A career in pictures, the view through the lens of Jim Neiss
May 27—Jim Neiss wasn't sure what he was going to do with his life as he approached his high school graduation.
He decided, in the second half of his senior year, to take a photography class that he thought might be interesting.
It turned out to be one of the most important decisions in his life.
"I guess you could say I fell into it," said the 63-year-old Neiss who this week retired after spending more than 35 years working as a photographer for the Niagara Gazette and Lockport Union-Sun & Journal newspapers. "I thought it would be an easy curriculum to take the last part of my senior year and it ended up being something that I just absolutely loved doing and I kept doing it."
He fondly remembers his first camera: a Yashica-D, which, by today's standards is considered "vintage."
"It was amazing to see the print developed," Neiss recalled. "It was just super exciting to take a picture, fill up a roll of film and have to take that film out of the camera, into the dark room and process it. Just getting it onto a film reel was a challenge for a beginner."
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Born in Buffalo, Neiss graduated from Clarence High School in 1979 before attending Nagara County Community College for one year where he studied communications and media. He transferred to Alfred State College where he earned an associates degree in communications with a focus on photography.
At age 19, he had a chance meeting with a rock n' roll legend at a radio station in Buffalo. The experience made him realize photography could be more than just a hobby.
"A friend and I were going to 97 Rock to pick up free tickets for Judas Priest and in comes the lead singer Rob Halford," Neiss said. "I asked the CBS records rep, 'May I please take a picture?' She said, 'Do you have black and white film in that camera?' I said 'yeah' and she said, 'Well, if you take pictures of the rock musicians talking to the disc jockeys, I'll give you backstage passes.' "
Neiss had some prior rock photography experience, having served as lead photographer and roadie for his brother Chuck's band, Buffalo's "four-guitar army" Arlanza.
From 1979 through 1986, Neiss continued to brush up against rock greatness while working with CBS Records rep M.J. Caliendo. He traded photos of Ozzy Osbourne, Carlos Santana and members of Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, Loverboy and other rock bands for backstage passes to concerts, albums and T-shirts. His work was used in CBS promotional materials for the musicians.
While still studying at NCCC, Neiss added another side gig, working 20 hours per week as a promotional photographer at Darien Lake. He parlayed that into 20 more hours per week as a ride operator and projectionist for Darien Lake's 3D movie theater, Cinema 2000.
In 1983, after graduating from college, Neiss decided to make a career change by opening up the telephone book. He searched the yellow pages for photography businesses and found Knack and Richards, a local company that specialized in student portraits.
"My whole career is just dumb luck," he said. "This is what a stupid teenage kid did — I opened the phonebook and I looked for the most prestigious name in the phone book and I thought Knack and Richards Photography sounded super prestigious. I called them up and said 'I'm interested in working with our company. I'm a photographer.' They said 'when can you start?' "
He started by making sign boards for group pictures of elementary school students and learned how to shoot portraits while taking individual and group photos.
He added a second job working with Aardvark Studios, another local company that specialized in photographing high school and college graduations. He credits his work there with helping him learn how to capture "peak action" shots, a requirement of any photographer assigned to snap photos of graduates in the precise moments when they accept diplomas on stage.
Three years later, his best friend's mother put in a good word with George Measer, former publisher of the Bee Group newspapers. A week later, Measer offered Neiss a job as a freelance photographer, his first real work as a photo journalist.
"I didn't know anything about newspaper photography. I jumped right in," Neiss said. "I joined the National Press Photographers Association and when I started getting their magazine, it was a great source of inspiration. I would copy what they did. Also the Buffalo News photographers were a source of inspiration. I just kept my eye open.
"Quite frankly, I became good at enterprise because they paid," he added.
Neiss freelanced for the Bee Group for about a year before being offered a full-time job. He became the group's chief photographer in 1985.
MOVE TO THE GAZETTE
While working for the Bee Group, he met Holly Marvin, a part-time photographer for the Niagara Gazette. On a boat trip with Marvin and one of her friends, fellow Gazette photographer Lisa Massey, Neiss learned about an opening at the newspaper in Niagara Falls. He applied and got hired in October 1987, becoming one of the three full-time photographers the newspaper staff had at the time.
On his first day, Neiss said his boss, Gazette chief photographer and former Courier Express photographer Ron Schifferle, tossed him a brick of film and told him to go out and shoot a bunch of photos.
"He wanted me to shoot as much of that film as I wanted to in one day," Neiss said. "He said, 'If you shoot one picture, shoot 10. That's how you get the good shots.' Back then, you couldn't see on the back of the camera what you got. You didn't even know if your pictures were exposed properly until you got into the dark room.
"I was scared," Neiss added. "I was scared and nervous and elated at the same time."
Neiss remembers his first photo: A picture of a woman on a ladder who was washing the windows on her home on Ferry Avenue.
When Gannett sold the Gazette to its current owner, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., commonly known as CNHI, the photography department of the Gazette, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal and Tonawanda News was consolidated, resulting in five full-time photographers working for the three local newspapers.
By the mid-1990s, Neiss rose to the post of chief photographer.
In his position, he was invited to participate in photography conferences in other parts of the country where he said he was honored to "rub elbows" with some of the best photographers in the business, including several Pulitzer Prize winners.
FOND MEMORIES, FAVORITE PHOTOS
Over the course of his 35-plus years of shooting photographs for newspapers, Neiss estimates he's taken "hundreds of thousands" of photos.
