{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/fx73t9g40x/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Monroe Frederick interview, circa 1990"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://marmia.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25614"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["circa 1990 (Creation)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content. (Content warning)","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program. (Funding note)","Photographer, Monroe Frederick discusses his life and business in Baltimore. (Scope and Content Note)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["1 Betacam"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["WJZ-FLDTP-002-013 (Identifier)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Series Title"]},"value":{"en":["Field Tapes"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content.","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program.","Photographer, Monroe Frederick discusses his life and business in Baltimore."]},"provider":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/253/835/small/thumbnail_253835_1728335009.jpg?1728335014","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20250109-552-1irvii.mp4"]},"duration":1265.382,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/253/835/small/thumbnail_253835_1728335009.jpg?1728335014","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-marmia.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/253/835/original/open-uri20250109-552-1irvii.mp4?1736436382","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1265.382,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_WJZ-FLDTP-002-013_ffv1.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Should that have for you any, Sir, I have. When I sit on the edge. Don't sit where I can get you slouching too much. I'm going to be over here somewhere, so come on down. Just a little then, too. To my credit card. And then you'll be facing this way. All right. Let me have your name. Monroe. Hear me? Monroe. Is Frederick the second? Okay. Okay. Spell out Monroe for me. Kimo n Roe and Frederick. F r e d e r i c k. Now you. You're a photographer? Yes. I've been a photographer for years. Now I make money for Andrea. No, not for the few years. Like I would really like for you to look at me. Okay. Kind of like walking off to the side there. Okay. Are you are a photographer from this area? I mean, you were born and raised here in Baltimore. Born and raised. I'm in a house that I was born in or, you know, at birth. That's on my birth certificate. This house has been in your family here in Baltimore for about 80 years. You know, my father had his business office here, employment office and a tailor shop in the basement. And we've been here ever since. And you're and now you're operating out of it. Yeah, I came back here because I didn't want to go to the suburbs and be riding in town. And. And people are finding out what I knew all the time that they commit this as many crimes in the suburbs because the people from the inner city found out they can steal more in the suburbs and they could steal here from the inner city. But you. So you prefer living in the city? In the house you were born in? Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=4.08,120.98"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I can walk anyplace. I walk all over town. I walk and I have something to do downtown. I walk downtown, get my exercise, keep from paying in parking fees and a city hall. And. And I walk over by your station. I check the town out the people and walk to the market. How old were you when you picked up your first camera? I must've been about ten years old. Did you know then that that's what it was going to be? Yeah. At that time, I had I had an aunt who was a teacher who used to bring me the National Geographic's, and I always wanted to work for a magazine and take pictures. And therefore they I promised myself that eventually I would get to be a magazine photographer. And years later, I was lucky enough to hook up with Jet and Ebony magazine. After working with a few newspapers part time and being a photographer for the postmaster, the city in New York and and some other entertainers. So for for Jet and Ebony, you've you've done a bunch of covers. Yeah, I've done quite a few covers and a very few I'd tell a few years ago after I left, that very few black people in show business or business that I had not met a photograph. And I did all the major funerals in and around New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, all along the Eastern seaboard. And that photo was in a Caribbean form, been to Africa for, you know, doing different things. And my most memorable thing of I used to watch the cavalcade of sports and watch the boxing. And when I was in Madison Square Garden doing shots of Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and other boxers, I used to sit on a race on the edge of the ring and take pictures.