STANLEY FOREMAN // ‘LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD AND SET A STANDARD‘

Stanley Forman, born in Winthrop, Massachusetts in 1945, graduate of Revere High School, studied photography at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Photography in Boston. He started as a darkroom technician at the Boston Herald American and was promoted to Staff Photographer in 1973. In his ten years as a photographer he was awarded the following: Boston Press Regional Photographer of the year, several citations from United Press International, the 1975 World Press Photo of the Year, the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1977 co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. Before the announcement of Forman’s first Pulitzer Prize win, he had already taken the frame that won his second.

Boston Herald American colleague and friend, Ted Gartland recently spoke of working with Forman.

“I remember after it was announced that [Stanley] won the first [Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography] and that the mail was coming in by the bag full, it was falling out of his mailbox, and I come in one day and he is sitting there and he says , ‘Ted I can’t believe this.’ I asked him what’s going, he says, ‘Pull something out of the mail box,’ so I pull one out and open it up and its from the Dallas Morning News, saying, ‘Just come down when you are ready, you don’t have to talk to anyone, just come down when you are ready.’ He says, ‘They are all like that.’ It was transformative to us as a staff because local boy makes good and it set a standard for the rest of the staff.”

“I was in the office that day, in the ready room at the [Boston] Herald American and he comes out of the darkroom with the print. I remember jumping up and down as I saw [the photo] shouting, “You did it again, you did it again!” The flag [sic] was just so much bigger as an image, and at the time [Boston Herald American] was known as the little picture paper and here we were like, ‘You’re damn right we are the picture paper and our pictures are better than yours!”

“He was willing to get up earlier, walk further, stay later and work harder than anyone else. He was very competitive, and certainly had the results.” In 1983 Stanley left newspaper photojournalism to shoot for Boston’s WCVB Channel 5 television station, where he was honored with the 2017 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle Award.

WVCB colleague and friend John Premack spoke of Forman.

“I hired him [away from the newspaper]. He and I have been friends since the early 1970’s and I persuaded him (to come to Channel 5 as a photographer) when he expressed the concern about the future of newspapers as a format for photography. His two Pulitzer Prizes for Spot News Photography were impressive and I had no problem convincing the News Director Phil Balboni, to hire him. Balboni was happy to have a Pulitzer Prize winner as one of his news cameramen.

It only took a few months for him to make that change from the still photography medium to film, and this was back when there were not any ‘multimedia’ photojournalists. One either loaded their camera with Tri-X or your 16mm with Ektachrome. It was daring for Stanley to make that change in format, story telling with that one image, that one moment, and then make that transition to multiple images for continuity and have that flow for the story telling.

[Channel 5] knew exactly what they wanted and what they were getting from hiring Stanley, he was a schmoozer, he knew how to get that shot and he knew all the players. It was his lifetime of contacts, his drive and the hustle that he brought to Channel 5. He is probably the most connected beat reporter that they ever had and only second to maybe Janet Wu and Bill Harrington at the State House. He was the only member of the photography staff that had that level of connectivity.”

While out on assignment Forman was known for being an ambassador for the working photojournalists and had a personal connection with nearly every officer and firefighter in Boston and beyond. Cambridge Fire Chief Gerry Mahoney, a long time friend, was by chance on the scene when Forman made the iconic photo of the collapse of the fire escape in the Back Bay, just moments before it fell.

Forman gave his cameras a rest in 2021 following his retirement from WCVB, and in-between grandfather duties, he is still seen slinging on a regular basis along the North Shore. NBC-10 photographer and friend Mark Garfinkel said of Forman, ‘There was nobody like him, I should say there IS nobody like him, since he is still doing exemplary work these days even in retirement. With a lighter (freelance) workload, the only thing that has changed is that he’s now doing grandpa stuff, mixed in between 3-alarm fires.’

In 2013 he published the book ‘Before Yellow Tape’, a collection of over 150 fire-related photos, the Boston Fire Escape Collapse and the story behind it, along with many other never before published images.

The Boston Press Photographers Association honors Stanley Forman with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his years of service to our industry.