These are photographs that Harry Bishop took in and around San Diego over the years.
San Diego Courthouse. Taken from captive balloon on July 4, 1914.The California Tower in Balboa park.USS Constitution entering San Diego Harbor on the morning of January 21, 1933.A combination of three short exposures on the same negative. “Portuguese celebration, 1947.”Faye Baird (one of San Diego’s first women surfers) and Charles Wright. December 1926.A dolphin in the San Diego Bay.Probably taken at the San Diego Zoo.Storks at the San Diego Zoo.Frank J. Hall of El Centro, during a 1924 rodeo.The story behind this photo.Local football action, before facemasks.Bishop writes: “A trick of the trade. These prisoners in a Tijuana jail wouldn’t face the camera. Every time they’d see my camera, on a tripod, pan of flash powder ready, they’d duck. Finally I told the reporter to go out and buy a few packages of cigarettes, pass them through the bars to the prisoners, and when I hollered ‘low bridge’ to drop to the floor. It worked and I took a terrible cussing from the men behind bars.”
The San Diego-Panama 1915 Exposition.Taken from Knox Martin’s “flying boat” in 1915 with a folding Kodak camera.Civic Center using infrared film.Fiesta del Pacifico, undated.Photo of Baird and Wright taken for a full-page layout in the Los Angeles Times on January 23, 1927. The photos were in the “Rotogravure” section of the paper, which at the time were special sections of the paper that used the rotogravure technique to deliver high-quality photographs.Bishop writes: “These photos were really made the hard way – with a Graflex camera, 1/35th second, glass plates. Only illumination was from movie flares.”A well-timed dolphin jump.Bishop’s first news photo made in 1910 (age 15). A dead whale drifted into San Diego harbor and was exhibited in a waterfront tent at 10 cents a head. Photo made with a box Brownie.“Outside of getting a little dirt kicked up in his face, the cameraman was unhurt.”USS Pennsylvania entering San Diego harbor, August 23, 1935.Yes, there are two hurdlers in this photo. San Diego State track meet, May 23, 1924.Hoover Dam under construction, March 10, 1934.
