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Fair Witness to historyRetired Daily News photographer tells all about five-decade career
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Most people would have pulled over and waited for the fog to lift. DeMaria did his job. He stuck a yellow beacon light atop his car and plunged headlong into the eerie mist.
Unable to see more than a few feet ahead -- meaning he saw nothing past his car's hood -- DeMaria opened his driver's-side door to follow the turnpike's yellow median line as he crept along at 3 mph. Before long, he spotted two ghostly figures carrying someone in a stretcher on the roadside. He hit the brakes. "I had driven right into the middle of this mess," DeMaria says.
It was the early 1970s. At the time, the now-68-year-old DeMaria was a Daily News photographer, and he was working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift. He got a call in the early morning from his editor to shoot an accident on the turnpike. But nothing in his 15-plus years of taking photos of the worst wrecks and the most horrific crime scenes could have fully prepared DeMaria for the sight of that crash. Shrouded in fog, the devastation wasn't readily apparent when he arrived.
So he waited.
Morning came, and sunlight burned off the fog. DeMaria found a line of 15 broken and battered tractor-trailers stretching more than a half-mile down the turnpike. In the fog, someone had stopped short, causing one of the worst chain-reaction accidents in turnpike history. Most everywhere DeMaria turned, he saw twisted heaps of shredded metal.
DeMaria, who worked for the Daily News from 1955 to 1993, did what he had to: He took pictures. Amid the chaos, he spotted an island of sanity. A family of four was sitting in their car, looking scared. Miraculously, they were unscathed.
"The entire family was alive," DeMaria says. "They survived the whole thing. I expected to see bodies. When I saw that family still in the car, it got to me emotionally."
Among the thousands of assignments that DeMaria covered during his nearly four decades with the Daily News, that terrible turnpike crash stands as his most poignant. It was a defining moment that reminded him of the fragility of human life.
Subhed: Documenting history
So often, tabloid newspaper photographers -- particularly the New York City breed -- are seen as callous fortune hunters, more concerned with shooting pictures of down-and-out celebrities than they are with covering the news. Unaware of who most of these photojournalists really are, many folks think of them as one jumble of fast-moving, fast-talking paparazzi.
The now-retired DeMaria covered many of the famous and the infamous: Michael Jackson, as a kid starting out in the music business; Eric Clapton, when his 5-year-old son accidentally plunged from his New York City apartment to his death; fellow Merokean Amy Fisher, in the wake of shooting down Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
DeMaria, however, is so much more than his celebrity photographs. He takes greatest pride in his thousands of pictures documenting history. Among his many notable assignments, DeMaria covered President John F. Kennedy's funeral in Washington, D.C., in 1963; Martin Luther King Jr.'s Freedom March, also in Washington that year; the World's Fair in 1964-65; Woodstock in 1969; the race riots in Newark and Springfield, N.J., in the late 1960s; and the Mets' World Series win in 1969.
DeMaria also photographed nearly every presidential convention, Democratic and Republican, from the early 1960s to 1986. He missed only one: the 1968 GOP convention at which riots erupted. DeMaria had broken his arm and had to take the week off.
DeMaria covered the Beatles when they swept through New York City in 1964. He not only shot the Fab Four's news conference at the Plaza Hotel, but also their rehearsal for "The Ed Sullivan Show."
DeMaria photographed Tricia Nixon's 1971 wedding to Edward Cox at the White House. Years later, he was given exclusive access to President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office. "I can connect with a lot of history during the 1960s, '70s and '80s," DeMaria says.
The Merokean, who learned the craft of photography at the High School of Industrial Arts in New York City, started at the Daily News as a lab technician, developing prints. What he wanted to do, though, was take pictures. So he kept his camera with him at all times, shooting free-lance photos of fires and car wrecks for the News. After six years, he was hired as a staff photographer.
The early, formative years of his career, spent chasing fire engines and ambulances, taught DeMaria street smarts. He developed a keen eye for ferreting out a hot story. Driving between assignments, he nearly always kept his police scanner on, listening for the next major emergency. If a line of cop cars raced by, he'd follow in close pursuit.
DeMaria captured many of the Daily News's indelible images: former hostages who were held at gunpoint for three days at a Brooklyn sporting goods store, standing elated on a rooftop after their release; drug dealers sprawled face-down on a sidewalk minutes after federal agents had swooped in and broken up their Queens crack den.
Murderers, rapists, mobsters. Name a notorious New York City law-breaker over the past half-century, and chances are that DeMaria shot his or her photo at some point.
In 1976, he was promoted to assignment editor, in charge of 44 Daily News photographers. But he couldn't stand being away from his first love, taking pictures. After nine years on the assignment desk, he returned to the street in pursuit of history.
In 1986, DeMaria shot the photo of his career. The Statue of Liberty was redone for its centennial. For months, scaffolding had shielded Lady Liberty from view. DeMaria and another fellow climbed the rickety, metal cocoon surrounding the statue. More than 30 stories above ground, DeMaria shot Lady Liberty's torch glistening in the sunlight, with lower Manhattan in the background. The World Trade Center appeared in full glory.