His favorites list includes images from the Buffalo Bills four-straight Super Bowls run in the early 1990s and those of daredevil Dave Munday's second trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
"I got to take a picture of a guy actually going over the Falls in a barrel," Neiss said.
Hellos and goodbyes involving military members and their families at the Niagara Falls Airbase also rank high on Neiss's list of favorite photos.
"I thought those were super moving, especially the returns," he said. "I've gotten a few good shots out for that."
Neiss said he also greatly enjoyed "enterprise" photos, the kind he found while roaming around looking for interesting images across Niagara County.
"I hands down love enterprising, just looking for kooky things," he said. "I have a sense of humor in my cutline writing at times."
There were not-so-pleasant moments, too.
Although he's covered literally hundreds of car accidents, house fires and other emergency response incidents, it was a deadly house fire on Cedar Avenue involving a small boy and his grieving parents that Neiss said sticks out in his mind. He recalled it as a traumatic experience for all involved, including him.
"It was just too much for me," he said. "When I took it back, I said 'you know what, put this on the inside.' I could have moved it on the wire and I probably would have won an award for it, but it was one of those why God things. I lost my naivety that day, I guess. It was heavy for me."
In 2012, Neiss received first-place photo honors from the New York State Associated Press Association and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association for a photo depicting the efforts of Falls emergency responders who tried to rescue a man who fell through the icy waters at Hyde Park and died trying to rescue one of his dogs. Judges commented on the tension shown in the expressions of the rescuers, as well as on the presence of the dead man's dog, which was holding the man's gloves in his mouth.
Like many of his images, Neiss chalked that one up to good timing.
"I feel so lucky," he said. "I think I've got a guardian angel."
FALLING IN LOVE WITH NIAGARA FALLS
Of course, nothing compares to what Neiss described as his "first love" — Niagara Falls.
He's returned to the Falls and the Niagara Gorge, in all seasons and in all types of weather, countless times over the years. His images of both picturesque places have been viewed in print and online by people all over the world.
"I'd go down to the Cave of the Winds to shoot a nice picture of the workers building the decks because that's what the newspaper wanted, but while I was down there, I always shot everything I saw," he said.
He's particularly proud of a panoramic photo of the "frozen" Falls from the 2012 polar vortex. He said the image is among the most requested of those that he has sold.
"It's in many a dining room. It's over many couches," he said. "That's my goal in life is to have my pictures over people's couches."
DISTINGUISHED CAREER
For a guy who started out taking backstage photos of rock musicians and group pictures of elementary school students, Neiss did alright for himself. Over the course of his newspaper career he accumulated numerous accolades, including a pair of "Photographer of the Year" nods from the CNHI Newspaper Readership Awards — once in 2018 and again in 2021.
He also earned first place for a photo story in 2017 by the New York State Press Division, a 2015 New York Newspaper Publishers Association Distinguished Feature Photography Award of Excellence and a New York State Associated Press Distinguished News Photography Award For Excellence in 2011-2012. He's also been honored by statewide and national press organizations more than a dozen times for spot news and best-in-show photographs.
"It was an honor without exception," Neiss said. "I like to think I work hard, but I gotta tell you, I feel like I'm in the right place at the right time and somebody's looking out for me. I stumble upon this stuff."
Later in his career, Neiss became the first certified drone photographer to work in the CNHI chain and was the first chain-wide instructor in use of drones for aerial photographer.
Cheryl Phillips, publisher of the Niagara Gazette and Lockport Union-Sun & Journal newspapers, said Neiss's contributions will be missed.
"We are so fortunate to have had his talent here for so long," she said. "He has an unbelievable eye and ability to capture the soul of our community through his many photographs. His work has featured some of the most breathtaking shots of Niagara Falls that anyone will ever see in addition to the everyday people and places within our area. His photographs have told countless stories without a single written word. That, in itself, is a great art. We wish him all the best in his retirement."
THE NEXT CHAPTER
As he exits his full-time newspaper job, Neiss marvels at how he started out decades ago developing film in a dark room and is now working with digital cameras and drones.
While some prefer to stick with tradition, Neiss said he always tried to embrace new technology and believes it has, for the most part, improved the quality of the imagery made available to newspaper readers and media consumers.
He bought a digital camera as soon as one was available and felt learning how to pilot a drone had the potential to take his images to another level.
"This is historic," he said. "When you got hired to be a photographer when I started, you not only had to be a good photographer you had to have the technical skills to process and print pictures in the dark room."
While Neiss may have retired from his full-time newspaper job, his photos will continue to appear in the pages of both local newspapers as he plans to continue to do freelance work.
He has many other interests to keep him busy, including laser engraving, 3-D printing and selling photos during his active summer festival schedule. Last year, Neiss and his wife, Marie, an old-fashioned pipe organ that they display at area festivals and events.
He said he's looking forward to riding his electric bike with friends, including now-retired Buffalo News photographer James McCoy. A big fan of sci-fi books, Neiss said he also intends to spend more of his free time reading.
"I thought it was a good time to take advantage of my health, to retire while I still had my health," Neiss said. "To be honest, I have so many hobbies that to work five days a week is exhausting."
He said he'll miss the camaraderie of the newsroom and hearing from readers who appreciated his photos.
He's not ready to put down his camera.
He plans to do photo seminars and post at least one photo per day on Facebook.
He's also already preparing to capture images of next year's solar eclipse.
"I'm not going away," he said.
"I hope my work put a smile on people's faces," he added. "I'm lighthearted and like to laugh. I hope people read my cutlines and find the silly, funny ones."
