+ I'm a Long Neck, Delaware-based photojournalist with 54 years of experience, most recently as Director of Photography at the Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.) and long-time writer and photographer of the 845LIFE column. Now retired.
+ Long ago and far away, I trained under LIFE Magazine photographer Bernard Hoffman and began my newspaper career in 1972, shooting 6-7 assignments a day, souping prints in a crappy darkroom while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yup, I'm a Boomer.
+ That was when newspapers were black-and-white and Tri-X film was king. The other press photographers were grumpy old men who smoked too much, hid bottles of rum in the darkroom and grudgingly gave up secrets. I listened, learned and tried not to inhale.
+ Since then my full-time job has been creating photographs for newspapers in seven states including one of the smallest in New Mexico and one of the largest in New York City. I've shot U.S. presidents, high school, college and pro sports, famous musicians, boring politicians, the rich and famous and the poor and not-so-famous. I much prefer the latter.
+ If it matters to you, my work has won hundreds of awards, was published around the world and every week in the TH-R and in Orange Magazine and Ulster Magazine. I was part of a team nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and I've been an elector for college football's Heisman Trophy. I've produced four coffee-table sized photography books with one more ready to drop.
845.988.7884
Copyright: John DeSanto, 1971-2025