Tribute to Rich Clarkson and Reunion of his Topeka Capital-Journal Photography Staff
BY GERD LUDWIG
The Photo Society
In a continuation of my conversations with former National Geographic Directors of Photography, I have asked Richard Clarkson to share his experiences at the helm of the photography department.
Rich Clarkson and Jeff Jacobsen were together this weekend in New Orleans to photograph the NCAA Final Four tournament. This was Clarkson’s 57th Final Four and Jeff Jacobsen’s tenth.
Clarkson, “the legendary Final Four photographer,” was featured in a “CBS This Morning” profile.
The Jayhawks lost to the Wildcast in the championship game,67-59.
— Photograph by LAURA JACOBSEN
Speech of Hon. Peter A. Defazio of Oregon
in The House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the life and legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Brian Lanker. Ten days after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, Brian passed away with his family at his side.
Brian was a remarkable photographer and an even better friend. In 1970, Brian shot a groundbreaking feature on the Lamaze technique for natural child birth, which at the time was unusual. Brian followed expectant mother Lynda Coburn through the birth of her second child. The feature culminated with a powerful photo of the ecstatic mother with her newborn daughter Jacki just after birth. This iconic photo earned Brian the 1973 Pulitzer Prize. Read More >>
By BOB KEEFER
The Register-Guard
Family and friends gathered to celebrate the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker on Sunday at McDonald Theater.
A few hundred of Brian Lanker’s closest friends said a final goodbye Sunday afternoon in a memorial at Eugene’s McDonald Theatre with slideshows, videos, speeches and even a mariachi band.
Lanker, a nationally known Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, died at his Eugene home March 13 at the age of 63 from fast-moving pancreatic cancer.
“I am the only member of Congress to have a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer do his Christmas cards,” said a choked-up Rep. Peter DeFazio, a longtime friend. DeFazio went on to tell the story of Lanker’s delivering him a Christmas tree one bleak December when the congressman had mentioned he was too busy doing the work of government to decorate his Springfield home.
Former University of Oregon Athletic Director and head football coach Rich Brooks spoke of his longtime professional and personal relationship with Brian Lanker.
Rich Clarkson shares a moment with U.S. Olympian Jon Anderson, University of Oregon Director of Track and Field Vin Lananna and Chris Steppig during the reception for the “Track Town, USA” exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Ore. The show features photographs by Clarkson, Brian Lanker, The Register-Guard and the University of Oregon. The exhibition is on display until August 28.
— Photograph by ROB DENTON
EUGENE, Ore. — The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Arts presents selections from Brian Lanker’s “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,” on view from June 21-Sept. 11, 2011 in the Focus Gallery.
By LINDSAY H. JONES
The Denver Post
Rich Clarkson and his childhood pals followed the unmistakable thump thump thump up three flights of stairs until they reached a set of beaten-up wooden doors. The 7-year-old boys peered through the window and, sure enough, found what they were looking for. Through the glass, they saw them, the 1939 Kansas Jayhawks, in the middle of an early-season practice inside Robinson Gymnasium on the KU campus in Lawrence. Feeling brave, the boys pushed open the doors, sneaked inside and quietly took a seat on the gym floor against the back wall.
By BRUCE THORSON
LINCOLN, Neb. — Brian Lanker’s recent passing has left us saddened, stunned and shocked.
I was Lanker’s lab tech, joining the Eugene Register-Guard in July 1981. He was really my first photojournalism mentor and teacher. He was meticulous and demanding. He was a thinker first and a photographer second. As his lab tech I was on the periphery of his influence and teaching. Still, he had a profound effect on me as a photojournalist. Many thanks, Brian Lanker, for the lessons I learned from you.
By J.B. FORBES
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Pictures Blog
My friend Brian Lanker died last week. He was one of the best photographers in the world. And he was a very good person. At 63, he was much too young to leave us.
By JAN BILES
The Capital-Journal
Former Topeka Capital-Journal environmental writer Mike Tharp remembers spending Christmas Day 1970 in the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth taking notes and conducting interviews.
Tharp was there because Capital-Journal photojournalist Brian Lanker had asked him to come along to write a story to accompany his images documenting how inmates spent their holiday.
By KRISTI TURNQUIST
The Oregonian
Brian Lanker’s son, Dustin, and stepdaughter, Julia Coburn, had been planning weddings for later this year — until three weeks ago, when Lanker was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“When the news came in that he was really ill, I think we all had the same thought,” says Dustin. Julia was married at the family home in Eugene on March 11; Dustin married his fiancée the next day.