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=121.4,219.56"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I said I could never imagine when I used to sit around a corner at the TV shop there on on Broome Street in by Madison, by the alley, and watch the TV sitting on the hard cement of the box. And I was on Friday night cavalcade of sports that I would ever be up there taking pictures. So you got to Madison Square Garden. Yeah, I did all the major sporting events, including some of the World Series with the Yankees. I never did a Super Bowl. I did the Citrus Bowl with Kenny Walker a few years ago in 1990 and, you know, go down and talk to the players. And and what people said you would know for working is people think it's an easy job. But but when you when I did the citizens bowl, it started on television at 1:00. We were out on the field at 7:00 in the morning, as you know, sitting up. And the TV people had been there already. And they don't know that at the end of a day, doing a major event like that, you're mentally and physically exhausted because you got to always anticipate and you're like, when you're doing football, you're like a defensive back. You're trying to figure out where a quarterback is going to go with the ball. So you had the right lens and the right camera at the right time to get the right action. So you got a little bit of everything. Yes. And then I worked for quite a few of the major entertainers, like Aretha Franklin's personal photographer for a while, Al Green, James Brown. I did Lena Horne's album Lean on My Men. And well, and Lionel Hampton. I did a lot of things with him, not only show business but political, because he was high up in a Republican Party.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=219.86,320.99"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I used to go with him on different things to photograph him. So why did you work for the Republican Party? I work for anybody. Write a check. I say, All right, you know, I got like I tell people I can work with King Kong and. Long as he can stay on his side. The cage. Look. When did you get some formal training for this, or. Yeah, I. I'd always. I really started taking pictures here when I got to Douglas High School. I was a photographer and a sports editor. And then when I went to the service, I was in Germany. And I said, Do it over in Wiesbaden, Germany, at, the camera club. And then I went to like a school in Germany and German school of photography. And then I get in New York, you get to have classes with the top pros. And I had class with Jack Manning of the New York New York Times, and I was fortunate enough the St Black Pulitzer Prize winners in photography. And I worked directly with two of them. And and the photographers in New York usually all meet before a major event. And we discuss new things and how they work for this, that and the other. What new films and cameras and things which the guys in Baltimore don't do appear to sit down and talk about the new procedures, how you're going to shoot our event. And then we always had anybody to call up at the publications and say, Listen, I'm doing this event. How would I shoot, shoot it, and what lenses should I use? So there was a lot of exchange. Yeah. How has it is it changed much? The the the, the task of photographing is so, you know, if the task is basically the same but a lot of the equipment is a lot simpler you know, with the zoom lenses and and you can do it like with one camera once before you had to take 3 or 4 cameras to change lenses up with different lenses to change cameras when you need it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=321.8,429.45"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Now, with the zoom lens, you can have basically in one lens all the lenses that you need, and they're all motorized now. And and it's very easy. You don't have to advance the film anymore. No. Don't have to change the f stop. You know, you can you can just put it on like, like one of my camera you put on automatic and make the compensation, you know, plus or minus on something. Just shoot. But you got to figure the right angles and anticipate the moves of the people because you like to get some expression in these in these pictures. That's where they are coming from. The cameras make it easy for for an extraordinary photographer to get extraordinary pictures. But it's it's it's interesting. And we used to have to go figure out things. People like what we did when I work with Johnson publication and we did I think it's the Duke Ellington funeral now was five of us shooting. I was a lead photographer who had to go check the light all different times of day that a funeral would be going on to church and this and that. We figured the angles were going to be how we were going to get to the cemetery, what would happen if if one of us get caught up and how. So it was playing like the Gulf War and was very interesting, I'd say, you know, and then you get people might be amazed to know that it took five photographers and a lot of planning to shoot the Duke Ellington figure because, one, somebody had to be inside, somebody had to be on each side getting a guess as the enter and a certain VIPs came in from the side. And then we had to get an overhead shot from the fire escape across the street when they're bringing the body down the steps.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=429.66,525.3"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And that was my job to get that That for you. When you left Baltimore for work? I left Baltimore in 1953 when I got out to high school to go to go to school in New York. And I started with an accounting. And then I ended up with transportation in college and and took a transportation course. And then I went in the Army and I always were working in photography and working with for the Calypso show in New York and this show and that show. And then I hit out with a newspaper part time, and then I was doing that stuff. And then after the King funeral out there, I met Sleep one Night Asleep and Alannah, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his photos down there, I was doing things for Jet or being the extra man at that time, helping them on fashion shoots and other shoot. And I always had to figure, see, since they had two staff photographer, they always said, okay, we're getting way off the top left. Let, let me back up just a little bit. You you left Baltimore in 1953, right? And then you became a photographer. When did you think you got your first paycheck? How long did it take if you get your first paycheck? I was I was getting paychecks on different minor issues, but nothing substantial till up till I went to to Jet magazine when I had a steady income. And so in like 19 right after the King funeral, I was I was I was the third with six, eight, six, nine. I was, you know, the third man in New York to who would cover because the two guys in New York with senior men. So I did all the.