Cape May County lost one of its greatest press photographers and recorders of local history with the passing of Thomas S. Kinnemand Jr. March 12.
He was a lifelong local, who began his interest in photography at an early age, in the Wildwoods.
Few newspaper readers look at those tiny credits under photographs for the name of the photographer, even if the image captivates them. Little do they realize what pains a photographer, like Kinnemand, had to endure to get those photos.
Often, it meant venturing out on terrible days when wind, rain, and floodwaters made moving treacherous. The final print was the important thing, a photographer’s trials, and tribulations aside.
Those who have never lifted a camera to the eye cannot imagine how much of one’s life is spent preparing and then applying the art of photography to a news picture.
They can’t know what it’s like to live with a police scanner blaring at all hours, listening for a fire alarm or police action that warrants a photograph.
How true the old Navy recruiting slogan, “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.” So it is for a press photographer. Tom could attest to that.
News photographers, like Tom, are a rare breed, who live to get a better photo today than they did yesterday. They are, at times, at odds with their editors and reporters, who don’t properly convey what pictures are needed to illustrate stories.
Many times, Tom would tell me of times he had outstanding photos, but the one that ran in the daily paper was far from what he would have selected.
Few can realize the life he spent on the county’s hundreds of miles of roads getting to assignments, nor can they appreciate how much time was spent hustling to meet deadlines, rushing from Court House to Pleasantville, where The Press of Atlantic City office is located.
Photographers are an elite group whose craft is being eaten away by cellphones. Anybody with a phone and a hand can snap an image and send it around the globe in seconds, but to news photographers, there abides a love of quality in their camera and lens; the pride of a well-executed photograph, artfully composed and correctly reproduced for the masses.
Tom has placed his cameras on the shelf and has embarked on the greatest assignment he could ever have imagined.
ED. NOTE: The author is the Herald’s managing editor emeritus, who retired after 31 years Sept. 1, 2019.
