Photography is something that came to me through my father, who was a real interesting man.

I was not very scholastic or very athletic, and when it came, it really spoke to me, maybe because only one person can look through the viewfinder at a time.

[theme music] Images of the life and times of the Ozarks regions has been captured in newspapers for decades, serving as reflecting points of events and the people of the region.

One photographer that has made his mark in capturing these images for over 40 years is Bob Linder, a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist that has called the Ozarks home.

On this show, we visit with Bob and get to see many of his memories through his remarkable photos.

Please stay with us.

ANNOUNCER: Ozarks Public Television and Missouri State University are proud to present "OzarksWatch Video Magazine," a locally produced program committed to increasing the understanding of the richness and complexity of Ozarks culture.

Visit our website for more information.

Well I have a very special guest today, and we're going try something just a bit different from normal what we do on the show because we have Bob Linder, and we want to show some of these beautiful images that he's been able to capture over many, many years.

And so we'll have a little bit of a slideshow going on as we talk.

Before we get started, though, why don't you tell me a little bit about where you're from, how you got into the camera business, and the whole bit.

Well, first, thanks for having me.

I'm really flattered to be here, and I get to sit in the lawn chairs in front of the cabin like so many people that I've admired in the past.

First time we've ever had a computer in front of the cabin.

Oh, there's always something new.

You know, I'm a Springfield native.

I'm a fifth or sixth-generation Ozarker, depending on which side of the family you want to go down.

Photography is something that came to me through my father, who was a real interesting man.

I was not very scholastic or very athletic, and when it came, it really spoke to me, maybe because only one person can look through the viewfinder at a time.

But my father started a radio shop in the '50s-- actually, in the '30s with radio, and then after the war with-- he brought television to Springfield, actually, before there were TV stations.

In the '50s, he was into high fidelity and on.

But he's also a very accomplished photographer and filmmaker, so I did not inherit any of the electronic skills.

But somehow that worked for me, and when I was 13 and 14, I had the enlarger on the toilet and the bathroom and developed film in the sink.

And I had trays in the shower stall, and it was really a real heady time.

And then in high school, I was in journalism, and I was the school-- I went to Parkview.

And then when I went to then SMS after that, MSU, that was not my plan.

I wanted to be a filmmaker.

I was really enamored with sound and pictures, so that was kind of the way I wanted to go.

And I got a call from Steve Keller at the "News-Leader," who had gotten my name from some people at the local camera store, and they were looking for someone to work nights and weekends, a student photographer.

And I thought, wow, I get paid for pictures.

Well, you're always looking for a job when you're in school, so that was great.

But it was a life-changing experience, and it was-- the newspaper-- I can still walk through the old newsroom and see Barbara Clauser and Jane Bennett and Mary Ritchie and Bob Frandsen and the Billings brothers, Hank and Jim, and Doyle Hilton and Don Mankin-- and Dale Freeman was the editor, managing editor at the time-- Marty Edelman.

Yeah, it's a who's who of the newspaper business.

BOB LINDER: Yeah, there's Bob Palmer behind his little office, and you could watch him.

And then I was working with Betty Love and Art Evans and Steve Keller.

And it was a very rich environment of experience, and they were so kind to really bring me into it.

And it just grabbed me.

I just loved it.

You started off as a photographer, and somewhere you morphed into a photojournalist, which is an interesting kind of a concept to me because I assume that's telling stories with images, but I don't know exactly what photojournalism is.

BOB LINDER: Well, you know, that's a really interesting question because about-- you know, I loved taking pictures, and I loved the possibility because you used all different formats.

You took all kinds of photographs.

And I was really green.

I remember Freeman saying, don't push him out of the nest too fast, which was a good thing to say because I was really trying-- I was absorbing it like crazy, but I was very green.

But, you know, six or eight months into-- later, in that spring, I just really saw how words and pictures came together.

I really saw that the dynamic force that the right pictures and the right pictures-- the right pictures and the right words could have.

And it was a lot like sound and picture for me, and so it really worked.

So it didn't take me long to realize I really enjoy this, and not just taking pictures in general but reflecting my community, photographing my town for the audience, which was my family, my friends, people I met at the grocery store.

You know, there was a certain responsibility with that.

