Seeing history through a photographer's eye

Imagine being a photographer knowing the pictures you took would mostly go unseen with only a chosen few in the entire world getting to look at your work. That was Don Huebler's professional reality as a photographer for NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland from 1958 until his retirement in March 1992. Don turns 90 years old this March. He's living history. "Most of the things we were taking pictures of were classified," Don said. You didn't even talk about it." Don took pictures in research labs of experiments and of parts or secret metals. "All the engineering stuff," he said. "I took pictures in case something went wrong. One time, an engine exploded in one of the NASA chambers and no one could go in until I went in and got pictures." The stealth bomber officially was introduced to the world in 1988 but the development of America's secret bomber was years in the making. Don's photography was part of the process. "I took pictures of the material that was being tested to be used in the stealth bomber so it couldn't be picked up by radar and I didn't even know it. An engineer, by mistake, had asked me to take the pictures. I didn't ask any more than what I had to do," he said. "I figured the less I know the better off I am." After the pictures were taken, NASA had to change Don's security status. "At the time there was confidential, secret and top secret security levels,'' he said. "I was confidential and they had to change me to secret. I think there were maybe only 10 people, at that time, at NASA that had top secret clearance.'' Don's clearance had to be approved by the FBI. The FBI went deep into Don's life and found he was a quiet man. "At the end of the investigation, the FBI came to my house and the agent said, you don't talk to your neighbors do you?" Don laughed. Astronauts Autographed pictures of NASA astronauts fill memory books in his house. There is Bob Overmyer, Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. Glenn was a constant at NASA Lewis in Cleveland, so much so, NASA renamed the research center NASA Glenn in March 1999. "I was on standby for all of John's arrivals to NASA," Don said. "He'd (Glenn) get out of the car and see me and say, 'Don, you're always the first person I meet here!' It's true. I was always the first one he'd see. "Those first astronauts," he continued, "I really marveled at them. I figured there's a man sitting on something that could really blow up. They were really brave guys." Don has a picture he took of Resnik, an Akron native, sitting in civilian clothes, in an auditorium waiting to be introduced. His picture captured Resnik in perfect, soft light and she's surrounded by the shadows of others in the auditorium. It's a peaceful moment. Resnik was a NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in January of 1986. "After she died, her father reached out to me and asked if I could get him any pictures I had taken of her." It's all about the angle He has hung out of an airplane to take pictures of the wind turbines at Block Island off the Atlantic coast of Rhode Island and done the same for the wind turbines in Hawaii. "I'm in the helicopter and the pilot is telling me that this could go wrong or that could go wrong and I said, shut up, fly the helicopter and let me get my pictures." The Rutan Voyager was an experimental aircraft that completed the first nonstop, non-refueled flight around the world. In December 1986, the aircraft with a wingspan of 110 feet followed a route dictated by weather, wind and geography to navigate the world in nine days. Don has a framed picture he took of the Rutan, from his angle in the air, in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin, during its development stage in 1984. Don served in the United States Navy in 1956 and 1957. He was a photographer, stationed in Guam. He shot pictures of ceremonies, accidents and investigations. "In the Navy, we had a saying — any landing you walk away from is a good landing!" He laughed. He's walked away from a lot. He has taken pictures from the air of the retired fleets of World War II Navy ships. He's gone up in the Goodyear Blimp to take aerial photos. "Once I got inside, I thought, oh my God, they let this thing fly." While at NASA, he was also sent to the Plum Brook Station, a 6,400-acre space in Sandusky used to test hydrogen rocket systems, effects of radiation on materials, storage of cryogenic propellants and so much more. The use of Plum Brook Station by NASA was at its peak in the 1960s. Don was assigned to take pictures in the ice chambers. "It was a big chamber. They could make it do anything in the ice chambers. They could make it snow." The beginning of his photographic journey It's Christmas Eve in 1950 and Don is 14 years old. His first camera was a gift from his mom and dad. The camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. The Brownie Hawkeye was put into production just the year before, so Don and his camera were both brand new to the marvelous, magical world of capturing images in time. "I remember, it was the last gift they gave me," he said. "I guess they could tell after I had opened the others I was disappointed. I was taking a photography class in school and I was hoping for my own camera." His parents also gave him a processing kit so he could process his own film. "At night, I would go into our basement and develop the black and white film," he said. Color was too expensive and Don would not get his own darkroom until years later when he was first married. He built his own. "I always knew I wanted to be a photographer." He attended West Tech High School on Cleveland's west side and studied photography as his trade of the future. His first photos? "The cheerleaders," he said with the laugh. Don still has that Brownie Hawkeye camera. It is 76 years old. In his 20s, he bought a Graflex Crowne Graphic 4 x 5 camera and started his own business as a wedding photographer. "It held only two shots and you had to flip it (the negative) around." The first wedding he shot was for a studio that had hired him and he carried 50 film packs (100 images). "The director of the studio told me not to take more than 18 shots," he said, laughing. "So, I really had to decide what was an important shot." Photographers of his era were talented--they didn't have the luxury of digital cameras and the instant access to images. "I don't like digital cameras," he said. There are two shelves in the family room of his home that display a dozen old cameras. He has more stored away in boxes. Not one is digital. Eventually, he would change from his Crowne Graphic 4 x 5 to a Hasselblad film camera. "When you got 24 shots on a roll of film, that made it much easier," he said. "I was at a wedding once and I saw the photographer take six quick shots as the bride is walking down the aisle and I was thinking `Gee, I would get a shot of the bride with the bridal party, one of her walking down the aisle and one as her father handed her off." He laughs at the memory. The commandments of the priest Don was smart. He consulted with the clergy before each wedding. St. Ignatius of Antioch is a 96-year-old church on Cleveland's west side. Tradition is stoic. "The priest would tell me, he'd count five flash pictures and if I took a sixth, he'd throw me out." St. Boniface on West 54th in Cleveland is another church Don found himself often in. St. Boniface is 122 years old but the approach to photographers there is different. At least it was when Don was taking pictures. "The priest would call for me to come to the altar to take pictures of the exchanging of rings," he said. "He really believed the pictures helped tell the story of the wedding." The photographer's eye "I really see the beauty in the everyday," Don said to me as our conversation came to a close. "I was driving down a country road and I noticed a whole row of trees that had all turned yellow and I thought how beautiful that looks. It's a shame that some people don't appreciate the beauty all around us, every day." Do you still take pictures? "Very seldom," he answered. "It seemed like once I retired, I just turned the shutter off. I still like film. I still see pictures I'd like to take. I just don't take 'em." Contact Ron Jantz at rjantz@chroniclet.com.