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=526.32,621.93"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So you left here and you left Baltimore in 1953 and you established yourself as a photographer in 1969. He was shooting all the all the time anyway. You ain't going to school, going up to photo schools and doing other mining, you know, mining jobs and also my government job. But so you never really put put a camera down from the time you take one up or ten years old. But you really established yourself as a professional photographer around 1969 when you shot the King Journal. Yeah, when I. Yeah. And so then you went to New York and you shot for several magazines? No, I was in New York all the time. I shot for for, for newspapers and special groups. I had shows and and being in that time, we had a lot of shows outdoors. I used to do a lot of shows in the parks and this, that and the other and do entertainment stuff. And and for the record company. When you come back to Baltimore, I came back to the Baltimore about 19, but two years ago at 92 to work on this project, I had felt that I should come to do dealing with postcards and black history and and tourism in Baltimore, because I'm being a transportation man. I'm interested in transportation. And eventually I would do a video on some black things in Baltimore. Soon as I get some more fun. So. So. So you're working on postcards of Baltimore pertaining to what? Black history and culture. And it's a 21 card series, and I have 13 of them finished now. And I and then about another five at the printer that should be out at the end of November. And by the end of December, the 1st of January, the thing should be completed for Black History Month.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=622.17,729.78"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So what kind of what can the public, what can they look forward to if they want to if they want to purchase some of your work, what do they do? There's a shop in their inner harbor called Thinking of You Card Shop, which is down there in there by Miss Johnson and celebrate Baltimore has them. And the first person that bought the card was the Enoch Pratt Library. So that's thinking of you card shop and celebrate Baltimore and Inner Harbor and and in Pratt Library. So you sure you got your hands full? I mean, it's I mean, you're going to stay busy that for a while. Yeah. I expect to stay busy till I die shooting. Yeah, if I. I won't be shooting till till I can't see or can't move. Do you know, do you. After that postcard thing is finished, do you have an idea what you might want to do next? Well, I'm after I do this, I got a I'm doing another city and a couple other things around the country. And right now I'm working on a pictorial display on the 100 years of black medicine for the National Medical Association, which will be displayed in Atlanta at the convention in 1995. And then it's going to 8 to 10 cities to show the history of the black doctors. And I'm doing a quite a few of the black doctors right now. And and that's that's about it When you. Plus I'm working at Morgan I do the photos at Morgan and and I'm working on the we're making a salute to the governor for contributing the money that he contributed while he was the governor to help. Morgan and which will be the 21st together. And we're doing all the photos and the videos out there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=730.11,836.22"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"When you were assigned to do, say, Cab Calloway and some of these other famous people, what was going through your mind say when you did I see you on up there from Don King And you got to you got to do Don King. I mean, did you feel like, man, this is going to be tough? No, no, no. I was I was fortunate enough being the junior person or the the odd man out at the magazine, I got all the tough people, the Lena Horne, the James Brown's, the Eartha Kitt that most of the guys didn't want to do. So I got to they all my friends. Now, why were they tough? They were. They were exact. They were tough. You know, I go in and I told them I'm not from the Enquirer. I don't come here to look up anything better because you're going to see me at another party. We go, If you work with me, we gonna get the best business possible and I will be out of here and out of your hair. So you got in, you schmoozed them a little. Better talk nice. Let them know where you're coming from. Yeah, And. And they. And from the looks of it, you got some incredibly wonderful photographs. Well. Well, most people know that I didn't come to to do them any harm. I come just to take pictures. I don't come to run their life or just their lives like I should tell them. If you if you don't talk about me, I won't talk about you. The if there is any young men or young women out there right now who have are thinking about a career in photography and there are so many photographers. I mean, every everybody's uncle who has a camera is a photographer.