Page 4 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 2 Winter 2014

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ACTION
John Shearer was a 16-year-old appren-
tice to LIFE photographer Arthur Rothstein
when he stumbled onto one of the most
iconic moments in 20th-century Ameri-
can history. Set loose to take photographs
at the November 25, 1963, funeral of Presi-
dent John F. Kennedy, Shearer squeezed
his way to a spot in front of St. Matthew’s
Cathedral and waited.
“I thought maybe the family would come
out after the service,” says Shearer, now
66. “They did and I saw [John F. Kennedy
Jr.] fiddling. When it happened, it was
pretty clear to me that I had the family
in a nice way.”
It was in that moment that three-year-
old John saluted his father’s casket as it
passed the cathedral, his grief-stricken
mother and uncles looking on. It was a
moment that burned itself into the collective
memory of the country and also one that
changed John Shearer’s life. At the time,
Shearer felt it was a “pretty strong shot”
but he did not have the benefit of review-
ing the images as a photographer would
today. Within moments, a security guard
charged with crowd control wrestled
Shearer from his perch, and the new lens
on his camera, which had caused him to
worry about settings and lighting, was
shattered. But the image was safe, his
worries about overexposure from the
unfamiliar lens unwarranted.
Less than two years later, Shearer be-
came the youngest photographer – and the
second African-American – hired by a
major publication, when he joined the staff
of LOOK magazine, which had a circula-
tion of more than 6.5 million at the time.
He remained at LOOK until 1968, when
he transferred his skills to LIFE magazine.
Shearer went on to capture some of the
most notable events of the mid-20th
century, including the 1971 “Fight of the
Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe
Frazier and the 1972 Attica prison riots.
He covered extensively the revolutionist
activity of the Black Panthers in the South
and integrated himself into the culture of
the 1970s South Bronx street gang, the
Reapers, earning the trust of its leader,
Eddie Cuevas, and eventually helping
Cuevas, a budding artist, land a job paint-
ing sets at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
The richness and breadth of Shearer’s
experiences were recently showcased in
a retrospective at Hargate Gallery, which
opened on January 20 in honor of Martin
Luther King Day. Shearer spent a few days
at the School, sharing the history behind
his work with SPS students.
“The purpose of the Hargate Gallery is
to bring artwork to St. Paul’s as a teach-
ing tool,” says Colin Callahan, who directs
the gallery. “We want to offer students in
the studio arts the opportunity to grow
technically by studying the works of estab-
lished artists, and we also want to increase
their sensitivity to subject matter whenever
possible. The complexity of John’s works
allows us to do both.”
Shearer realized at age 12 that the arts
captured his imagination, but he was eager
to avoid walking too closely in the foot-
steps of his cartoonist father, Ted Shearer.
Renowned photojournalist Gordon Parks
(the first African-American photographer
hired by LIFE – Shearer was the second)
was a close family friend and encouraged
Shearer to pursue his interest.
“When I was 13 or 14, I put together a
portfolio of my photos to show to Gordon,”
Shearer recalls. “I put on a tie and headed
down the street to his house. He tore up
every one of my photos but one, and told
me I had to learn to show my best work.”
It didn’t take long for Shearer’s best work
to emerge. In 1971, he covered the Ali-
Frazier fight, spending time embedded
with both fighters. He learned, he said,
that Ali was a more introspective person
that his public persona exuded and that
Frazier was a “really good guy – a real
family man.” The following year, Shearer
was, according to his website, “the only
photographer allowed inside [New York’s]
Attica prison during the assault by New
York law enforcement authorities.”
Though he was in the middle of many
dangerous situations, Shearer says he
never worried for his safety. He did carry
vinegar in his pocket in the 1960s and 70s
because “when I was in a situation when
there might be tear gas, the fumes from
the vinegar would keep my eyes open so
I could keep taking pictures.”
Though Shearer is no longer special-
izing in the reportorial photography that
helped him establish his career, he remains
fascinated by what it takes to create a
good picture, and the ways through which
a picture can tell a story.
“Emotion is one of the important things,”
he says, “A good picture is one that gets
under the surface a bit.”
John Shearer, whose work was featured in Hargate, was hired by LOOK magazine at 17.
Photographic History
PETER FINGER
JOHN SHEARER (1963)