There was a man in my life that influenced me in so many ways, one of them I believe to be photography. Not so much the style that I have adopted as my own, but I think the eye to see things that some may walk past.
His name was James Vincent Antizzo, and except for the DNA that ran through our blood, he was my father. He worked as a public relations photographer for many years and I rarely remember him, in those early days, without a camera in hand. I have hundreds, no probably thousands, of photos of myself as a young child. But this post is not so much a walk down memory lane, or sharing a part of myself, it is intended to be a way to share some of his work and hopefully not be forgotten. I googled his name last night and not a single image of his appeared…that disturbed me. In an age when just about anything googled (or binged) comes back with something… why not an image taken by Jim?… or as he later became known “Pop Pop”
He worked his magic both in a studio, which is how he met my mom…but that’s a story for another time, but mostly at JFK airport which at the time was called Idlewild Airport. He was the staff photographer for TWA airlines. In the old days, newspapers always ran a lot of “human interest” stories. And photo’s of celebrities and dignitaries would make the paper and hence free advertisement. Jim always managed to get the TWA logo into the photo! Here is an example, this is Casey Stangel and his wife Edna….notice the TWA ticket holder in the second ladies bag and while it has been cut out of this photo, Edna has a TWA travel bag on her shoulder 🙂 Sneaky huh???
Here is another of actress Inger Stevens…and by the way that is me next to her 🙂
At one time I had boxes filled with his images, over the years and many moves so many of them were lost. I’m sorry now that I did not take better care to preserve them. This is a photo of Jim, probably in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, I believe this is a self portrait.
I remember hanging out at the airport on vacations from school and Saturdays when he would have to work…times were different and I pretty much explored and wandered unfettered. Just about every airport worker knew me and I’d usually snag lunch and snacks 🙂 Jim, whenever he could, would get me in the photos…I think he enjoyed shooting me more than the celeb’s! One more for today, although you can’t see my face I am the little girl in the snow suit greeting President and Mrs.Truman as they walked down the steps of the plane. Yes, life was a bit different back then, imagine just about anyone being able to walk up to a former president and not be tackled to the ground.
OK, I really do have to share this little tidbit. When Jim got the assignment to shoot (with the camera) the former president we went out a bought a bouquet of flowers. He posted me at the bottom of the steps and I was to hand them to Mrs. Truman and he would take the shot. Well, they both descended the steps and walked right past me. Jim made them go back up the steps and come back down and this time acknowledge me and accept the flowers!!! He did get a great shot, but I’ve lost it 😦 Like I said earlier, times were certainly different!
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