Elmer Johnson (right) has spent most of his working life around cameras and newsprint, beginning as a printer’s apprentice at the Chicago Daily News, taking up freelance news photography and eventually publishing a community newspaper in the western suburbs. Johnson, 86, is retired and lives in Orland Park, but he still films with a video camera and takes travel photos.
Q. How did you get interested in the newspaper business?
A. I grew up in (the) Gage Park (neighborhood of Chicago), and I went to Tilden High School, where I learned the printing business. I had to learn Linotype. We were the only school that printed our own paper at the time. That’s where I started getting interested in publishing newspapers.
I started working at the Daily News as a printer’s apprentice. The first job I had, I worked in the proof room at the Daily News, filing all the copy every day. They had to keep it in case somebody called up about a mistake, so they could find it and see who did it.
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I saw young fellas coming in with pictures, and (the news room) would pay for them. I bought a camera and set up a darkroom. We lived in a bungalow, and I used the attic for a darkroom. I used to have to carry the water up the stairs.
Q. Once you mastered the photographer’s craft, how did you break into the freelancing trade?
A. I started looking for accidents in the neighborhood (to photograph), and I’d take (a picture) down to the News, and they would buy it. They didn’t pay much at the time, about $3.
They didn’t give you assignments, but I had friends who would tip me off when something was going on, say at Midway Airport.
Q. What were some of your most dramatic photos?
A. There was the Oak Lawn tornado (in April 1967).
Q. Did you go out there on purpose, or did you just happen on to be on the scene?
A. (In the 1960s), I was not too much into photography. I was running a newspaper (Enterprise Publishing Co.), and I was out picking up ads, but I would always have a camera. I was in the store, and a kid came running in crying, “It’s bad out there.” I could see the flash of lightning.
I went out to my car and got the camera and got the pictures.