The Baltimore Sun has a rich history of great photographers and one of my personal favorites is Richard Stacks. His images are part art and part journalism. He is a master of light and composition and is able to maximize both qualities in his images.
Stacks, a Baltimore native, had no formal training as a photographer. He picked up the photo bug while attending school at City College. At City, he took pictures of sporting events and dances. After he graduated, Stacks did a short stint working in a steel mill before picking up the camera again working as a door-to-door baby photographer.
He was hired at The Sun in 1951 and began shooting for the Sun Magazine in 1955. That same year, Stacks won Honorable Mention Photographer of the Year in a national contest sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association.
In a 1956 Baltimore Sun article, Richard Stacks was described as having “a sure eye with an acute sense of the decisive…” The same article also noted that Stacks “captures with both economy and precision.”
He described himself as part pictorialist and photojournalist. In an interview, Stacks indicated he loved to roam the city taking night pictures, he photographed anything and everything. Capturing just the right expression, just the right action, gave him the kind of thrill a big game hunter got when he bagged a trophy.
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