Yeah, I understand that because we have that same kind of a sense on this show because we're kind of trying to reflect what the region looks like and what the people look like, and we have a lot of respect.

And we try to do it properly and with due respect, so it's a great undertaking.

And obviously, you fell in love with doing it.

BOB LINDER: It was really fun because I think one of the most important things we can do as people is to see something and show someone else what we saw and to relate that or to tell someone else what we saw.

Before we get to the images-- and we want to get to those pretty soon because there's quite a few that are there-- when you were taking a photograph, do you worry about the composition first, or do you just worry about what's happening at the time and that you try to capture whatever the essence of it is?

You know, when I first started and was working evenings-- and nights are a whole other photographic problem, and solving the technical problem is alongside telling the story.

So, like, when-- I tried to get one here-- you know, you're shooting at a night scene, a fire, and you kind of learn not to fight the light, to kind of go with it and try to utilize what's there.

And that was a really important part.

You also found that you're in situations that were happening just right now in front of you and to just photograph the scene, record the scene.

And there were a lot of situations that were new for-- you know, I was 18 when I started doing it, so.

And you were-- when you first started-- and the technology has changed pretty dramatically over the 40 years or so that you've been involved in it and getting into the digital age and color and all that.

So what was the-- how difficult was it to do the work back when the technology wasn't quite as good?

Well, we didn't know it wasn't as good.

I mean, it was the state of the art.

JIM BAKER: That's right.

But, you know, when you're doing newspaper work, you're always in a hurry, and you're always afraid you're not going to get the image because you didn't come back without a picture.

JIM BAKER: [chuckles] And so you tend to maybe overexpose your film, maybe overdevelop your film a little bit.

So technically, there were some real issues, you know.

It depends on your fear factor, you know, how good you feel about the image you have.

But, you know, I learned really-- everybody has their own pet mess-up.

And I hate to admit this, but my favorite mess-up was taking pictures without film in the camera.

And Betty Love cured me real quick with that.

She says, did-- I had taken something.

There was no film in the camera because there's no screen on the back.

It's a film camera.

And she said, do not ever take the last frame of a roll of film without putting a new one in.

And Betty was-- JIM BAKER: [chuckles] --a sweetheart, but she was kind of crusty.

And I was afraid of her at that point.

So I learned.

You listened?

BOB LINDER: I did.

Yeah.

Well, why don't we take a look-- I do want to make one comment about-- I know you got involved pretty heavily in color photography, and that was kind of a new thing for newspapers.

BOB LINDER: It really was.

I mean, when the "News-Leader" installed the press before the last one, it was a color press, which was a big deal.

And there were only certain places in the paper you could run color, front page, front sections.

And so I had learned color printing and color processing, and I kind specialized in that for a while.

JIM BAKER: Wow.

Very good.

Well, let's take a look at some of your images, and as we're talking through those, we'll mention the fact that you donated a very large collection to the Greene County Library, and they're digitizing these images.

It's really been great working with the local history department, with Brian Grubbs and Ben Devin in particular, and it's been reassuring to me to give them these images, a lot of these.

JIM BAKER: Well, I'm going to let you take over the show, and I'll just ask questions as we go.

But you can show some of your-- BOB LINDER: Yeah, well, I'm going to move through these pretty quick till we hit something, but, you know, you always came across people on their worst day or their best day.

But there was a lot-- you know, this is Tornado Alley, and there was a lot of, you know, this kind of thing.

Courts, murder cases, unless you've sat in on a murder trial, you don't really understand the gravity of it.

It doesn't come across on TV like it is.

So did the editor just assign you-- say, OK, there's this case or there's this, and we want you to go and take some photographs?

Yes.

OK. BOB LINDER: Athletics-- we could go off into athletics pretty deep if we wanted to, but we're going to stay-- we're going to get past that.

But it's a great learning place for learning to catch the moment to solve the technical problem.

Plus, it's something that has a beginning and an ending and a winner and a loser and an audience.

There are things happening.

And after you kind of get through the action things, sometimes you look a little deeper into what else is happening, and I think, you know, this is that type of thing where it's a free throw, and it was, like, a tie game, so.

Our neighbors, you know, Bea Payne Stewart.

You never know who you're going to run into.

JIM BAKER: [chuckles] BOB LINDER: Sooner or later, you run across these guys, who want publicity.

