The photo of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run in 1974 is so literally iconic it hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame: the Hammer running the bases while two teens who sneaked onto the field congratulate him.
It’s one of many historic moments captured by metro Atlanta photographer Ron Sherman in more than a half-century of working for news outlets and corporate sponsors. His rare front-row seat to decades of Atlanta life is now featured in his new book, “Witness: A Photographic Essay of Humor and Heart.”
Sherman worked for such major media of the day as Newsweek, Time and United Press International, shooting everything from Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign to a Bruce Springsteen concert to plane crashes and fires.
Sherman recalls that his work often came from outside media who seemed to be perpetually rediscovering Atlanta and the South. “In the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, I’d get an assignment to shoot the ‘New South,’” he said with a laugh, adding the editors were often New Yorkers. “And what do they know?”
While his photos were published around the world, the laconic and businesslike photographer rarely sought the spotlight himself. That means his contribution was sometimes overlooked — including, he said at a Nov. 9 appearance at Decatur’s Different Trains Gallery, that Hank Aaron home run photo, which long hung without his name on the credit until a friend happened to visit and recognized it.
Other times, Sherman himself wasn’t aware of the full significance of what he shot. A major example is the reason he made that gallery appearance: his photos of the pioneering punk rock band the Sex Pistols on Jan. 5, 1978, kicking off their first and only U.S. tour at Atlanta’s Great Southeastern Music Hall.
For Sherman, it was just another Newsweek gig, just some of the hundreds of thousands of photos he donated last year to Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose…
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