Download a PDF of Brian Lanker’s obituary that appeared in the print edition of The New York Times on Saturday, March 19, 2011.
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The New York Times
Brian Lanker, a photojournalist who showed that small-city newspapers could have large-scale impact through the empathetic and intimate visual portrayal of American lives, died Sunday at his home in Eugene, Ore. He was 63.
By MARK BAKER
The Register-Guard
Brian Lanker, photographed at his studio in Eugene in 1989 with his portrait of Rosa Parks.
A handful of former Register- Guard reporters and editors have gone on to win a Pulitzer Prize after leaving the newspaper. But only one former staff member in the paper’s 144-year history made The R-G his next stop after winning journalism’s most prestigious honor: Brian Lanker.
Lanker, the newspaper’s director of graphics from 1974 to 1982, died Sunday at his home in Eugene after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 63.
After leaving the newspaper, he became a nationally renowned photojournalist whose portraits graced the likes of Life and Sports Illustrated magazines, and book projects such as “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,” and the more recent “Track Town, USA.”
Read the complete story at The Register-Guard >>
— Photograph by PAUL CARTER
Brian Lanker at the end of a long but happy day at his home in Eugene, Ore., on Monday, July 12, 2010, when former staff photographers from the Topeka Capital-Journal who worked for Rich Clarkson gathered for a reunion.
By JEFF JACOBSEN
Brian Lanker has passed away. The sad news none of us wanted to hear has come.
— Photograph by CARL DAVAZ
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The New York Times
It’s hard to say for which image Brian Lanker may have been most renowned. Was it the Pulitzer-winning photo of an ebullient Lynda Coburn with her couldn’t-be-more-newly born upon her belly? Or was it the elegant portrait of Septima Poinsette Clark, looking every bit the “queen mother” of the civil rights movement, that graced the cover of his book, “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America”?
The late Brian Lanker won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for his feature photography and earned numerous other awards for his work for Sports Illustrated, LIFE and others. Here is some of his work in photos.
By SEAN D. Elliot
President, National Press Photographers Association
As a senior in high school, 25-years ago, I worked alongside the stepdaughter of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Brian Lanker. She was the photo editor for the student newspaper, I was the photo editor for the yearbook. We were both effectively on each other’s staff at any given time.
Standing on the sideline of a Friday night football game with my Canon AE-1 Program and 135mm f2.8 lens, waiting for the action to get close enough for me to shoot, Julie walked in with a Nikon F3 and 300mm f2.8 over her shoulder, and a Pulitzer Prize winner carrying her bag.
By DONALD R. WINSLOW
© 2011 News Photographer magazine
EUGENE, Ore. — Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and filmmaker Brian Lanker, a newspaper and Life magazine, National Geographic, and Sports Illustrated photographer whose book “I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America” was one of the most successful photography books ever, has died at his home in Eugene after battling pancreatic cancer for less than two weeks. He was 63.
By CLAIRE O’NEILL
NPR
About two weekends ago, a curious happening took place in Oregon. Thirty-five of the country’s sharpest shooters flew in from around the world to surprise a man they all “wanted to murder,” as Brian Lanker, the organizer, put it.
Editor’s note: Delmar’s daughter, Karen, sent this e-mail message to Rich earlier in the week. It’s posted here with permission.
Delmar Schmidt
Dear Rich,
I cannot imagine that you’ve come down from the lofty cloud that was produced after your amazing and adoring team of mentored photographers bestowed such a fabulous tribute to you in Eugene, Oregon last week. However, you may have, and you are now enjoying the memories of it all.
I look at the Cap-Jo online every day, from my home in Charlottesville, VA, where I’ve lived for 13 years and have been working as a UVa professor in Psychology. I was very touched and surprised by the lovely story that was published about you and your celebration events organized by Brian Lanker on Sunday. So wonderful.
I have also been deeply moved, repeatedly, upon seeing the inclusion of Dad in all of the photos, montages, and festivities in the celebration of your amazing career. Reviewing these photos is like I’m reliving the many work-related stories he would come home and tell us after a long day of work at the Cap-Jo. All of these captured moments are very special to me, and to my brothers and my sons as well. We all miss Dad, and Grandpa, and it is very sweet that you all remember Delmar so fondly. I am sure that he was there in spirit, as he would not have missed this event!
Thank you again for making my dad’s professional experience at The Topeka Capital-Journal a truly rewarding one. I have always been grateful to my dad for instilling such a strong work ethic in me. I have no doubt that Dad’s work standards of excellence were honed in part by you, and this in turn was passed along to his children.
