Dear Frank: When Arty Pomerantz and I chose a few hundred of his pictures for Before the Paparazzi: Fifty Years of Extraordinary Pictures to represent the life's work of a legendary press photographer, thousands more pictures had to be left, literally, "in the box." Before the Paparazzi contains about 28,000 words of text and over 300 pictures—most of them with an accompanying "story behind the pictures." Almost all of the pictures appeared in the New York Post and other New York City newspapers during the years—primarily the 60s through the 90s—that Arty Pomerantz was a staff photographer and assignment editor, and many of the featured photos were on the newspapers' front pages. It would be easier to list the movie stars, Presidents, sports stars, and poets who are not among these photographs than those who are—on the cover alone you can see Jackie Kennedy, Liz Taylor, Walter Winchell, and the Beatles. There are pictures of looters in the heart of the city during the Blackout of 1977, pictures of fires and tickertape parades and of the assassination of a Mafia godfather. Chapter introductions provide the reader with a context for the entire book by describing the day-to-day life of a New York City press photographer—for years the only night photographer for the New York Post—who bore visual witness of that quintessential American city's people and events through decades of profound social, political, and technological change. Arty loved his work and the people he photographed, and that love, combined with consummate skill, is apparent in every picture Arty made. Arty was a protégé of Weegee, whose photographs appeared in the original Naked City (later a movie and a TV series), and who at one time was paid five dollars per bullet hole by Life magazine for his pictures of murder victims. When Arty started his first press photographer job in 1956, newspaper photos were shot with a 4 X 5 Speed Graphic, a big, bulky camera with a bellows and a film holder. Arty not only changed cameras, he changed from a radio that connected his car to an answering service, to a police radio and a real car phone. Over the years he partnered with cub reporters like Pete Hamill, Nick Pileggi, and Nora Ephron, who would go on to become best-selling authors while remaining Arty's lifelong friends. Peter Riva, a literary agent and specialist in media licensing and rights representation since 1975, said of Before the Paparazzi: "There is something here, there is something in these images that harkens to a time in transition, a time now lost, when New York was the center of the media universe. Sadly, Arty's pictures are all that is left of a world that has vanished forever. Arty Pomerantz is the successor to Weegee, before US and People, before the paparazzi." Our book is in the final stages of production for publication with World Audience Publishers, Inc. However, I would be glad to email you a password-protected PDF advance copy for review. Please let me know. Sincerely,
Steven P. Unger ungerstv@surewest.net
Note: World Audience Publishers has also published my previous nonfiction work, In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journey and Travel Guide (http://worldaudience.powweb.com/pubs_bks/Dracula.html) available from www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.de, and www.amazon.com/Kindle.
Nice to see Gregory Wolfe getting some ink. He's written some good stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut the article is wrong about Dorothy Sayers meeting Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, et al. at the Bird & Baby.
She lived in London, not Oxford, and in any case the Inklings was definitely a boys' club.
Dear Frank:
ReplyDeleteWhen Arty Pomerantz and I chose a few hundred of his pictures for Before the Paparazzi: Fifty Years of Extraordinary Pictures to represent the life's work of a legendary press photographer, thousands more pictures had to be left, literally, "in the box."
Before the Paparazzi contains about 28,000 words of text and over 300 pictures—most of them with an accompanying "story behind the pictures." Almost all of the pictures appeared in the New York Post and other New York City newspapers during the years—primarily the 60s through the 90s—that Arty Pomerantz was a staff photographer and assignment editor, and many of the featured photos were on the newspapers' front pages.
It would be easier to list the movie stars, Presidents, sports stars, and poets who are not among these photographs than those who are—on the cover alone you can see Jackie Kennedy, Liz Taylor, Walter Winchell, and the Beatles. There are pictures of looters in the heart of the city during the Blackout of 1977, pictures of fires and tickertape parades and of the assassination of a Mafia godfather.
Chapter introductions provide the reader with a context for the entire book by describing the day-to-day life of a New York City press photographer—for years the only night photographer for the New York Post—who bore visual witness of that quintessential American city's people and events through decades of profound social, political, and technological change. Arty loved his work and the people he photographed, and that love, combined with consummate skill, is apparent in every picture Arty made.
Arty was a protégé of Weegee, whose photographs appeared in the original Naked City (later a movie and a TV series), and who at one time was paid five dollars per bullet hole by Life magazine for his pictures of murder victims. When Arty started his first press photographer job in 1956, newspaper photos were shot with a 4 X 5 Speed Graphic, a big, bulky camera with a bellows and a film holder.
Arty not only changed cameras, he changed from a radio that connected his car to an answering service, to a police radio and a real car phone. Over the years he partnered with cub reporters like Pete Hamill, Nick Pileggi, and Nora Ephron, who would go on to become best-selling authors while remaining Arty's lifelong friends.
Peter Riva, a literary agent and specialist in media licensing and rights representation since 1975, said of Before the Paparazzi: "There is something here, there is something in these images that harkens to a time in transition, a time now lost, when New York was the center of the media universe. Sadly, Arty's pictures are all that is left of a world that has vanished forever. Arty Pomerantz is the successor to Weegee, before US and People, before the paparazzi."
Our book is in the final stages of production for publication with World Audience Publishers, Inc. However, I would be glad to email you a password-protected PDF advance copy for review. Please let me know.
Sincerely,
Steven P. Unger
ungerstv@surewest.net
Note: World Audience Publishers has also published my previous nonfiction work, In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journey and Travel Guide (http://worldaudience.powweb.com/pubs_bks/Dracula.html) available from www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.de, and www.amazon.com/Kindle.