Subhead: A photographer reborn
In 1993, real-estate mogul Mort Zuckerman bought the Daily News. His relations with staff immediately soured. Zuckerman, who was in contract talks with the Daily News's unions, threatened to fire the 540-member staff. Few believed him. In the end, he let 180 workers go. Many were long-time staffers.
DeMaria was out. He took his pension, but he was angry. He felt betrayed. He had given his entire professional life to the Daily News, only to have his career appear to end in a labor dispute. He was so disgruntled that he returned home to Merrick and left his camera in his basement. He had no desire to take pictures.
"You thought your whole life was the Daily News," DeMaria said. "I found out it wasn't."
He drove a limousine for a short time. Then, in June 1993, he got a call from Jim Simpson, a New York Times photo editor. A whale had washed up on Rockaway Beach. Could DeMaria get a photo? He obliged the Times editor.
Days later, the Golden Venture ran aground at 2 a.m. off the Rockaways. Nearly 300 illegal Chinese immigrants were stowed aboard the freighter, and many were jumping overboard, desperately trying to get to shore before authorities got to them. DeMaria heard about the incident on his scanner and immediately went to work. En route to the Rockaways, he chanced on the New York City deputy police commissioner for public information, whom he had befriended while at the Daily News. The DCPI needed a ride to the beach. Could DeMaria give him one?
The Merokean was the first photographer at the scene, and he captured the huddled masses of illegal immigrants that authorities had lined up in rows on the beach. The New York Times ran one of DeMaria's photos across the top of its front page and gave him a two-page spread inside the paper. Newsweek then bought his pictures.
He was back.
DeMaria continued shooting for The New York Times. In 1998, he took a job as night assignment editor for his old competition, the New York Post, where he remained until 2002, when he retired.
A year later, DeMaria's wife of 43 years, Helen, died of cancer. He was heartbroken beyond words. A long-time family friend, William Gies, the Merrick Fire Department chief, asked if he would take publicity photos of firefighters as they battled blazes and cut victims out of car wrecks. Gies thought the chance to take pictures would keep DeMaria active. Though he was deeply depressed, the instinct to shoot photos still burned in him.
DeMaria now serves as the fire department's official photographer. He wears one of its navy-blue jackets, and a chattering scanner stays on constantly in his kitchen.
DeMaria enjoys getting together for lunch with his photographer buddies from the Daily News and other tabloids to trade war stories. He gardens in his backyard. Most of all, he loves to have family visit at his neatly manicured Cape Cod.
"I love Merrick, and I want to stay here as long as I can," says the father of five and the grandfather of five. "I want to maintain a nice home, a comfortable home, to share with my children and grandchildren."
And, DeMaria says, "I want to continue taking the pictures I like and stay healthy."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
Unable to see more than a few feet ahead -- meaning he saw nothing past his car's hood -- DeMaria opened his driver's-side door to follow the turnpike's yellow median line as he crept along at 3 mph. Before long, he spotted two ghostly figures carrying someone in a stretcher on the roadside. He hit the brakes. "I had driven right into the middle of this mess," DeMaria says.
It was the early 1970s. At the time, the now-68-year-old DeMaria was a Daily News photographer, and he was working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift. He got a call in the early morning from his editor to shoot an accident on the turnpike. But nothing in his 15-plus years of taking photos of the worst wrecks and the most horrific crime scenes could have fully prepared DeMaria for the sight of that crash. Shrouded in fog, the devastation wasn't readily apparent when he arrived.
So he waited.
Morning came, and sunlight burned off the fog. DeMaria found a line of 15 broken and battered tractor-trailers stretching more than a half-mile down the turnpike. In the fog, someone had stopped short, causing one of the worst chain-reaction accidents in turnpike history. Most everywhere DeMaria turned, he saw twisted heaps of shredded metal.
"The entire family was alive," DeMaria says. "They survived the whole thing. I expected to see bodies. When I saw that family still in the car, it got to me emotionally."
Among the thousands of assignments that DeMaria covered during his nearly four decades with the Daily News, that terrible turnpike crash stands as his most poignant. It was a defining moment that reminded him of the fragility of human life.
Subhed: Documenting history
So often, tabloid newspaper photographers -- particularly the New York City breed -- are seen as callous fortune hunters, more concerned with shooting pictures of down-and-out celebrities than they are with covering the news. Unaware of who most of these photojournalists really are, many folks think of them as one jumble of fast-moving, fast-talking paparazzi.
The now-retired DeMaria covered many of the famous and the infamous: Michael Jackson, as a kid starting out in the music business; Eric Clapton, when his 5-year-old son accidentally plunged from his New York City apartment to his death; fellow Merokean Amy Fisher, in the wake of shooting down Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
DeMaria, however, is so much more than his celebrity photographs. He takes greatest pride in his thousands of pictures documenting history. Among his many notable assignments, DeMaria covered President John F. Kennedy's funeral in Washington, D.C., in 1963; Martin Luther King Jr.'s Freedom March, also in Washington that year; the World's Fair in 1964-65; Woodstock in 1969; the race riots in Newark and Springfield, N.J., in the late 1960s; and the Mets' World Series win in 1969.
DeMaria also photographed nearly every presidential convention, Democratic and Republican, from the early 1960s to 1986. He missed only one: the 1968 GOP convention at which riots erupted. DeMaria had broken his arm and had to take the week off.
DeMaria covered the Beatles when they swept through New York City in 1964. He not only shot the Fab Four's news conference at the Plaza Hotel, but also their rehearsal for "The Ed Sullivan Show."
DeMaria photographed Tricia Nixon's 1971 wedding to Edward Cox at the White House. Years later, he was given exclusive access to President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office. "I can connect with a lot of history during the 1960s, '70s and '80s," DeMaria says.
The Merokean, who learned the craft of photography at the High School of Industrial Arts in New York City, started at the Daily News as a lab technician, developing prints. What he wanted to do, though, was take pictures. So he kept his camera with him at all times, shooting free-lance photos of fires and car wrecks for the News. After six years, he was hired as a staff photographer.
The early, formative years of his career, spent chasing fire engines and ambulances, taught DeMaria street smarts. He developed a keen eye for ferreting out a hot story. Driving between assignments, he nearly always kept his police scanner on, listening for the next major emergency. If a line of cop cars raced by, he'd follow in close pursuit.
DeMaria captured many of the Daily News's indelible images: former hostages who were held at gunpoint for three days at a Brooklyn sporting goods store, standing elated on a rooftop after their release; drug dealers sprawled face-down on a sidewalk minutes after federal agents had swooped in and broken up their Queens crack den.
Murderers, rapists, mobsters. Name a notorious New York City law-breaker over the past half-century, and chances are that DeMaria shot his or her photo at some point.
In 1976, he was promoted to assignment editor, in charge of 44 Daily News photographers. But he couldn't stand being away from his first love, taking pictures. After nine years on the assignment desk, he returned to the street in pursuit of history.
In 1986, DeMaria shot the photo of his career. The Statue of Liberty was redone for its centennial. For months, scaffolding had shielded Lady Liberty from view. DeMaria and another fellow climbed the rickety, metal cocoon surrounding the statue. More than 30 stories above ground, DeMaria shot Lady Liberty's torch glistening in the sunlight, with lower Manhattan in the background. The World Trade Center appeared in full glory.
Subhead: A photographer reborn
In 1993, real-estate mogul Mort Zuckerman bought the Daily News. His relations with staff immediately soured. Zuckerman, who was in contract talks with the Daily News's unions, threatened to fire the 540-member staff. Few believed him. In the end, he let 180 workers go. Many were long-time staffers.
DeMaria was out. He took his pension, but he was angry. He felt betrayed. He had given his entire professional life to the Daily News, only to have his career appear to end in a labor dispute. He was so disgruntled that he returned home to Merrick and left his camera in his basement. He had no desire to take pictures.
"You thought your whole life was the Daily News," DeMaria said. "I found out it wasn't."
He drove a limousine for a short time. Then, in June 1993, he got a call from Jim Simpson, a New York Times photo editor. A whale had washed up on Rockaway Beach. Could DeMaria get a photo? He obliged the Times editor.
Days later, the Golden Venture ran aground at 2 a.m. off the Rockaways. Nearly 300 illegal Chinese immigrants were stowed aboard the freighter, and many were jumping overboard, desperately trying to get to shore before authorities got to them. DeMaria heard about the incident on his scanner and immediately went to work. En route to the Rockaways, he chanced on the New York City deputy police commissioner for public information, whom he had befriended while at the Daily News. The DCPI needed a ride to the beach. Could DeMaria give him one?
The Merokean was the first photographer at the scene, and he captured the huddled masses of illegal immigrants that authorities had lined up in rows on the beach. The New York Times ran one of DeMaria's photos across the top of its front page and gave him a two-page spread inside the paper. Newsweek then bought his pictures.
He was back.
DeMaria continued shooting for The New York Times. In 1998, he took a job as night assignment editor for his old competition, the New York Post, where he remained until 2002, when he retired.
A year later, DeMaria's wife of 43 years, Helen, died of cancer. He was heartbroken beyond words. A long-time family friend, William Gies, the Merrick Fire Department chief, asked if he would take publicity photos of firefighters as they battled blazes and cut victims out of car wrecks. Gies thought the chance to take pictures would keep DeMaria active. Though he was deeply depressed, the instinct to shoot photos still burned in him.
DeMaria now serves as the fire department's official photographer. He wears one of its navy-blue jackets, and a chattering scanner stays on constantly in his kitchen.
DeMaria enjoys getting together for lunch with his photographer buddies from the Daily News and other tabloids to trade war stories. He gardens in his backyard. Most of all, he loves to have family visit at his neatly manicured Cape Cod.
"I love Merrick, and I want to stay here as long as I can," says the father of five and the grandfather of five. "I want to maintain a nice home, a comfortable home, to share with my children and grandchildren."
And, DeMaria says, "I want to continue taking the pictures I like and stay healthy."
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