JACK JEFFERS; PHOTOGRAPHING FAMOUS PEOPLE

Photographing Arthur Goldberg was more like how I prefer to work with people. In case you don't remember this man, he was, at this point in life, a retired Chief Justice of the United States. He was well known during the Nixon Administration. I remember these sorts of things because I was also at my prime during those years.

I was working at Radford University during the early nineteen eighties into the mid nineties, and it was during that time that the University brought Mr. Goldberg into their ranks as a visiting professor. Our paths crossed numerous times on campus and when it came time to develop a feature story, I was the one to make a formal image to grace the pages of the Radford University Magazine
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I made the arrangements to meet with the professor for a few minutes before planning the photography session. He was one of the nicest people I ever met and I could tell from the second we shook hands that he would be a great person to work with.

We sat a date to meet at a certain preselected spot at the library. It was a fitting place to photograph such a person and the surroundings were comfortable. I made a number of images while we carried on a conversation and this was the one selected for the magazine article.

One of the nicest compliments I ever received came from the family of Mr. Goldberg following his death. They wrote a letter to the president of the university stating that the image used in the magazine was the very finest that anyone had ever made of him. I will never forget that.



For those who want to know what equipment I used, I will briefly tell you. I had a medium size multi -watt strobe system which I carted around campus in a modified rectangular grocery cart.

I had the maintenance crew outfit the cart with a pair of small balloon tires which dampened the vibration when going down sidewalks. There was room for all of my equipment including at least two 35mm film cameras and several lenses. This was still during the days of film. With this rig, I could handle most anything on site including a full stage theater production. I once described this rig and some of my University images in an article for Technical Photography Magazine.