Another book has been unearthed for the collectors of tomes of early photojournalism history since NBC cameraman in particular seem to like writing books about themselves and their careers. Well actually a Kindle book since it wasn’t published on paper as a traditional book…

The late Gene Barnes, NBC Los Angeles photographer, wrote a book of his memories that he tried to have published for many years without success. His daughter ended up turning it into a Kindle book called I Witness (rather congruous that its the same title as Norman Alley’s book…especially since there is a photo of Norman with his son Dexter in it among other 1950s-era Los Angeles photogs that Barnes worked alongside).

If you have the book of another early NBC cameraman, George Gore’s The People I Shot, its quite similar in style to Gore’s book with Barnes’ version also being a compilation of many very short stories about news events he shot.

The Kindle book can be found on Amazon at this link and the site operated by Barnes’ daughter, Christina Barnes, can be found at http://iwitnesslife.wordpress.com.

As an addendum for the readers who have a thing for collecting NPPA awards, the story that apparently forced the NPPA to create a “sound on film” category in the Best of Photojournalism contest back in the late 50s is related here  (and sadly the story doesn’t appear to be in NBC’s online archives). Though despite the claims in the post, Barnes wasn’t the first to pull off a sound interview with a camera hoisted on his shoulder instead of on sticks. Herbie Schwartz of CBS did the same thing in 1953 with President Truman outside of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Schwartz’s story was called “Truman Takes a Walk” and it too won an NPPA award when it was submitted for judging.