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The Photojournalism of Del Hall

New Orleans and Beyond, 1950s-2000s

foreword by Del Hall

180 pages / 9.50 x 10.00 inches / 140 halftones

Journalism | Regional Studies

  Hardcover / 9780807160664 / October 2015
Del Hall stands as one of the few journalists able to chart their careers through the milestones and icons of the late twentieth century—the civil rights movement, Vatican II, the Beatles’ arrival in the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, the 1968 Chicago Riots, the Vietnam War, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. Hall’s humble beginnings on the gritty downtown streets of Depression-era New Orleans proved an ample launching pad for a six-decade profession documenting key moments in world affairs, all while staying ahead of the many technological shifts that revolutionized news media. 
 
With the aid of previously unpublished photographs and stills, critically acclaimed geographer and author Richard Campanella turns the focus around to the Emmy Award–winning photojournalist and presents the life of a quiet observer who captured critical episodes in American history. From Hall’s start in New Orleans at WWL-TV covering lunch-counter sit-ins and the integration of schools in the Ninth Ward to his lauded work for CBS News, filming Walter Cronkite, 60 Minutes, and Charles Kuralt, Campanella commemorates Hall’s remarkable contributions to journalism as the field expanded from print to television.
 
This visually captivating and lively biography follows Hall as he is chased by the Ku Klux Klan, shot at by the Viet Cong, journeys to Moscow to cover President Nixon’s historic visit, and almost dies in a helicopter crash at the America’s Cup race. Campanella traces the life of a tireless documentarian and pioneer who not only photographed history as it happened, but also filmed one of the first full-color TV documentaries and redefined nonlinear computerized editing.
 
The Photojournalism of Del Hall: New Orleans and Beyond, 1950s–2000s serves as a testament to the immense impact of the oft-overlooked and uncredited role of the cameraman, rightfully placing Del Hall in the vanguard of the profession.

Richard Campanella, a geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture, is the author of nearly two hundred articles about New Orleans and ten critically acclaimed books, including Bourbon Street: A History, Bienville’s Dilemma, and Geographies of New Orleans. The only two-time winner of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award, Campanella has also received the Louisiana Library Association’s Literary Award, the Williams Prize for Louisiana History from The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Monroe Fellowship from Tulane’s New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. In 2016, the French government named Campanella as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Knight in the Order of Academic Palms).

Praise for The Photojournalism of Del Hall

“If one picture really is worth a thousand words, chances are Del Hall took it. He has literally seen it all from his early days in New Orleans to his many years at CBS News, when he always went to where the news was; and what an eye he had—a true photojournalist whose pictures always caught the essence of the story.”—Bob Schieffer, CBS News

“Del Hall is a journalist’s journalist. What he has captured through his lens is beyond incredible stories: He has visualized our history and our heart. What a journey Del Hall’s life has been.”—Angela Hill, WWL-TV

“The Photojournalism of Del Hall chronicles the milestone events of the late twentieth century. A pioneering cameraman for CBS News, Hall takes us to Vietnam and the front lines of the civil rights movement, the arrival of the Beatles in America, and historic journeys to Moscow. Images captured by the human eye carry a power words alone cannot equal. This book is a magnificent historical document.”—Meredith Vieira, NBC News

“I’m sure there isn’t an historian alive today who hasn’t said, ‘I wish I’d been there.’ Well, Del Hall was there, providing the eyes for history. In fact, more than just being there, he had to anticipate where history was going to happen, so he could take a picture of it. He was part of an invisible band of brothers hidden behind a viewfinder most of their careers—until now, when the camera is turned around to find out what it was like to have the best seat in the house.”—Bill Kurtis, former CBS correspondent

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