Best wishes,
Karen Schmidt
Charlottesville, VA
Words like that were used over and over during three days in Eugene, Oregon, last week. All that amazement was lavished on the reunion of Topeka Capital-Journal photographers and lab men held to honor their esteemed director Rich Clarkson. That 35 alums would travel great distances to honor their former leader is quite a testament to the influence Clarkson had on each of the photographers. Standing back and looking over the crowd, photographers would shake their heads in disbelief that so much talent was gathered in one room.
245 photographs made then and in more recent years by the newspaper’s staff photographers.
By BOB KEEFER
The Register-Guard
Brian Lanker embraces his Kansas editor and mentor, Rich Clarkson, at a surprise party hosted by Lanker in Eugene. Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey records the scene. (Paul Carter/The Register-Guard)
EUGENE, Ore. — “The worst staff ever” got back together one more time this week for a reunion in Eugene to celebrate the extraordinary editor who hired them all a generation ago in Topeka, Kan., and then sent them far and wide to make their mark on photojournalism.
When the guest of honor — former Topeka Capital-Journal director of photography Rich Clarkson — walked into the surprise party in Eugene Monday night, the scene resembled a chaotic presidential photo op.
Clarkson, now a slender, white-haired man of 77, may or may not have been fully surprised. “You almost kept it a secret,” he growled, his face alternating between shock and awe as he was surrounded in the foyer by a throng of gray-haired photographers, former employees all, madly clicking and videoing away. “Go to hell!”
Any other response would have been completely out of character. Running the Topeka photo department, Clarkson snarled as much as he smiled. “You’re the worst staff I ever had!” was practically a motto. Clarkson yelled and threw things. He pushed and bullied. He tore up photographs and hurled them at cowed photographers. And he made his people excel.
By MIKE THARP
20inthecar.com
A book containing over 250 photographs was printed to commemorate the reunion of Rich Clarkson’s Topeka Capital-Journal photography staff, in Eugene, Ore., July 12-14, 2010.
EUGENE, Ore. — A tear fell on the last page.
At least it might have been a tear. And it might have fallen on the last page.
With Rich Clarkson, it’s difficult to tell. Difficult to say whether all those hawk-eyed photographers he had trained for decades at The Topeka Capital-Journal had finally seen him cry.
Clarkson, former director of photography at The Capital-Journal, had just fingered his way through a 250-page, 6.8-pound book of photos. All had been taken by graduates — or survivors — of Clarkson’s Topeka boot camp.
They all came together for three days last week in this city where two former C-J photographers have made their own legends — Brian Lanker, a Pulitzer Prize-winner in Topeka, and Carl Davaz, who left Topeka for Missoula, Mont., and is now deputy managing editor of the Eugene Register-Guard.
Some are retired. Some, like Lanker, Davaz and Chris Johns, a former intern and shooter at Topeka who is now editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine, are still mighty active. National Geographic helped underwrite the picture book that so moved Clarkson.
— Video by JOHN CHAO
Read Jeff Jacobsen’s blog post that inspired the reunion.
— Video by BRIAN LANKER
David Alan Harvey explains the Rich Clarkson Index.
— Video by CARL DAVAZ
EUGENE, Ore. — Some of the best photographers of their generation are gathered here this week to honor the man who taught them to become good enough to capture some of the most memorable images of the last 35 years, publish books, win Pulitzers and become leaders throughout the news business.
Rich Clarkson is the man they credit for their success — and with transforming American photojournalism.
Bill Snead
Gary Settle
Perry Riddle
Owen Brewer
Jack Kenward
Hal Stoelzle
Rod Hanna
Jim Ryun
Barry Sweet
George Olson
Berne Ketchum
Bob Graves
Mark Godfrey
David Alan Harvey
Jeff Jacobsen
Bill Kesler
Brian Lanker
Jim Forbes
Jim Richardson
Carl Davaz
Bill Ballenberg
David Peterson
Chris Johns
Phil Schermeister
Damian Strohmeyer
David Griffin
Susan Biddle
John Chao
Harley Soltes
Charles Kogod
Sarah Leen
Thad Allton
Mike Tharp
Mike Van Dyke
Susan Thomas
Lynda Lanker
Kim Davaz
Lori Kesler
Bill Marr
Bob Barkin
Kathy Ketchum
Patti Settle
Laura Jacobsen
Sally Ballenberg
Rob Denton
Raleigh Sweet
Joyce Sinski
Sasha (Riddle) Kelly
Linda Van Dyke
Dona Snead
Helen Brewer
Sheila Kenward
Kathy Griffin
Anne Ryun
Download Bill Marr's Topeka Capital Journal photography staff timeline.
