Meeting Legendary J.G. Morris, Paris - September 2009

So they say that the best things are a result of string of coincidences. Well, this one definitely is. My friend, Cathy Pearson was not happy with the table she was allocated in Paris restaurant so she asked to be moved. And that's where this story starts. She started talking to a man seated next to her. He invited her back to his apartment across the road for some ice-cream. This man was John G. Morris, a legendary photo editor, now 92 years old.

John G. Morris was Life's editor when Capa's film rolls from D-day were destroyed in processing, he managed to salvage a dozen. He was the first picture editor for Magnum agency, picture editor for the Washington Post and The New York Times, and a correspondent editor for National Geographic. He worked with the most distinguished photographers of the 20th century: H. C. Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, W. Eugene Smith, Eugene Richards, to name just a few. He drunk with Hemingway, Lee Miller and Marlene Dietrich during the WW II.

When Cathy came back, she said: "When I walked into that library, I could not stop thinking about you". She decided to make a documentary about John's life's work. I got involved as a researcher.

We went to visit him two weeks ago in Paris, and I must say that those two days were one of the best in my life. John is an amazing man, intelligent, straight, and after seven decades in 'the business' still hungry to see more. First time in his office/library I felt like I am going to pee myself from happiness. We laughed so much. I held private notes and postcards in my hands of the people who have been my heros for so long. The stories I heard will be with me forever. I asked him can I be buried in his library. We laughed some more. He asked me why I don't put my hair into the curlers, as it was falling into my camera all the time. And we laughed some more.

I left my book Seeing Things with him overnight. Did not sleep particularly well that night. To be assessed by a man who worked with the best ... not an easy one. Next day, he opened the door of his apartment and I think he said something like this: "Your book is wonderful and bizarre." Cathy later reminded me that the word 'groundbreaking' was used too. He also gave some constructive criticism, and I must say, I completely agreed with him.

I gave John my book and the last time I saw it it was shoulder to shoulder with Capa's book. Not a bad place to be. If I could not stay in that library, at least I found the best possible home for a part of me to live in.

Thank you John G. Morris from the bottom of my heart.

Dragana