The "Photography In His Blood" Story

It was an ordinary day.  July 4, 1978 and the newspaper had just arrived.  There on the front page of the paper was a photo of my daughter, Brynn, who had just turned four years old that day.  It was a few days before that Richard Hertzler had made a visit to our home on Janet Avenue to take the photo for the Lancaster New Era.  Richard started as a photographer for the Lancaster Sunday News in 1972, following in his father's footsteps at the newspaper.  O. Henry Hertzler had been a photographic icon at the newspaper for years.  He had won numerous awards for photographic journalism.  After about six months of working for the Sunday News, Richard joined the staff of the Lancaster New Era, the evening newspaper for the city and county of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.   He worked alongside his father for two years before his father's death in 1975.  Richard took up right where his father had left off, documenting the news and environment of historic Lancaster County.  At first Richard, or Rick, used film as his medium to give readers of the newspaper a glimpse into the news and images of the county, then he used a digital format to convey the same items to the readers.  Over the last 40 years he has taken thousands of photographs for the area's largest circulation daily newspaper.  

Richard Hertzler's new book on Lancaster County, PA.

Then, in 2014, Rick and the Lancaster Newspaper decided to make a book that featured some of the best of Rick's work taken during his tenure at the newspaper.  The resulting 15" x 11" coffee-table book is amazing.  The cover of the book lists the title as: "My Lancaster County" is a collection by photojournalist Richard Hertzler.  I had ofter wanted to stop at the newspaper office on West King Street and buy a copy, but never did.  Finally, this past Christmas, my son Tad, who works for Inteligencer Printing where the book was printed, bought a copy of it for me.  I have looked through it multiple times admiring the artistic work that fills it's pages.  I have shared it with everyone who visits and they too think it features a beautiful collection of Lancaster County scenes.  I hope in the near future to stop at the newspaper office and have Rick sign my copy of the book.  Will have to take the photo of Brynn with me to see how well his memory may be of past assignments.  Should be fun.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.