George Tames

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George Tames (born January 21, 1919, in Washington D.C) was an American photographer for The New York Times from 1945-1985. As a newspaper photographer, Tames was a regular on Capitol Hill over a span of forty years.

[edit] Biography

A first generation American who couldn't speak English when he went to school, he dropped out of high school in the tenth grade, and went to work to help out the family since there just wasn't any money. Being the oldest his parents gave him the responsibility to watch over his younger brothers and sisters. He came to Capitol Hill in 1940 where his career in photography began, going with the photographers on jobs and eventually photographing individual members. Some of the big events which he photographed was covering the Harry Truman's War Investigating Committee. Tames developed access to and captured the likeness of numerous members of Congress, and had his work reproduced in many influential publications. He developed a style contrary to the "herd instinct" of press photographers, demonstrating his artistic eye, sense of place, and special intimacy with his subjects. In these interviews he relates some of the stories behind his most memorable photographs and offers his perspective of the Senate through a camera's lens.

[edit] Personal Quotes

"Why are you a Democrat?" I say, "I was born into the Democratic party, the same way I was born into the Greek Orthodox Church."[1]
"If there is anyone that should be a Republican or an ultra conservative, it's me, because I have not only conquered the fact that I had only a tenth grade education, but based on the friendships that I made, and the betting on people, like Mr. J. Willard Marriott."[2]
"My mother's reference to Roosevelt would be 'Ieous,' which is the Greek word for saintly, Saintly Roosevelt. She would refer to Hoover as "garata," which means someone with horns, like a goat. So that's how I reckoned my own feelings. Then also in every Greek Orthodox family there's a holy corner, usually in the bedroom of the parents, and it faces east."[3]