My Father's Archive: The Photographs of Larry Nicholson

Post #64: Better Homes and Gardens Magazine Story

2010-11-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few months. I needed a little break from my scanner :)

For this post I want to share one of my Dad's favorite stories about being a photographer.

So in my father's own words:

In 1954, I had just quit my job at Shefﬁeld Steel, and opened my photography business, sharing ofﬁce space with a new friend, architect Robert Major. Bob had recently ﬁnished a remodeling project, a home on Lake Quivira on the outskirts of Kansas City. Bob took me to see his work, and I snapped some quick black and white shots of the front of the home, processed the ﬁlm, and made a few prints for Bob to show the owner.

On a whim, I decided to see if any magazines might be interested in a story about the remodeling, which had pleased the owner, a real estate salesman. Being young and foolish with unwarranted optimism, I decided to start at the top, and send the story idea to Better Homes and Gardens magazine, which was one of the most popular magazines in the country with millions of subscribers. So thatʼs what I did. I wrote a brief letter describing the project, packaged up several prints, and sent them to the editor.

Shazam! About a week later, I received a telegram from BH&G, telling me that they REALLY liked this project, and wanted to feature it in an upcoming issue . . . not only that, they wanted to use it on the cover! I was so excited . . . couldnʼt believe it . . . my new business was only a month old, and I had made the COVER of Better Homes and Gardens! WOW!

My elation was short-lived, however. Plans were made to shoot the cover in color on a certain date. I showed up with my humble camera, ready to work, but scared because I had never done anything like this before. An art editor from BH&G was there, and he announced that the magazine had hired a photographer from Hedrich-Blessing to shoot the cover, and he would arrive shortly.

I was stunned. The photographer showed up, carried his large view camera from the rental car, and set it up inside the house in a room overlooking the lake. He set up some lights to light the interior, while I watched in disbelief. In an hour or so, he had made several exposures, bundled up his equipment and was on his way back to his base in Chicago.

My golden opportunity had been snatched from my hands, but after thinking it over, I realized that I was in no way ready to handle an assignment like that. I had neither the experience, expertise, or equipment to do it right.

After several weeks, I began to recover my conﬁdence, and determined to improve my skills, keep trying, and upgrade my modest equipment as soon as possible. Months went by, and we kept watching for the magazine issue featuring Bobʼs remodeling . . . but it never happened . . . the project just went away, disappeared.

Much later, we learned from a friend of Bobʼs who worked for BH&G, that magazines at that time were VERY competitive, and actually hired and paid spies to work for their competitors. Their assignment was to let their secret bosses know what topics were about to be published, so their secret bosses could avoid publishing a similar topic at the same time.

It turns out that a competitor, AMERICAN HOME magazine, had scheduled an issue on “lake home remodeling” as their cover story. The editors at BH&G were told, and Bobʼs remodeling design was canceled on the spot, never to be published.

This was the beginning of more than 55 years of photography. Iʼm glad I hung in there.

Larry Nicholson

I love this story because it totally captures the roller coaster ride of being a photographer.

And all the way back from 1954 is one of my Dad's images of the house:

Post #63: Kids, Car, and Rain

2010-06-23T13:10:00.001-07:00

Post #62: On the road in Hawaii

2010-06-23T13:08:00.001-07:00

Post #61: Bathtime

2010-06-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

Post #60: 12th and Baltimore

2010-06-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

Post #59: Ameche!

2010-06-23T13:04:00.001-07:00

Post #58: Pigs!

2010-06-09T13:36:00.001-07:00

Post #57: More Hawaii

2010-06-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

Post #56: Driver

2010-04-26T14:29:00.001-07:00

Post #55:Skier for Halls

2010-04-26T14:27:00.001-07:00

Post #54: Flood series II

2010-04-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Post #53: Candy!

2010-04-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Post #52: My mom's hands

2010-04-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Read more about my amazing mother here...

Post #51: My Father's Portrait

2010-04-09T10:26:00.003-07:00

Many have asked for an up to date portrait of my Dad.

Post #50: The Flood

2010-03-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't given background information in previous posts but I think this series of images deserve a little background. There was a significant flood the summer of 1965 along the Mississippi River. My Dad traveled to a small town called Niota, Illinois. He talked the Hutson family into allowing him to photograph their family farm as it was being overtaken by flood waters. He spent a number of days shooting the flood from a variety of vantage points he even rented a plane (I found the receipt for the rental a whopping $14.25) and shot some aerial photographs. I haven't had the time to scan the full extent of his photographs of the flood so keep your eyes open for another series soon.

Post #49: The American Royal Popcorn

2010-03-09T05:46:00.001-08:00

Post #48: The Captain

2010-03-09T05:45:00.001-08:00

Post #47: Waiting

2010-03-09T05:43:00.000-08:00

Post #46: After the hunt

2010-03-09T05:42:00.001-08:00

Post #45: Big Catch

2010-03-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

Post #44: Out on a limb

2010-02-27T19:30:00.001-08:00

Post #43: The Pool

2010-02-27T15:16:00.001-08:00

Post #42: Chips!

