Fred Comegys

American photographer, born 1941

BiographySince the 1960s, photographer Fred Comegys has captured international celebrities and local kids for the pages of the Delaware-based newspaper, The News Journal. His distinctive images present national news and local interest stories, and perhaps most memorably, the intersection of the two. Born and raised in Delaware, he comes by these local angles naturally.

A self-taught photographer, Comegys seems to have an innate ability for capturing what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment”—the instant when a story is told beautifully in a single frame. The best of his photographs require only a caption—or only a date—to tell their stories. His photographs are also distinguished by his eye for patterns and humorous juxtapositions. Unexpected scenes seem to compose themselves before his camera.

Comegys’ photographs have appeared in Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, and Forbes. In 1985, he was named National Newspaper Photographer of the Year by The National Press Photographers Association. That same year, he was one of five finalists for a Pulitzer Prize.

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