Award-winning photographer Gordon Baer -- whose work appeared in Life, Time, Newsweek, People, National Geographic, The New York Times, London Daily Mail and other publications -- has died at age 78.
Born Charles Gordon Baer in Louisville in 1940, he was a staff photographer for the Cincinnati Post & Times Star from 1966 to 1971. After that he did freelance work until his retirement.
In 1982, he received the prestigious University of Missouri/National Press Photographers Association/Nikon World Understanding Award for his documentary images of the post-war trauma of Vietnam veterans, later published in the book, Vietnam: The Battle Comes Home in 1984.
In a 2013 review of an exhibition of Baer's works at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, writer Jane Durrell described his images as "handsomely composed, deeply moving (and) timeless."
Baer started shooting pictures at age 8 with an old box camera in Louisville. After earning a design degree from the University of Louisville, he was hired as the university's director of photographic services in 1965. The next year he moved up the Ohio River to Cincinnati's evening newspaper.
One of Baer's claims to fame in Cincinnati was photographing The Beatles concerts at Cincinnati Gardens in 1964, and Crosley Field in 1966. His Beatles pictures were part of a 2011 exhibit at Covington's Behringer-Crawford Museum.
The 2012 FotoFocus featured a large display of his work called "A Look Back at a Life in Pictures: Photographs by Gordon Baer." To learn more about Baer, here's a link to Kathy Doane's excellent Cincinnati Magazine story from February 2006.
A Cincinnati memorial will be held at a date to be determined, according to his obituary. A graveside service in Louisville will be private.
The family suggests that memorial donations be made to the Parkinson's Support and Wellness Center in Cincinnati, or the Kennedy Heights Arts Center.
