Can You See Into The Soul Of A City Through Its Newspaper?

What can you learn about a community through the eyes of its newspaper? Can you see into its soul?

That’s was I was trying to figure out on visits to the exhibition “Above the Fold: The Photographers of the ‘Gloucester Daily Times,’ 1973-2005,” curated by Trenton Carls, at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester from Dec. 2, 2023, to March 17, 2024. It showcases the work of more than 15 photographers for the Massachusetts newspaper. The whole thing felt sort of like a class reunion for me, with all the usual messy complicated feelings, as, years ago, I interned at the Cape Ann Museum and then reported for the Gloucester Times.

Communities tend to have hate-love relationships with their newspapers—belittling them by calling them a rag or the GD Times (as in God Damned), but also craving validation like the thrill of the first time you appear in its pages (hopefully not in the police log).

News outlets, imperfect as they may be, are essential for communities to have a baseline understanding of what’s going on—particularly with its government and most powerful businesses—to be able to make the informed decisions that are our responsibility in the community decision-making of our democracies.

"U.S. Coast Guard boat is tied up at a dock during an evening snowstorm." Photograph by Bart Piscitello. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “U.S. Coast Guard boat is tied up at a dock during an evening snowstorm.” Photograph by Bart Piscitello. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

My complicated feelings were due in part to the fact that these days are a dire time for newspapers. Readership has declined over the past 50 years, but the real deadly problem is that advertising income boomed in the 1980s and ’90s, before falling off a cliff with the rise of the internet. Lucrative apartment rental and job ads moved to Craigslist, social media, and elsewhere online. Other business advertising shrank as companies built their own online presences. Simultaneously, newspapers’ online ads sold for a fraction of the cost of ads in print. People are still reading, but newspapers struggle to navigate the shattered economics.

“Since 2005, the U.S. has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers,” Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in Illinois reported in November 2023. “The nation is on pace to lose one-third of all its newspapers by the end of next year. There are about 6,000 newspapers remaining, the vast majority of which are weeklies. The country has lost almost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists, or 43,000, during that same time.”

Personally, three newspapers that I loved working for have died. I’m still grieving.

So those newspapers remaining are precarious and precious.

"Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo) — “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo)

The Gloucester Daily Times was founded in 1888 (the exhibition is supplemented by a display of early editions of Cape Ann papers) and added its first staff photographer in 1957. That was Gloucester native Charlie Lowe, who arrived at age 25, and covered the city until a few months before his death from lung cancer in 1981. He set a standard of journalistic and aesthetic ambition for all who followed. Lowe’s was an era of big fires and he diligently documented the nighttime blazes (not seen in this exhibition). But Lowe also photographed a smiling girl arriving for her first day of school, bands playing at Stage Fort Park, annual celebrations, the charm of everyday life. And that’s what this exhibition is really about.

The exhibition came about because of two gifts to the museum from the Gloucester Daily Times, Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company, and North of Boston Media Group—more than 30,000 photographs by Charlie Lowe in 2004 and 1 million photographs by numerous Gloucester Times photographers that were donated in 2021.

"A crew member stands on the crosstrees of the schooner Lettie G. Howard during a Mayor's Cup schooner race. The Howard, the Adventure, and the Roseway are three Essex built schooners," Sept. 1, 1997. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “A crew member stands on the crosstrees of the schooner Lettie G. Howard during a Mayor’s Cup schooner race. The Howard, the Adventure, and the Roseway are three Essex built schooners,” Sept. 1, 1997. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

The exhibition reminds me of an essential truth of this kind of photojournalism. There are newsy photos here—striking workers, a woman wailing as her house burns, a politician taking a call to receive election night results, a house flattened by 1991’s “Perfect Storm,” a funeral for men lost at sea, a peace rally against the 1991 Iraq War, an apartment house collapsed into the harbor, a protest against fishing restrictions, town meeting, a water main break, one of the very first same-sex marriages in the state (I wrote the 2004 article the accompanied that photo).

But often the news isn’t readily illustratable—debates over new school construction plans, the hospital maybe getting people sick, a police sex scandal, last night’s city council vote. So photographers at this kind of community newspaper always have to have a photo in their back pocket to fill the next day’s front page—usually some delightful slice of life, “human interest.”

I don’t know why I was sort of surprised to realize that that’s the heart of this exhibition. What I found is lots of the beautiful everyday life of the city—waves crashing along the shore, a dragger (fishing boat) cutting through winter sea smoke, a man digging clams, folks trying to buy Cabbage Patch Kids in 1984, the city’s iconic Man at the Wheel statue, parades, snowstorms, a woman painting a mural, guys shooting the breeze outside the St. Peter’s Club, little league games, whale watching, factory workers shucking clams, high school prom, boys catching minnows, a man feeding gulls, kids enjoying a puppet show, the annual St. Peter’s Fiesta, a policeman trying to herd swans, a lemonade stand, a dog seeming to drive a Jeep, a dog seeming to drive a four-wheeler.

For me personally, seeing the city through the eyes of these photographers is tinged with happy nostalgia—as well as sadness. The staff of the Gloucester Times is about half the number of what it was when I worked there. And the majority of the photographers in the exhibition are no longer in journalism. Most who aren’t dead or retired are still working in photography, but they’re not chasing news. It’s a depressing sign of how the industry has collapsed—and how the economics often doesn’t work for those left.

