RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC)-He’s the face behind a half-century of front page photos.
Now, Richmond Times-Dispatch photographer Bob Brown is retiring at the age of 84.
“I like being on that side of the camera, not this side,” Brown said in an interview on Friday as he kicked off his retirement.
Brown has been a permanent fixture at the Virginia State Capitol since 1970 when he was first assigned to the beat. Often wandering through the halls or hunched down on the House floor, Brown has snapped hundreds of historic shots, often unseen.
“Whether it’s a riot on the street or in the middle of the House of Delegates, I just love being in the middle of things,” Brown said. “People come up to me the next day when it shows up in the paper and say, ‘you were standing right next to me and I didn’t even see you,’ and I say, ‘yeah, I did my job.’”
Brown kicked off his college education as an aspiring cartoonist and quickly realized his biggest talent was photography.
Still, his sense of humor continued throughout his career. His not-so-flattering candids of politicians and the press cover the walls of the Capitol media room. In the sometimes mundane world of state government, Brown’s pictures memorialize private moments of hope, frustration, exhaustion and pure entertainment.
I’ve proved to be an easy target (see below).
Brown started at the RTD in 1968 after several years in television news.
During the decades that followed, he has survived cuts to local newspapers. A once 12-member photography staff is now down to four, Brown said.
Brown also weathered the switch from film to digital. He said technology has made photography faster but that’s also made deadlines more demanding.
“I wanted to keep up. I didn’t want to be a dinosaur,” Brown said.
But Brown never missed a beat.
He said one of his most memorable photos was taken in 1970 when Richmond began busing students to desegregate schools.
“You could see the apprehension…and I thought that told a story,” Brown said.
Brown would go on to cover the Inauguration of the first Black President Barack Obama (not to mention every other Inauguration before that going back to President Jimmy Carter).
Last summer, he covered calls for racial justice following the death of George Floyd and the toppling of Richmond’s Confederate monuments.
“It was a front row seat to history. Just to be able to see the changes that have occurred over the last 50 years and know that, hopefully somewhere down the road, someone will be able to pull them up and see one of my pictures,” Brown said.
With that front row seat, Brown never passed up a chance to start a friendship with Virginia’s most powerful. Governors going back to 1994 gave personalized tributes to Brown in a video announcing his retirement.
“I can probably count on one hand the amount of people I really didn’t like. I have relationships with both sides of the aisle, Brown said.
Brown won’t be working when lawmakers return to Richmond for a special session on Monday, April 4 but he’s already trying to cut a deal to come back for future General Assembly sessions.
In the meantime, he said his focus will be on gardening, his grandchildren’s weddings and a new puppy.
Despite his retirement, one thing is for sure. Brown won’t be putting his camera down.
“It has been a part of me for so long,” Brown said with one of his favorites hanging from his neck. “If I could have done this without pay, I would’ve done it if I could afford it because I enjoy and love it so much.”
