Saturday, April 3, 2010 marked the last local press run for the San Marcos Daily Record.
For the first time since 1917, the paper was printed in Austin, via the Austin American Statesman. We were notified 5 days ahead of time that our presses would stop and the pressmen and the mailroom would be leaving.
The press will eventually be broken down and taken to a warehouse where it will be used for parts for other CNHI presses. It’s a WWII press and became too expensive to maintain.
The photo at the top is of the 4 pressmen. All of them have been at the Daily Record for years. Two of them started right out of high school.
I was able to squeeze in a portrait of them between print jobs. They let me bring in a light, which I very rarely have time to do, but in this case, it was necessary.
This is Gilbert and his camera in the dark room. Gilbert started working at the Daily Record the day after he graduated high school. He said, “This is really the only place I’ve ever worked.”
I got this shot the day before the other one. I went back to the dark room to figure out when we could take a photo and he perched himself up on that ledge. I stopped mid-conversation and said, “you know what, I’m going to get my camera, you look perfect right there.” I shot it with the lens I already had on the camera and grabbed my speed light and sinc cord.
It’s not a perfect shot, but I think it’s great that he’s in his element and his feelings about the whole situation show through his face.
We’ll miss the pressmen and the mail room staff.
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