Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>One photograph I shot using the 560 was the fingertips of the 8 mens' >>hundred meter finalist at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics just as they >>>were setting their fingers to the track for the start. >Ted, > >Aside from the sports photography, what was it like being at Munich '72 >with the terrorism? Did you have to cover both? Just curious as you were >a witness to such history. Hi Carl, I had the strangest experience of probably any who were there due to a very quick change in assignments. We were aware of the terrorists and had time to shoot some things because the Canadian team was housed immediately beside the Israeli's. However, I had been assigned to leave the next morning to go with a reporter to do a feature story on Dachau, one of the concentration camps where many died during the war. The reporter and I left very early the next morning and spent the day shooting the camp and surrounding area without any idea of the helicopter destruction and deaths. When we arrived back to the Main Press Center in Munich that evening not knowing what had happened, we walked in to a "morgue" so's to speak. The Press Center was very quiet with conversation in hushed tones and people wiping their eyes from what appeared to be tears. We walked in completely oblivious of what had happened! The deaths! To say we were devastated is putting it mildly! I kept saying, "this is a sporting event! What the hell is this shit going on here? They are all athletes, not politicians!" Here we were doing a story about a concentration camp and the holocaust where the deaths of so many Jewish people happened, only to walk into 1972 and "Son of a Bitch it's still going on!!!!" or at least that was our initial reaction! If anyone wants to have a good kick in the crotch, it's to have spent the day in a former concentration camp taking pictures and looking at the displays, then walk into such an horrendous situation with dead athletes! And us completely innocent of the situation! It was "what the hell do these kids have to do with war?" I still get upset when I talk about it, but then that's the kind of person I am. An emotional jerk! All I can say is, each time I have attended the Opening Ceremonies of an Olympics since 1972 , I have said a small prayer for each and every athlete and one for myself, that none of us have to ever play sports and go through the nightmares of Munich again! Then I start taking my pictures. ted