’s life in the photography profession. But what it did was it opened me up to the ability to make panoramic photos, using multiple photos put together that look seamless. So it looks like it was shot in one frame. I have a picture of the CNN Center that has 35 photos, that covers the whole width and breadth of the CNN Center,” Sherman explained. “Every new technique, or every new thing that comes along, if you’re interested in making the changes and doing things, it makes a difference in you professionally and also from a business perspective.”
An exhibition of photos by Ron Sherman will be on view at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center from Aug. 2 – Sept. 29. More information is available at www.roswellgov.com/discover-us/cultural-arts-center.
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