By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
Everything about the process that led the United States Postal Service to issue a stamp featuring a photo taken by an Over the Mountain resident came about in a roundabout way, Gary Clark said.
Take, for example, how the Crestline photographer learned the image he captured in Baltimore back in 2004 was making its way around the world on letters and packages.
“I knew that at one time, the postal service wanted to use the photo on a stamp, but a lot happened between 2008 and earlier this year when I got a call from my mother,” the 52-year-old said. “My mother called me from the post office and told me my stamp was out, and I made a beeline to the post office downtown to buy as many as I could.”
Clark took the photo during an annual patriotic celebration at Fort McHenry while on assignment with Southern Living. Clark’s photo features a flag that is a replica of the one that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” against a backdrop of fireworks. The photo was published in the magazine in 2005.
“I was working with a writer on a story about the Defender’s Day celebration at Fort McHenry. The whole thing was about the Star-Spangled Banner, and I thought if I could get inside the fort and shoot the fireworks and the flag, it would be a great shot,” Clark said.
But at first, officials resisted letting Clark and the writer inside the fort to try to capture the huge garrison flag against the backdrop of the sky as it was lit up with fireworks.
“The writer, I think she knew everyone in (Washington) D.C., and she made three phone calls and we got permission to get inside the fort during the fireworks celebration,” he said.
Clark found a good spot inside the fort to try to capture the image he imagined, but the weather wasn’t cooperating with him.
“The fireworks started going off and there wasn’t any wind, so the flag is just kind of hanging there,” he said. “Then the wind picked up, and I was able to get four or five decent shots.”
About three years after he took the photo, Clark said, he got a phone call from someone who was interested in using it.
“I told them it wasn’t really my call and referred them to the person that handled the usage issues,” he said. “The next day she told me it had been a researcher with the postal service that had called about my photo and that they wanted to use it on a stamp.”
Clark said at first, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I was like, ‘Get out of town,’ because it is kind of one of the last things you expect,” he said.
Clark’s colleague at Southern Living exchanged emails and information back and forth with the postal service researcher, and Clark was told the process might take a while.
“Apparently, there are a lot of committees these kind of things have to go through and so they told me I might not hear back anything on it for a while,” Clark said.
In 2010, Clark said, he got an email from the postal service researcher letting him know the photo was still up for consideration. Then in 2011, the postal service asked him to send his biographical information to them.
Two more years passed, and Clark’s professional life changed dramatically.
“I was let go from Southern Living in February 2013 and so was pretty much everyone who had anything to do with the stamp,” Clark said.
Clark had started working at Southern Living in April 1984, less than a year after he graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta.
Clark first picked up a camera while he was a teenager in his native South Carolina.
“I realized what I was going to be on the first day of the ninth grade,” Clark said.
Clark said he took a couple of photography classes but that for the most part, he taught himself the art of photography.
“I just picked up a camera and starting shooting in 1977, and I’ve been doing it pretty much every day since,” he said. “I’m lucky because I realized early on that this was my life’s calling.”
Clark said he had at least two cameras on him at all times during his high school years.
“I clinked when I walked and people knew that as I walked down the hallways at school, I was going to take their picture,” he said.
While he was still in high school, Clark did freelance photography work for his local newspapers but knew he wanted to make a living taking photos of other places outside of South Carolina.
To that end, Clark said, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Atlanta and graduated in 1983.
Clark said he had his first interviews with Southern Living in January and started working out of the magazine’s Birmingham offices in April 1984.
“My 30th anniversary at Southern Living would have been on April 30 of this year,” Clark said.
While Clark was based in Birmingham, his career as a photographer kept him on the road.
“Once, I went out on back-to-back assignments for three months, and I just bought a steamer trunk and packed it for what I would need for three months like it was no big deal to be away from home that long—because it wasn’t,” he said.
His assignments took him from the depths of the oceans in a submarine to above the clouds in a hot air balloon.
“I saw every town in the South and flew upside down in planes. I’ve taken many a chair lift up and walked down some really nice Double Black Diamond ski slopes,” Clark said. “It really was one of the best jobs.”
But Clark’s career at Southern Living ended in 2013, and he was too focused on figuring out the next chapter of his life to think about what might have happened with the postal service’s idea to put the photo he took in Baltimore on a stamp.
It wasn’t until Christmas of 2013 when Clark was talking with another photographer that it occurred to him that he hadn’t heard anything about the status of the stamp in a while.
The photographer mentioned to Clark that the postal service was interested in a couple of his pieces as candidates for a stamp.
“I told him that one of my photos had apparently passed all the committees years ago but that I had no idea when it was coming out,” he said.
Clark mentioned the stamp to a former colleague, and she got in touch with the postal service to learn when the stamp was scheduled to be issued.
“She found out that the project was still on and that the stamp was supposed to be released sometime in 2014 as a Forever stamp,” Clark said. “It turns out, the postal service had been trying to get in touch with us to let us know, but no one who was involved with the photo or the stamp still had those work email addresses.”
It wasn’t until the end of January when Clark’s mom called to tell him she’d just bought a book of stamps featuring his photograph that he knew the good news.
Clark got in touch with the postal service, and officials there told him a dedication ceremony was planned in March in Washington, D.C., to unveil the Star-Spangled Banner Forever stamp at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, home of the 15-star, 15-stripe flag that inspired the national anthem.
The stamp with Clark’s photo was featured at the museum to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the national anthem.
“They told me that they knew it was short notice but that they would like for me to attend the ceremony and asked me if I would like to bring my wife,” Clark said.
Clark immediately arranged for him and his wife, Jill, to make the drive to the nation’s capital for the special ceremony.
The night they had planned to arrive in Washington, D.C., the city got blanketed with a heavy snowfall. The couple rerouted and headed back south to stay with Clark’s parents, who now live in North Carolina.
The ceremony was delayed due to the snow, but the Clarks made the most of their trip and took time to visit the city’s major monuments.
“The ceremony ended up taking place that Friday, and it was a very nice ceremony and I was really glad to be there,” Clark said. “It’s one of those things you know you’ll always remember.”
Clark said he thinks it’s pretty neat that his artwork will be seen by an untold number of people as the Star-Spangled Forever stamps crisscross the globe on letters and packages.
“Me and ‘Skinny Elvis’ both have a stamp—what are the chances?” Clark said. “Seriously, it’s a great honor that they picked my work for the stamp and my artwork is out there.”
Clark said he’s been working on aerial photography using unmanned flying vehicles and is always looking to capture the next great shot.
For more information on Clark’s photography, visit www.thegaryclark.com or his Facebook page of the same name.
