Turning Back the Clock to Politics in the 80s

Senator Baker loved photography. Joe McNally sent me this shot and a comment about being jealous of the Senator at the time, he had the best seat in the house! Yeah, there he is with his Leica.

Image copyright Joe McNally. All rights reserved.

​by Skip Cohen

​The SCU blog has been actively running for over twelve years. As a result, there are some great "Throwback Thursday" posts in the archives. This is one I want to share again.

In 2014, America lost one of its greatest statesmen, Senator Howard Baker. He was a fantastic contributor to this country, but I'm not sure how many of you realize his passion for photography and his support for our industry. You'd often see him wandering the floor of some of the bigger photo shows just to check out what was new in gear.

I don't want to make it sound like we were such good friends and we were about to buy a boat together, but we spent enough time together for me to look back on the friendship as one of the highlights of my career.

In a throwback post just a few months ago, I wrote about our first meeting. Finding the image above brings back to many great memories, and like all throwbacks, stories.

We met in his office. He sat in a chair with his feet on the edge of the coffee table and just wanted to talk about photography. In the middle of the table was a big basket of Tennessee's favorite candy, GooGoo Clusters, next to a couple of photography books. Somewhere in the conversation, we discussed the challenge of communicating ideas in writing, and he told me that he once sent a letter to another congressman, writing, "I'd like to make this shorter, but I just don't have the time!" That led to a discussion about how difficult it is to be concise, and the conversation came full circle because a picture really is worth a thousand words.

A year or two later, I talked him into speaking at a PMDA dinner in New York. I was the program chairman for that dinner, and he flew in. We grabbed a quick drink at his hotel and then headed to one of the function rooms at the UN, where this special evening meeting was to be held. He needed to leave immediately after his presentation.

As I walked him out, he talked about loving the opportunity to speak to so many people from the photo industry, and then he thanked me for getting him a private car and made a comment, "I sure hope you didn't get me one of those big obnoxious limos. I hate the things...just love a simple Ford. I like to sit up front and talk to the driver."

As we walked through the door to the outside, all the blood drained out of my face...not only did I get him a stretch, but because he was Senator Howard Baker, I got him the biggest one I could find. Not only that, but it was white on white and couldn't be more ostentatious.  It was huge, and a family of twelve could live in it for a lifetime! He gave me a look that most of us only see from our spouses when we're in trouble...but for some reason, I held my ground, looked back at him, and said, "Admit it, you love it!" He cracked, climbed into the front seat next to the driver, and headed to the airport.

A year or two later, he was in NYC again and called me. He was open for dinner on just one of the nights, and I invited him to Gramercy Tavern. Knowing almost nothing about politics, I decided we needed another photographer with us who could discuss politics as well as photography. I made a quick call to my buddy, Denis Reggie, who grew up in the political arena. An hour before dinner, I had another panic attack; Denis was a diehard Democrat, and Baker, the leading Republican! 

The truth is, it was a fantastic dinner, and a month later, the Senator called me and asked if I thought Denis would photograph his wedding. One call to Denis, and an hour later, they were on the phone together going over plans.

I'll leave you with one last story... Somewhere over the years, he told me a story about once being introduced at a political dinner in Tennessee as the third most famous person to ever come out of the state. He smiled and said, "I sat there trying to think of who the other two were...turns out they were Dolly Parton!"

We didn't just lose an amazing contributor to the country but an artist with incredible passion and an unmatched love for life. He loved photography, published several of his own photography books, and you couldn't help but enjoy his company, especially when he was in photo mode!

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