Nat Fein

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Nat Fein (b.1914 - d.2000) was an American Press Photographer for the New York Herald Tribune for thirty-three years. Fein is well known for photographing Babe Ruth at the end of his life, winning the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for his photograph "The Babe Bows Out."^[1]

Nat was born and raised on the lower east side of Manhattan.

Nat Fein was an inventive press photographer at the New York Herald Tribune from 1933 to 1966. Albert Einstein, Ty Cobb, Queen Elizabeth and Harry S. Truman were among the many icons photographed by the insightful eye of Nat Fein. He won more press photo awards than any of his contemporaries. Although considered to be one of the greatest human interest photographers in journalism, he carried the distinction of having taken "the most celebrated photograph in sports history." (NY Times, 1992). Fein’s dramatic Babe Ruth image was the first sports picture to win a Pulitzer Prize.

With his Speed Graphic camera and his unconventional knack for communicating through pictures, this master of the lens captured the soul of a bygone era in New York City. Fein had a unique perspective that would set him far apart from other photojournalists as he used props, animals and his disarming personality to create witty and humorous eye-catching news photos.

[edit] Babe Ruth

Nat Fein's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Ruth at Yankee Stadium, June 13, 1948. This was his last public appearance before his death.

In 1948, Fein took the photograph that titled "The Babe Bows Out," which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the best news photograph.

[edit] Other Subjects

He took to photography quickly and quite well... known for setting a scene proper, he would climb buildings and bridges to get the shot he was after. Fein's main subject matter was New York following World War II.

Fein also photographed notables Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, William Westmoreland, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sandburg.

[edit] Nat Fein's Legacy

David Nieves, curator and administrator of the Nat Fein estate is currently assembling a book about the life and pictures of one of America's finest photojournalists. David Nieves has written a compilation of behind the scene stories which add a unique insight to the famous pictures of Pulitzer Prize photographer Nat Fein. This photo essay includes 117 photographs of old New York, as well as famous personalities of a bygone era. Biographical elements help illustrate the extraordinary life of Fein. From Fein's boyhood brush with death when gangster Legs Diamond attempted to murder him, to the fateful day he photographed the dying Babe Ruth, The Fein Story Behind the Pictures offers a humorous and entertaining look at this master of the lens. This book will be a delight to art collectors, photography enthusiasts and those interested in New York City nostalgia. David Nieves is a former New York City homicide detective. After retiring from the police department he took to the skies to capture New York from the air as an aerial photographer and exhibits his work at art galleries in the Hudson Valley. He has also published an article about Nat Fein, The Ghost of Babe Ruth in Town Line Magazine.

Nieves' love of photography stems from a long and endearing relationship with Nat Fein who had become a second father to him. Upon Fein's death in 2000, Nieves was left to manage Fein's interests along with what is described by many, as some of the greatest journalistic photography of the twentieth century. After listening to countless narrations of Nat Fein’s newspaper exploits over the years and researching thousands of his images, David Nieves decided to share these remarkable stories.

[edit] References