I just really like candid photographs, candid portraiture in particular, and these guys are hanging out on the corner waiting for a car to splash them.

And it spoke to me about-- JIM BAKER: So when you try to capture an image like this, do you take several pictures and then hopefully you get the one that you really like, or is it-- because to capture something like that, it's really kind of tough.

BOB LINDER: You don't always know the moment, and this was on film.

About half of my body of work is on film, and about half is digital.

I switched in 2000 from film to digital.

You know, of course, but the Ozarks always offers a great palette, and, you know, this is one of those kind of "stop the car" moments when you have to stop the car.

I was on my way to Branson early in the morning, and this was right South of the turnoff for Highlandville where it starts getting hilly.

JIM BAKER: Oh, yeah.

BOB LINDER: And there was that nice, thin layer of fog.

And then just the oddities, you know-- and every region has its cool stuff, but, you know, there's a lot of neat things in the Ozarks region.

And, you know, when you're down around Ponca, you'll see some of these elk, but in the '90s, it was pretty new.

And Fred Bell, who had been with the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission, was very instrumental in bringing elk to that region.

I don't know what to say about Elvis.

There's Elvis.

JIM BAKER: Yeah.

[chuckles] BOB LINDER: I really-- you know, in 1973, George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier to become the heavyweight champion.

And a year later, Muhammad Ali knocked him out, and he was no longer.

So now-- this was in 1987, so that would been several years later.

He wanted to make a comeback.

And in this case, the comeback was playing the Hitchin' Post Lounge on Kearney street in Springfield, Missouri.

He fought Bobby Crabtree in the lounge.

I didn't go to the fight, but I went to a press conference before, where he was talking about how he was starting again, and he was starting from the bottom.

And he wasn't ashamed of that.

And I asked him if I could have him for a minute right after the press conference to do a portrait because I really-- if you ask me what my favorite thing to do is, I love portraiture, particularly candid portraiture or location portraiture.

I think trying to get their personality in the image means a lot to me.

But, you know, he fought his way back to be world heavyweight champion again after this.

That photograph really tells a lot about a person.

I mean, you can almost look into his eyes.

BOB LINDER: I think that is important to look into their eyes, and also, his hands are so big as a boxer.

[chuckles] I photographed Dick Gregory a couple of times, both times at Drury.

He was a really motivated speaker.

You know, he was a comedian, a civil rights activist, and later moved into more of a life of protest and kind of conspiracy theories.

But he was a really dynamic speaker, and this was right after he spoke backstage at Clara Thompson Hall.

And there was this-- he was standing right under this bare light bulb.

And to me, it's an example of, go with the light you have, you know.

And If I go through the film, he's moving around, and then suddenly, he gets to a point where the light is just right on his face.

And I was really lucky.

Kathleen Turner was back in town after her first movie.

That was a great success, and she was actually doing some PSAs at KOZK.

You know, just as a quick observation, I love black-and-white photographs, even more than color for some reason.

BOB LINDER: I do too.

JIM BAKER: Because they seem to show a little bit more to me than the color.

I don't understand why, but it's just-- There's an ephemeral quality to them.

It's really hard to explain.

Leroy Olds was-- [chuckles] --always at the National Cemetery for Memorial Day, and he could still fit into his World War II uniform.

And I just-- I loved his face.

This is about as close as I get to an Amish portrait, but it's actually a wedding, setting up for a wedding party in an Amish home.

I really like the texture of rodeos.

A small-town rodeo, to me, is something really special.

So, you know, I always liked-- I don't know if you can see the page here, but I always tell people, when you're doing a picture page, you need one really strong picture, and then you can build around that.

And this is Maria Akers, and she's holding the flag that draped the coffin of her son, Paul, after he was killed in a terrible munitions accident on the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War.

And she's been invited to come to the dedication of a museum set up on the enterprise for the sailors who were killed in that accident.

You walk into someone's home-- and this was a-- she lived on a farm in Crocker in Pulaski County, and the story had been done on the phone.

And I was sent up to photograph her.

And I just have a hard time going in and taking someone's picture and leaving, but we were talking, and she was packing.

And that was her suitcase behind her.

And she told me of-- he had left on Christmas morning for his first deployment, and he couldn't stay for Christmas turkey.

And he said, save me a piece.