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Gloucester Daily Ties photographers and Cape Ann Museum staff at the opening reception for "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo) — Gloucester Daily Ties photographers and Cape Ann Museum staff at the opening reception for “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo)

“Waves loom behind police car blocking traffic on Shore Road in a view from Fuller Street." Dec. 14, 1992. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Waves loom behind police car blocking traffic on Shore Road in a view from Fuller Street.” Dec. 14, 1992. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Gloucester Daily Times employees Jim Mahoney and Jeff Pope fill a truck bed with other photographers ready to capture the Labor Day race," Sept. 6, 1982. Photograph by Jackie Bennett. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Gloucester Daily Times employees Jim Mahoney and Jeff Pope fill a truck bed with other photographers ready to capture the Labor Day race,” Sept. 6, 1982. Photograph by Jackie Bennett. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Frank Mitchell, an off-duty firefighter, attempted to get inside a Poplar Park apartment to see if anyone was inside and was driven back by the heat, January 1993. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Frank Mitchell, an off-duty firefighter, attempted to get inside a Poplar Park apartment to see if anyone was inside and was driven back by the heat, January 1993. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

“'On the watch': A group of bird watchers line the rocks off Point de Chene at Andrews Point." Published Wednesday, November 6, 1991. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “’On the watch’: A group of bird watchers line the rocks off Point de Chene at Andrews Point.” Published Wednesday, November 6, 1991. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Movie stars George Clooney, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Mark Wahlberg attend last night's press conference on the railways at Harbor Loop to kick off the filming of the Gloucester portion of 'The Perfect Storm,'" Sept. 8, 1999. Photograph by Desi Smith. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Movie stars George Clooney, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Mark Wahlberg attend last night’s press conference on the railways at Harbor Loop to kick off the filming of the Gloucester portion of ‘The Perfect Storm,'” Sept. 8, 1999. Photograph by Desi Smith. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Four-year-old Michael O'Shea runs past the flattened Shore Road home of Edna Smith the day after the storm," Oct. 31,1991. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Four-year-old Michael O’Shea runs past the flattened Shore Road home of Edna Smith the day after the storm,” Oct. 31,1991. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Stan Rogers digs clams off Essex Avenue in a flat on the Annisquam River," 1982. Photograph by Jim Mahoney. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Stan Rogers digs clams off Essex Avenue in a flat on the Annisquam River,” 1982. Photograph by Jim Mahoney. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Goalie Alison Demeule, an incoming Gloucester High School freshman, faces shots from fellow campers this week at the Fishermen Girls Hockey School at Dorothy Talbot Rink," June 12, 2003. Photograph by Mike Dean. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Goalie Alison Demeule, an incoming Gloucester High School freshman, faces shots from fellow campers this week at the Fishermen Girls Hockey School at Dorothy Talbot Rink,” June 12, 2003. Photograph by Mike Dean. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"The Coast Guard ferries food out to the looming Russian freezer ship Babrungas. The crew refused to work until their captain secured food other than the herring that the ship had purchased from Gloucester vessels for transport to Russia," May 9, 1998. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “The Coast Guard ferries food out to the looming Russian freezer ship Babrungas. The crew refused to work until their captain secured food other than the herring that the ship had purchased from Gloucester vessels for transport to Russia,” May 9, 1998. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Passengers crowd the pulpit of the Yankee Spirit, one of many charter boats that carry sightseers in search of whales during the summer months," June 15, 1997. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Passengers crowd the pulpit of the Yankee Spirit, one of many charter boats that carry sightseers in search of whales during the summer months,” June 15, 1997. Photograph by Josh Reynolds. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

St. Peter's Fiesta photos in "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo) — St. Peter’s Fiesta photos in “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. (©Greg Cook photo)

"Six men catch up with each other on a sidewalk bench near Saint Peter's Club in Gloucester." Photograph by Paul Bilodeau. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Six men catch up with each other on a sidewalk bench near Saint Peter’s Club in Gloucester.” Photograph by Paul Bilodeau. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Great Republic, Howard Blackburn’s sloop, is lifted by crane on Thursday into its new home, the former phone building on Elm Street, which is being converted into part of the Cape Ann Historical Association," Aug. 1, 1992. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Great Republic, Howard Blackburn’s sloop, is lifted by crane on Thursday into its new home, the former phone building on Elm Street, which is being converted into part of the Cape Ann Historical Association,” Aug. 1, 1992. Photograph by Cristin Gisler. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Eastern Point: Dog Bar Breakwater was busy with activity as people flocked outside to enjoy the warm weather," April 23, 1990. Photograph by Amy Sweeney. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Eastern Point: Dog Bar Breakwater was busy with activity as people flocked outside to enjoy the warm weather,” April 23, 1990. Photograph by Amy Sweeney. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Yesterday on the corner of Rogers & Main St. this man's fish slipped off his truck. He spent some time picking up the slimy things." Photograph by Amy Sweeney. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Yesterday on the corner of Rogers & Main St. this man’s fish slipped off his truck. He spent some time picking up the slimy things.” Photograph by Amy Sweeney. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"Tally's gets a paint job from painters employed by Exxon," October 1984. Photograph by Mitch Eagan. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “Tally’s gets a paint job from painters employed by Exxon,” October 1984. Photograph by Mitch Eagan. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

"A car travels along snow-covered Prospect Street in Gloucester this morning," Jan. 10, 1984. Photograph by Kenn Shrader. In "Above the Fold" at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023. — “A car travels along snow-covered Prospect Street in Gloucester this morning,” Jan. 10, 1984. Photograph by Kenn Shrader. In “Above the Fold” at the Cape Ann Museum, 2023.

Categories: Art