Legendary photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets
American photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets (Charles Clyde Ebbets) was born on August 18, 1905 in Gadsden, Alabama. The restless photographer's career began in 1920 in St. Petersburg, Florida, although he got his first camera at the age of eight. He bought it using the account of his mother, who worked in a pharmacy. For this act, he was so whipped that he could not sit for a week, even at school he had to stand near the desk. Charles treasured that camera until the last days of his life.
In 1924, Ebbets became interested in cinema, and not only shot, but also acted under the pseudonym Wally Rennie. During the 1920s, he successfully mastered a number of other professions: he became a pilot, a racing driver, a wrestler and a hunter. But he never let go of the camera. He was the official photographer of boxer Jack Dempsey, shot for several major American publications, including the Miami Daily News.
"Lunch at the top of a skyscraper"
By the 1930s, Ebbets had become widely known, his work was published in major newspapers across the country, including the New York Times. According to one version, he is the author of the famous photo taken in 1932, which depicts eleven people sitting on a beam during a lunch break. Their legs dangle over the streets of New York at the level of the 69th floor of the Rockefeller Center, which at that time was in the last stages of construction.
In 1933, the photographer returned to Florida, where he was going to live and work for the rest of his life. His interests focused on attracting tourists to the region, on the Seminole Indians and on the vast expanse of untouched nature in the Everglades.
In 1935, Ebbets became the first official Associated Press photographer in the state. That year, his photos of the infamous hurricane that destroyed the Florida Keys spread around the world. During the same period, he founded the Miami Association of Photojournalists and became its first president.
Charles Ebbets is known for his unique friendship with many Seminole Indians. Many leaders of this people considered him a personal friend. In 1938, he became the first white person allowed to attend the sacred Green Corn dance. The photographer was allowed to shoot the event all week. The extensive collection of those images remains one of the best of its kind.
Over the next decade, the photographer did not stop traveling and once injured his back while shooting in the swampy plains. Due to an injury, he did not get to the front during the Second World War, the medical commission rejected his application. Nevertheless, being a licensed pilot and photographer, he served as an attache in the Army aviation, later received an appointment at the Embry-Riddle Aviation Institute and trained pilots of the American and British Royal Air Forces.
At the end of World War II, Ebbets returned home to Miami, where he founded the City of Miami Publicity Bureau with two companions. For the next 17 years, he headed this advertising agency and it was thanks to the huge number of photos released by him that the city of Miami turned into the center of the tourist industry. His images were published in The Miami Daily News, The New York Times, National Geographic, Outdoors Unlimited, Field & Stream, Popular Boating, U.S. Camera, Outdoor Life, Look Magazine, Popular Photography and other publications.
Throughout the 1970s, Ebbets continued to photograph life in South Florida. On July 14, 1978, at the age of 72, he died of cancer. The photographer's daughter created a website EbbetsPhoto-Graphics.com, where you can see an extensive collection of images that will be included in the upcoming book about the life and work of Charles Clyde Ebbets.
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Keywords: History | Photography | Photographer