I'll have it when I come back.

And this is 32 years later, and she just couldn't bear to throw that away.

It was still in her freezer.

Sometimes I photograph these people, and I drive away.

And they've shared their life with me, sometimes the most intimate details of their life, the thing that was the most heartbreaking to them or maybe joyful for them.

But I sometimes feel really sad that I probably won't see them again, you know.

So really, as a photographer, if you take enough pictures and stuff, you're going to experience a full range of emotion, from absolute happiness to, you know, to tragedy and to sadness.

How do you control that when you're taking a picture?

Do you try to stay focused, even though maybe the image is going to be a little bit disturbing to you or-- I try to stay focused at the time, but it often comes back on me later.

But she was-- she's a dear person and someone I will always remember.

Doc Dasher, Doc Dasher I met one winter day in 1980 at a center for retirees.

It was downtown, and I can't remember why I went there.

But I had finished taking my picture, and I'd sat down and I was packing up.

And it was cold outside.

I wasn't in a hurry.

And we started this conversation.

And he asked me my name, and I said, Linder.

And he said, well, did you dad have a recording studio on Vinton back in the-- I mean on Boonville back in the '40s?

And I said, well, yeah, I did.

Well, I recorded there.

And then he got to tell me about his career.

And he had had this great career as a blues singer and a songwriter.

In fact, he had written-- he was a very popular performer in the '30s, and he played a lot of nightspots here.

But his real claim to fame was in 1925 he penned a song that Columbia Records recorded.

And it was a bluesy song that was pegged to the Scopes trials, and it was called "Evolution Mama."

Unfortunately, we were running out of time, but I did have a couple of questions for you real quick.

What was the most difficult type of subject-- what was the most difficult photograph for you to take?

I don't know how to answer that.

You mean personally or technically?

Well, I guess technically would be-- You know, whenever there is zero light, that's a problem.

Did you ever get-- did you ever have the problem with just, I got to get this done very fast and get it back because there's a deadline?

Well, that's always.

That's a daily thing.

One of the most unusual places I've ever been was in Osage County on Highway 83.

You know, a century before it was paved, highway-- there was a bend in the road they called the crook in the road.

And there was a store that started there, and this was a community that became known as Crook.

And by 19-- oh, in 1979, the hitching posts were gone.

The stable and the post office were gone.

But not Louie Baclesse and his store.

And Louis lived there, and he had operated the store since he returned from World War I.

And he was still there.

And, you know, this is maybe my favorite portrait that I was able to capture.

And you could-- now, and that's the time when you could get a head gasket for your tractor and the food you needed at the same place.

Fortunately, you know, not long after this, Louis passed in his store.

But it's one of the most memorable places I've ever been, and he was one of the most interesting faces I've ever photographed.

JIM BAKER: That's really a striking photo.

In our final minute, want to put in a plug for the Greene County Library and all the work that you're doing with them so that-- there's going to be literally thousands of images that will be digitized and become available to the public.

So what's your involvement in that?

Are you helping catalog and-- You know, I am helping the scan and helping to identify images of my own and other people's.

And, you know, it feels like you're putting value with it.

You know, pictures are just pictures unless they have information with them, and when they have a caption, that means that they have value.

They become history.

JIM BAKER: Well, one thing that the viewers need to know is that between the library and between the university archives and all these other resources, there's a lot of rich imagery of the Ozarks and the history and the traditions.

And so it's really very-- I'm very happy to have you here with me today.

I know you've done a lot of great things.

And we probably could do 10 shows.

I'd like to do one just on sports, but you've got enough photographs to fill up [indistinct].

I probably should have gone more into the Ozarks things with our "OzarksWatch" theme.

No, we're fine.

Really, what we like to do is just look at people that are in the Ozarks and what they do.

And you've done a lot, and I appreciate your being here with us today.

Well, thanks, Jim.

I appreciate being here.

We'll be back in a moment.

[theme music] ANNOUNCER: Ozarks public television and Missouri State University are proud to present "OzarksWatch Video Magazine," a locally produced program committed to increasing the understanding of the richness and complexity of Ozarks culture.

Visit our website for more information.

I'd like to thank my guest, Bob Linder, for sharing some of his amazing images with us.

Join us again for another edition of "OzarksWatch Video Magazine."

[theme music]