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=836.79,925.23"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"What advice would you give a young man or a young woman right now if they really do feel they have the talent, they. Have the desire to become a photographer. See, photography is like being a doctor. There's always new methods and new ways. And in a way, you started out which was right. It's not necessarily right today, so you got to stay there and talk to to every photographer, every person that has an opinion and an exact something from them that you can use in your own thing to make you the individual photographer of your old skills. And you never accept no for an answer. Because if somebody give you a no today, it may be because they had just had an argument with their wife or girlfriend or vice versa or their husband and they give you a no. So you go back. You've got to have tenacity and you go back low enough. And Jack Manning said, So the people get tired. Are you going to say, okay, I'll give this person a little break and let them do a little thing and that's your way in and you got to do the job. You got to be able to function. You can't be on drugs or alcohol or when you go to new events, you can't be fooling around because people will be watching. But then once you get in, then you got to stay there. You've got to stay up on your craft with your equipment, like my equipment. I one of the old photographers who's retired to Europe now, Michael Wilson showed me that every year at a certain time you said it was your birthday. You get all your equipment check and you send it in. No matter what it cost, you get a check to make sure that it's good for another year.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=926.31,1019.8"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he used to put dates on his batteries, make sure all equipment worked. And when I go on assignment, I have a checklist. All the equipment I have to take, what I need. And what is the backup? You maintain the equipment. What do you do to maintain Monroe? I do a lot of walking, and I live a good, peaceful life, Wholesome life. I go to the if you if you come down a farmer's market, that's one of my favorite places. Baltimore is the greatest place in the world for markets. I walk through the Harlan market, the Lexington market and you type you sure I got different pitches there and I got a postcard on the farmer's market and I go down and buy fresh foods. And I found out from studying history, from Mother Laird to Truman Pratt, who set up the Orchard Street chain, all those people lives a 90 something years old. And their basic habit was eating fresh foods and walking. And if you notice, many of those people, they all were all live 70s and 80s without the medicine that we had today. And you got to do plenty of walking and you got you got plenty of opportunities around Baltimore to walk and to buy fresh fruit. Fresh fruit. I go down and buy fresh food all the time and I walk through the neighborhoods to get ideas on how am I finished decorating my house on the outside and get the bricks clean and put up new shutters and just see people. I walk. I walk the streets. So as far as you're concerned, you're going to keep shooting. And Joanne until I'm in the box and then they can bury me in a Kodak box, you know, maybe a yellow box.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=1020.76,1116.22"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Yellow box, you know, And so Kodak need a new new ad in anyway because Fuji's beat them up, been beating them out, you know, And they should say, we are not afraid of being yellow. And I try to, you know, and then you've got to keep up with the films. As you know, films change like, well, let's talk about women. Let's go back to I only have a few few minutes left. You Baltimore, do you have did have you done a lot of shooting in Baltimore as far as seeing a guy? Do you just do people? I've been doing a lot of things. The things I'm working on now, I'm working on two great African-American churches that were established prior to the Civil War, and I thought there'd be a couple or three. I'm up to 13 already here locally, locally, right in the city that were here prior to the Civil War. The church right down the street here, Bethel is over 200 years old and then St Francis on it on the east side is 1797. And then there's a lot of churches in the 1830s like Latin Hall. Ebony is the First Baptist. There's Union Baptist. I know that sounds like you almost got a calling to do that. Yeah, well, when I was in the hospital, I was saying to myself, I believe in life. Everything happens for a reason. And I was I was living in New York in a high rent district in a fabulous apartment with a doorman. And I got sick three weeks laying in a hospital. And I said, I've got a mission to do it. I'm going to go back to Baltimore and do this history thing. And I thought it would be 8 or 9 cards or something.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=1116.55,1214.98"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And the more you go and and you find out about history and the food of Baltimore, I'm doing so also some food cards on Baltimore on how to do the crab cakes and and another lady doing the our famous Maryland stuffed ham which I'd never knew of till I came back. And so. Because Marilla had great cooking. So are you going to do it or are you going to do it? What a recipe book called Postcard. You know, China, people doing this and then given a recipe because we have a lot of famous recipes and say and I want people to realize the Baltimore is more than crabs and crab cakes. Well, you sure got a lot of work cut out for you. Well, I don't mind work or, you know, work has been good to me. I've been lucky enough to succeed and go.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835#t=1215.58,1259.31"}]},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/136823/file/253835/transcript/71685/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/071/685/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-002-013_ffv1_transcript.vtt?1728353335","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/071/685/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-002-013_ffv1_transcript.vtt?1728353335"}]}]}]}