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When Hank Aaron stepped into the batter’s box on April 8, 1974 for what would become his record-breaking 715th home run, Syracuse graduate Ron Sherman positioned himself for a photo along the third baseline. Alongside hundreds of other photographers, Sherman readied himself on the 1-0 count before Aaron drilled the ball to left-center field. The Atlanta-based freelance photographer captured the hit with his color camera. 

Sherman then tracked Aaron around the bases. As the Braves’ right fielder rounded second, Sherman noticed two boys — Cliff Courtenay and Britt Gaston — running up toward the new home run king. He dropped his color camera, picked up his motor drive camera and captured what would become a historic picture as memorable as the symbolic moment.

But the photographer thought nothing of the second image. He thought it was a “nice photo,” but not “one of a kind,” and one that he was later surprised to learn no one else had captured. He shipped it off to his agency in New York and moved on to the next project. 

“I went on with my life,” Sherman said. “That’s just the way my life has been. There’s other projects in the works.”

Aaron’s baseball career ended two years later, but Sherman’s photography career was just beginning. After capturing the historic photo of Aaron, Sherman’s photography expanded from the Atlanta area to nationwide. He documented former President Jimmy Carter from a peanut field in Plains, Georgia, to the steps of the White House, and he photographed the civil rights movement in its epicenter in Atlanta.

Aaron died Jan. 22 at 86 years old. After his death, Sherman paid tribute to the baseball legend by tearing out old newspaper articles and saving them for his children to read. He regrets never being able to have a real conversation with the Braves’ right fielder. 

“I always thought he was a marvelous person for what he did,” Sherman said of Aaron’s reputation as a civil rights activist.

Sherman’s 50-year career as a professional stock photographer began while he attended high school just outside Cleveland, where he photographed football games as part of freelance work for the Cleveland Press and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. There, he brought in his photos from the day at 11 p.m. for the next morning’s paper. Before school the following day, he’d send in more photos for afternoon copies of the paper. 

One night, he got a photo in each of the three versions of both next day’s papers, meaning he was paid $60 for the night. Half a century later, he described the moment as his “best Friday night ever.” 

Sherman’s passion led him to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he majored in photography and worked full time at the Rochester Daily Newspaper. 

Ron Sherman’s iconic photo of Hank Aaron’s. record-breaking 715th home run. Courtesy of Ronsherman.com.

After graduating from RIT, Sherman volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War. His photography helped American soldiers gain a better understanding of the layout of missions they were entering. Military commanders used his photos to gain knowledge about their surroundings.

Sherman moved to Syracuse in 1969 after spending a summer photographing for the Milwaukee Journal. He taught classes at SU while studying for his graduate degree at the university. He had an assistantship on campus where he worked with equipment at their photo studio. 

During the Syracuse 8 protests — in which nine Black football players boycotted spring practice to demand equal treatment —  Sherman photographed the football team and student protesters. He captured a picture of a pro-life march that was published in Syracuse’s “The Record,” a now-defunct magazine. 

“I would be around the campus and see what’s going on,” Sherman said. “New York was a good time. It was pretty special to me.”

Now in his Atlanta house, the same one he and his wife of over 50 years have lived in since the early ‘70s, Sherman has moved onto his next project: finding a permanent home for his work “so that it’ll live forever.”

The coronavirus pandemic prevented Sherman from covering in-person events during the past year, so he’s used the extra time to collaborate with Emory University in Atlanta to catalog his work. Sherman also created a website that includes a variety of his work, from photos of the evolving Atlanta skyline to powerful images of poultry farming in Georgia.

Randy Gue, a curator at Emory’s archives and special collections, said Sherman’s photos provide “a connection point” between the historical artifacts that the library displays and the visual memories Sherman documented.

Sherman photographed Coretta Scott King (right) with Rosa Parks (left) in Georgia (1975) at an MLK Birthday Celebration. Courtesy of Ronsherman.com.

“One of the hard things to measure as a historian is urban change, and one of the ways we can do it is by photographing it like Ron did,” Gue said.

Kevin Ames, Sherman’s friend since 1981, said Sherman’s photography of Atlanta’s evolving downtown area helped preserve some of the city’s history. People in Georgia, Ames said, haven’t been keen on maintaining old buildings — like Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, where Aaron hit his 715th home run.

The historic stadium is in the background of photos Sherman took of the 1996 Olympic ceremonies from the top of a Holiday Inn. Now, a parking lot stands in its place.

When Sherman moved to Georgia in 1971 after graduating from SU, the state was transitioning into a post-civil rights era. Black people were still fighting against voter suppression despite being granted the constitutional right to vote over a century prior. 

Beginning with his work for United Press International, an international news agency, Sherman was there to document that fight. His goal was to take his camera and shoot just “(going) out and documenting whatever.”

He photographed social activists such as Julian Bond and César Chávez — and segregationists such as George Wallace and Lester Maddox. Sherman’s career is a retroactive contrast of people, places and a boiling pot of events, Gue said.

When Sherman photographed Carter, then a Georgia governor, on a freelance gig at a University of Florida football game, he saw the future president sitting alone at the front of the plane on the flight back. Sherman took the opportunity to speak with him.

Sherman documented former President Jimmy Carter while he was still the governor of Georgia. Courtesy of Ronsherman.com.

“I said ‘Governor, may I have a conversation with you? I think what you’re doing is really newsworthy, and I’d like to document it from the inside.’”

That simple conversation on a campaign plane in Florida allowed Sherman to document Carter as he stumped for the highest office in the United States. Photography is a great deal of standing around and waiting for the “hero image” that Sherman got of Carter walking in a field, jacket draped over his shoulder, Ames said.

Forty years after Aaron’s groundbreaking home run, back in 2014, Sherman received a call from a friend of his. He was at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The famous photo he’d taken of Aaron just three years after graduating from Syracuse hung at the museum in Cooperstown, New York. Sherman wasn’t credited. The photo’s quality was “really low.”

“We worked out an agreement that, if I sent them a high resolution image, they (would) reprint it and give me credit for it,” Sherman said. 

It was only then, 40 years and an illustrious photography career later, that he figured out he was the only one to capture that moment. 

“Not one of you guys got the photo?” he remembers asking his friend. He said he hadn’t heard that anyone did. “It took me 40-some years to get credit for it … still boggles my mind that no one else got anything close.”

Published on February 10, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt