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James Pease Blair: Making Pictures-life, love, and legacy
James Pease Blair began his 32 year career at the National Geographic Society as staff photographer on board Jacques Cousteau's Calypso in 1962. As a photography student in the fifties at the Institute of Design in Chicago, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, but it was his years as a summer with Roy E. Stryker, at the Pittsburgh Photographic Library that made the biggest impression on Jim. These experiences set him on a path to become one of America's legendary photographers. Jim Blair's artistry and empathy brought a new kind of humanity to National Geographic which went from being a travel and culture magazine to a journal which included social and environmental images that revealed the soul of planet and its inhabitants. Now in this late chapter of his life, Jim is contending with a lung condition that his reduced him to 35 percent breathing capacity, and yet he continues to live life with eyes and heart wide open. In this powerfully moving episode he talks about love, life, and legacy.
MUSIC:
Taps- Bugle Call: USMC Drum & Bugle Corps
Happy Birthday-Jazz Piano Arrangement by Jonny May
Chicago- Frank Sinatra
Juke- Little Walter
Government Camp Song-Mary and Betty Campbell, Shafter FSA Camp, August 9, 1941
There's a Pawn Shop on The Corner -Guy Mitchell
PittsburghTown-Pete Seeger
The Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals-Camille Saint-Saens
Caylpso-John Denver
National Geographic 1964 - 1987 Full Theme
Jim Blair (right) with his teacher Harry Callahan (left) circa 1950