By ALICIA ANDERSON Special to the Daily Press
World-renowned photojournalist Boris Yaro paid a visit to the campus of Santa Monica College this past Tuesday to give a special guest lecture to Bryan McLellan’s photojournalism class and members of the SMC newspaper, The Corsair.
Yaro was the first lecturer to visit McLellan’s photojournalism class after the teacher was hospitalized last week for Leukemia. McLellan was diagnosed with the disease just 10 days prior to the lecture, officials said. “It is saddening that Bryan had to leave so abruptly. He was such a wonderful teacher and we all miss him,” said Anastasiya Shapovalova, 18, a freshman photojournalism major.
Yaro showed some of his most famous images during the one-hour session, including pictures of car crashes and fires, coverage of the Northridge Earthquake and — perhaps most famously — his images of Robert Kennedy’s assassination. A photographer for the Los Angeles Times for 40 years, Yaro has worked with everything from black-and-white to color, from negatives to digital.
Although he wouldn’t reveal his secrets about how he took many of his famous photos, Yaro did say that he was able to capture many of his images due to the relationships he developed over the years with the police department, as well as the pure luck of being in the right place at the right time.
Yaro said he never received any comment from the Kennedy family about his images of the last moments of Robert Kennedy’s life, despite their wide publication.
Seeing Yaro’s photographs appeared to lift the spirits of many of the students in the class. McLellan, who also heads The Corsair, is a role model to many students.
“Having Boris was such an inspiration to us,” said Jonathan Derby, 21, a junior. “One day, I aspire to take photographs like that, with that same intensity he has.”
Still with McLellan in mind, many of the students and prospective photojournalists said they looked to Yaro for the new motivation needed to carry them through the rest of the semester at SMC.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 22, 2003. Read the original PDF.