Picturing history one day at a time

Self-portrait by Julie Smith at Noren River Access and Wilson's Serenity Point on the Missouri River, one of her favorite places to take pictures.
Self-portrait by Julie Smith at Noren River Access and Wilson's Serenity Point on the Missouri River, one of her favorite places to take pictures.

It seems like everybody knows Julie Smith, the News Tribune's chief photographer.

After being named the newspaper's 2015 "Employee of the Year," Smith was nominated for - and awarded - the W.E. Hussman Employee of the Year for the whole company, which operates in several states.

And almost two weeks ago, Smith was named the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce's 2016 Exceptional Employee of the Year.

"I'm grateful and appreciative" and very humbled by the honors, she said in an interview, "but we all come in and do our jobs.

"I don't know why I'm special."

Many people compliment her on her work - and on her respect for the people she's including in her pictures.

"I've gotten to know so many terrific people," Smith said of her job. "I have gotten to see the generosity of this community - which continually blows me away."

One of the upsides of her job, she said, also is a downside - "I get to be out in all kinds of weather. If it's pouring down raining and you've got to get your pictures - or if it's 100 degrees for the eighth day in a row," she still has to get pictures "to fill the paper, and do it by deadline to make it interesting and not be repetitive."

One thing people don't realize is how physical her job is.

"I go to a chiropractor once a week," Smith said. She regularly carries more than one camera, a couple of flashes and several lenses, to each photo location.

"It's hard on the body, carrying all that gear," she said.

She once missed almost two months of work a number of years ago, after having back surgery.

But Smith wasn't born with a camera in her hands.

"It was Mother's Day - probably 1982 - when I made the comment that I had my car paid off, so I thought I'd go buy a nice camera," she recalled during an interview last week, "because I'd been using a 110 for taking pictures.

"I liked that - but they're pretty limited."

The 110 was a small camera with pre-set settings, that used a cartridge loaded with a set number of available pictures.

Smith added: "Mom said, 'We've got a camera we don't use. Take it.'

"I knew nothing, other than to load the film - so, I really just started taking pictures."

She had worked on the yearbook staff at Eugene High School, taking pictures with that 110-Instamatic, but said that "was hit-and-miss. You're so limited with what you can do with that" kind of camera.

After high school, Smith worked three years at the state's Employment Security division, which "greatly improved my typing skills," then she spent seven years with Wright Camera Shop - mostly working in the store and occasionally helping owner Zeal Wright on photo-shoots.

"Sometimes I helped haul equipment for him, and I watched him to see how he did things," she explained. "I used to peek into the studio, and watch how he did stuff in the studio.

"But I never saw myself as being a studio photographer and making my living that way."

And Smith still doesn't see her doing most of her job in a studio.

"I have come to discover I love doing
environmental portraits," she said.

Outside the journalism environment, she added, "I think I've created a niche for myself that I can do, and do very well.

"There are a lot of photographers around, and everybody can't do the same thing. But I think, with my experience and my ability to handle so many different situations I think there are things I can do."

She came to the News Tribune as a part-time photographer in November 1989, and shifted to full time on Jan. 2, 1990.

"I see myself taking pictures until I die," Smith said. "All my life, I can remember Dad saying, 'I don't care what you do - just enjoy what you do.

"I've been scared to death a lot of times, leaving my 'comfort zone.'"

She acknowledged most people think she's not intimidated, noting: "They'd be surprised."

Like when she left the camera store and started working sat the newspaper.

"I had only shot photos just for fun and what I wanted to shoot," she explained. "I didn't have to suit anyone but myself.

"And all of a sudden, I felt tremendous pressure to make the editors and the general public happy, and do it on a daily basis and timely manner."

Nearly three decades later, she still gets frustrated when she gets "something wrong" in a cutline, like someone's name.

"My theory is - all that people have in this world is their name," Smith said. "I want to, at least, get that right.

"And I always want to get the facts right. I want to be accurate (and) as fair and honest about covering things," and not letting any personal feelings about a story interfere with her work.

That philosophy extends to choosing the best photos to give to editors, for their final selection for what images are printed in the paper.

When all is said and done, Smith said, she hopes people remember "that I did my job to the best of my ability, treated them with respect, treated them fairly and that - somewhere along the line - I made someone's day a little brighter."