Peter Stackpole

Peter Stackpole was born at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco in 1913 to sculptor Ralph Stackpole and painter/designer Adele Barnes who had married in 1912. In 1922, the Stackpoles moved to Paris where the marriage fell apart from the father's adultery. Ralph Stackpole left Paris with artist's model Francine "Ginette" Mazen, returning to San Francisco, the two eventually marrying in Mexico. Peter and his mother stayed in Paris while Stackpole continued his schoolwork at École alsacienne and a primary school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris through the first half of 1924. After she agreed to a divorce, Stackpole's mother moved herself and her son to Oakland, California. in 1933. Working as an apprentice for Oakland's Post-Enquirer newspaper, Stackpole used only available light to snap this photograph, his camera set for a slow exposure at ASA 20. The newspaper editors refused to run the photo because it was blurry, and it would use too much black ink; Stackpole was dismissed from his unpaid position. Stackpole attended Oakland Technical High School and developed an interest in photography. His first camera was a compact Agfa Memo hobbyist model, but his second was the well-made Leica Model A that he used more seriously. His small format 35mm Leica allowed him to capture more action as it unfolded than the other newspaper photographers who preferred larger film cameras mounted on tripods for their higher quality. His 1933 ringside snapshot of prizefighter Max Baer was rejected by the newspaper editors because it was blurry, unposed, taken only with available light. and Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; Rivera painted an image of teen-aged Stackpole playing with a model airplane into his mural titled Allegory of California (1931). Stackpole was driven by his father to visit with Weston in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Stackpole listened to Weston speak of the intention and composition behind the photograph which makes it art. In 1932, Stackpole was exposed to more fine art photography at the De Young Museum which was exhibiting works by Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke and other photographers associated with Group f/64 in San Francisco. This experience gave Stackpole more motivation to put intention and composition into his photography. ==Bridge construction==

At the age of 20 in 1933, Stackpole began documenting the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge with his hand-held Leica. He captured images of iron workers in action and at rest, and took stunning vistas from the tops of the bridge towers. In 1934, his bridge photography was recognized by Willard Van Dyke, who granted Stackpole honorary membership in Group f/64, despite Stackpole's more dynamic hand-held photojournalist style. Twenty-five of Stackpole's bridge photos were exhibited in 1935 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, cementing Stackpole's reputation. The magazine U.S. Camera also published his bridge construction shots, and Ansel Adams included them in the 1940 multi-artist collective exhibition he curated called A Pageant of Photography, shown to millions of visitors at the Golden Gate International Exposition in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. In a return to high steel work in April 1951, Life magazine published Stackpole's photos of the construction of Delaware Memorial Bridge, in a photo essay titled "High Steel". Stackpole released a book of his bridge photos in 1984 through Pomegranate Artbooks, titled The Bridge Builders: Photographs and Documents of the Raising of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, 1934–1936, with text written by Anita Mozley of Stanford University Museum of Art. ==Life magazine==

As a result of the Vanity Fair photo essay, His photographic style was casual, often showing his subjects relaxing at home, having fun with their families. Stackpole's plastic box, constructed by a friend, protected the camera under water for about 15 spearfishing and swimming shots, then it flooded. In 1953, Stackpole fashioned his own underwater camera housing out of thick plexiglas. He used this device to capture the diver Hope Root attempting a new depth record for scuba diving. Root died at a depth of under water, while Stackpole was waiting with other divers at the 50-foot mark. Stackpole's final image of Root alive was when the diver was 100 feet down. Root's fatal record attempt was documented in Life in early December 1953. For his feat of underwater photography, Stackpole was awarded the George Polk Memorial Award. more shots of "mopping up" operations appeared in the magazine at the end of July, and then Sherrod's full account was published a month later with photos from Smith and Stackpole. Stackpole wrote that Life photo editor Wilson Hicks was in the habit of "pitting photographer against photographer", which is how Smith came to surprise Stackpole and Sherrod by showing up at the same battlefield. During his time on Saipan, Stackpole survived an attack by a single Japanese soldier emerging from a cave, and he lived through a 3,000-man counterattack on the American position by the Japanese Imperial Army. Life published a photo of Stackpole sheltering in a foxhole with Chicago Tribune war correspondent Harold P. Smith. ==Personal life==

Stackpole married Dutch-born artist Hebe Daum in 1937. One year his senior, she was a photographer, muralist and painter known for her New Deal artwork as an assistant to Suzanne Scheuer. While living in Los Angeles, their daughter Katharine was born in 1941, another daughter Trena (known as Anne) in 1946, and their son Timothy was born in 1949. Upon retiring in 1961, Stackpole returned to live in the Oakland Hills with his wife. Stackpole had begun to work on his planned autobiography, titled ''Go Get 'Em, Tiger'', but the papers burned. He resumed work on but never completed the book. In Novato, he died in May 1997 of congestive heart failure. == Trivia ==

During Peter Stackpole's time at Life magazine he made the photos for the "now-vaguely-sinister, then-celebratory" article “Throwaway Living”, published in 1955. This staged photo marked the celebration of single-use products, showcasing a variety of plastic items like cutlery, straws, plates, and cups being triumphantly tossed into the air. Today, these impactful pictures are often shown in (scientific) articles on plastic pollution, symbolizing the cultural shift that led to widespread environmental challenges caused by the introduction of single-use plastics by the general public. ==References==