The Digital Journalist
When I look back at this portrait I did of Louis Armstrong in his home in Queens, N.Y., six months before he died in 1971, I am struck by the commonality he presented in his greatness. He had lived in this house for decades with his wife Lucille. He posed for me as I found him - no stylists, no hovering press agents. Just Satchmo and his horn. This is the way our heroes used to look. Think of Joe DiMaggio, Edward R. Murrow, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. No matter how famous they became, they were still one of US. There was a naturalness and grace in their presence, which today's celebrity culture has all but wiped out