 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Mel Finkelstein was a Pulitzer Prize nominated photographer who rode the streets of New York City as a "camera cowboy" for more than 40 years working as a newspaper and freelance photographer.. [1]
Finkelstein was born in Brooklyn, New York to Ida and Louis Finkelstein.
Finkelstein was the youngest of two sons. His elder brother Perry bought him his first camera. The two brothers would cruise the streets of New York City together to catch breaking news. Mel Finkelstein shot the still photographs while Perry filmed news reel features for CBS. Mel's girlfriend at the time, later to become his wife, Janet Levande was the reporter. Together, they called themselves the Dynamic Trio. [2]
While still a student at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, he joined the former New York Journal-American as a 16-year-old freelance photographer in 1948. Finkelstein was hired by that paper as a staff photographer and worked there while it merged in 1966 into the World-Journal-Tribune. He joined the New York Daily News in 1967 after the World Journal Tribune folded. [3]
Mel Finkelstein left the New York Daily News twenty years later to join the staff of the New York Post . He became the photo editor of the New York Post in 1988 and remained there till his death at the age of 60 in 1992. [4]
Finkelstein covered breaking news, photographed celebrities and politicians and carried out numerous feature and special assignments. Walter Winchell and Bobby Kennedy were frequent guests in his radio car as he cruised the streets at night, often beating police to crime scenes. Finkelstein was often referred to as "Rambo" for his willingness to go in risky areas. [5]
Jacqueline Onassis once "judo-tricked" Finkelstein in a movie theater lobby in New York after she left her seat mid-movie to go to the lounge. She then discovered the newspaper photographers, but at the time, Finkelstein said he was already leaving. "Mrs. Onassis followed me out and then going 6 feet out of her way, walked over and hit me with a 'judo trick." He was able to get a picture of her walking away. [6]
Finkelstein once "arrested" a mugger in Brooklyn, helped capture an armed bank robber, and talked many potential suicide jumpers down to safety. [7]
The walls of his Baldwin, Long Island home were covered with awards and trophies. These included the National Press Photographers Association "Photographer of the Year" award, the Newspaper Guild of New York's "Page One" award, the Society of Silurian's Award, the New York Press Photographers Association Award and most notably his Pulitzer Prize nomination award. Many of these awards were won repeatedly over his career.
Finkelstein captured many iconic faces ranging from political notables like President John F. Kennedy to movie stars like Marilyn Monroe. He photographed sports celebrities including boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, football greats Joe Namath, and tennis stars Billie Jean King and Jimmy Connors, to name a few. Mel Finkelstein also was a regular on the baseball field covering the New York Mets and the Yankees.
Finkelstein was recognized for his iconic images of music greats ranging from the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Blondie, Tony Bennett, and other notable musicians of the era. His photographs covering the Woodstock Festival symbolized the profound, changing era of the sixties.
Finkelstein was best known for his Civil Rights news coverage. His candid photographs taken during the 1960s riots took the plight of the suffering into the homes and consciousness of those sheltered from the truth of the inequality of the times. [8]
Finkelstein married Janet Levande who died a year before Finkelstein in February 1991. They had been married for 43 years. They have four daughters and eight grandchildren.
The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. From 2000 it has used the "breaking news" name but it is considered a continuation of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, which was awarded from 1968 to 1999. Prior to 1968, a single Prize was awarded for photojournalism, the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, which was replaced in that year by Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", it remains the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. In 2022, it had the seventh-highest circulation of any American newspaper.
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography by having a rigid ethical framework which demands an honest but impartial approach that tells a story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists contribute to the news media, and help communities connect with one other. They must be well-informed and knowledgeable, and are able to deliver news in a creative manner that is both informative and entertaining.
Huỳnh Công Út, known professionally as Nick Ut, is a Vietnamese-American photographer who worked for the Associated Press (AP) in Los Angeles. He won both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for his 1972 photograph The Terror of War, depicting children running away from a napalm bombing attack during the Vietnam War.
I Am Curious (Yellow) (Swedish: Jag är nyfiken – en film i gult, meaning "I Am Curious: A Film in Yellow") is a 1967 Swedish erotic drama film written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman, starring Sjöman and Lena Nyman. It is a companion film to 1968's I Am Curious (Blue); the two were initially intended to be one 3+1⁄2 hour film.
Clarence Page is an American journalist, syndicated columnist, and senior member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.
The Pulitzer Prizes for 1980 were announced on April 14, 1980. A total of 1,550 entries were submitted for prizes in 19 categories of journalism and the arts. Finalists were chosen by expert juries in each category, and winners were then chosen by the 16-member Pulitzer Prize Board, presided over by Clayton Kirkpatrick. For the first time in the Prizes' history, juries were asked to name at least three finalists in each category, and the finalists were announced in addition to the winners. Each prize carried a $1,000 award, except for the Public Service prize, which came with a gold medal.
The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1994.
John R. Fischetti was an editorial cartoonist for the New York Herald Tribune and the Chicago Daily News. He received a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1969 and numerous awards from the National Cartoonists Society.
Kevin P. Coughlin is a photojournalist, writer, governmental photographer, pilot, and aerial cinematographer. He is the former executive photographer to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew M. Cuomo. His photographs at Ground Zero following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and while covering funerals and memorial services of fallen fire fighters, police officers, and emergency personnel killed as a result of the attacks are included in the 2002 Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times for Public Service. In addition to The New York Times, his photographs have appeared in the New York Post, New York Daily News, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, Business Week, People, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Time, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. He has also written magazine articles for GQ and News Photographer.
Nathaniel Fein was a photographer for the New York Herald Tribune for 33 years. He was an only child and he grew up in Manhattan New York. During the Great Depression in the United States his father left and he was raised by his mother Francis.
Yasushi Nagao was a Japanese press photographer.
Tyler Portis Hicks is a photojournalist who works as a staff photographer for The New York Times. Based in Kenya, he covers foreign news for the newspaper with an emphasis on conflict and war.
Arthur (Usher) Fellig, known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City.
Edward Norman Jackson was an American photographer and photojournalist for the New York Daily News. Jackson was President Woodrow Wilson's European photographer during the close of World War I and photographed The Big Four world leaders at the Paris Peace Conference.
Thomas Jefferson High School was a high school in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York. It was the alma mater of many people who grew up in the Great Depression and World War II and rose to prominence in the arts, literature, and other fields. In 2007, the New York City Department of Education closed the school and broke it into several small schools because of low graduation rates.
Charlotte Finkelstein Brooks was an American photographer and photojournalist. From 1951 to 1971, she was a staff photographer for Look and the only woman staff photographer in the magazine's history.
Dick L. Swanson is an American photographer and a war photographer with numerous published photographs in the United States.
Manu Brabo (1981) is a Spanish photojournalist who was captured in Libya along with three other journalists while covering the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and who was part of the Associated Press team to win the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2013.
Evelyn Straus was an American photojournalist and the first woman employed as a photographer at the Daily News in New York City. She was one of the first women admitted to the National Press Photographers Association in 1945 and joined the Press Photographers Association of New York City in 1952 as soon as they allowed women as members. During her career, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and had work featured at the Museum of Modern Art.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