2010-02-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

Post #41: Marvin's Diner

2010-02-27T15:11:00.001-08:00

Post #40: COOP

2010-02-27T15:10:00.001-08:00

Post #39: Mr. Len Dawson

2010-02-27T15:09:00.001-08:00

Post #38: The Stache

2010-02-17T13:26:00.001-08:00

Post #37: Distracted Farmers

2010-02-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Post #36: Stuck in Traffic

2010-02-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

Post #35: Arches B/W

2010-02-14T13:14:00.001-08:00

Post #34: Badlands

2010-02-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

Post #33: Pancakes

2010-02-03T08:37:00.001-08:00

Post #32: Casket

2010-02-03T08:36:00.001-08:00

Post #31: I-70

2010-02-03T08:29:00.001-08:00

Post #30: Kids at Nelson

2010-01-31T12:30:00.001-08:00

Post #29: Trucker at night

2010-01-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Post #28: Canyonlands

2010-01-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

Post #27: The Knight Series Part II

2010-01-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

Post #26: Norm Siebern for Rawlings

2010-01-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

FAQ

2010-01-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

1. When were these images shot?

My dad started working as a photographer in the mid 1950's and continues to shoot on a smaller scale to this day. The earliest image on the blog at this point is image #9 of the Plaza (which is a popular outdoor shopping area in Kansas City that is illuminated by Christmas Lights every holiday season) which was shot in 1954. The most recently shot image is #1 of the Armco Steel plant which was shot in 1981.

Part of me would like to include more details about all the images but I often don't know the details and neither does my father. I also like the idea of the images being interesting on their own without dates or additional background information.

2. Is your Dad still alive?

Yes, very much so. I spend time with him each week (generally on Thursday's) going through his many file cabinets of negatives, slides, and prints. I have only been through a few of the file cabinet drawers at this point.

3. How many images are in your father's archive?

I don't have anything close to an exact number but I would guess there are well over 100,000 images in his archive. We have truly just began to go through his archive. I could probably work on this project full time for many years and still not see everything.

4. What is the goal of this project?

It started from a desire to make sure that some of our family's favorite images got digitized and saved before anything happened to the negatives.

Once I got started and truly got a feel for the amount and quality of the work I wanted to create an avenue to showcase the work. I would love to put together a book or gallery showing of his work.

5. What is the story with the Knight series?

That series of images was assigned to my dad by a local advertising agency called Valentine Radford (which I believe is now VML) for their client Old Security Insurance. I just found more images from that assignment that include the knight playing golf which I will share soon.

6. What is your personal favorite image?

So far we haven't found the negatives for many of my personal favorites. Every week I am hopeful that we will find one and that is part of what keeps me digging through file cabinets.

7. Can we buy prints of the images?

Yes you can purchase prints of all the images on the blog. You can contact me at ryan@ryan-nicholson.com if you are interested in buying a print or licensing an image for commercial use.

Thanks to everyone who has followed the blog. Please stay tuned, much more to come!

Post #25: End of the Road

2010-01-22T12:46:00.001-08:00

Post #24: Boy with Plant

2010-01-22T12:45:00.001-08:00

Post #23: Black Sand Beach

2010-01-22T12:26:00.001-08:00

Post #22: Pepsi

2010-01-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

Post #21: Judy Anderson

2010-01-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

Post #20: Marvin

2010-01-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

Post #19: "Eat at Joe's"

2010-01-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

Post #18: Osceola Dam

2010-01-13T07:27:00.001-08:00

Post #17: Lamar Fire

2010-01-11T19:47:00.001-08:00

Post #16: The Auction

2010-01-11T19:46:00.001-08:00

Post #15: Arches National Park

2010-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

Post #14: Tractor

2010-01-07T11:43:00.001-08:00

Post #13: Road Rage

2010-01-07T11:42:00.001-08:00

Post #12: Lifeboat

2010-01-07T11:39:00.001-08:00

Post #11: Maternity Ward

2009-12-30T08:47:00.001-08:00

Post #10: The man behind the camera Larry Nicholson

2009-12-30T08:23:00.001-08:00

Post #9: Plaza Lights

2009-12-19T07:33:00.001-08:00

Post #8: The Knight Series

2009-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Post #7: KC Fireman

2009-12-13T06:18:00.001-08:00

Post #6: Colt

2009-12-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

Post #5: Circus Elephant Series

2009-12-10T07:54:00.001-08:00

Post #4: Boys Swimming

2009-12-09T22:15:00.001-08:00

Post #3: Model Test

2009-12-09T21:03:00.001-08:00

Post #2: Colorado Farmer

2009-12-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

Post #1: Armco Steel Kansas City, Missouri

2009-12-07T11:18:00.000-08:00