Photographer Andy Burriss retires after 43 years with The Herald

At 1 p.m. Thursday, barring breaking news, Herald photographer Andy Burriss will be courtside at the Winthrop Coliseum, shooting the men’s basketball game between the Eagles and the Fighting Camels of Campbell University.

Photos from that game likely will be the final ones of the more than a million Burriss has shot for The Herald. He is retiring after 43 years, four months and 17 days – all spent at The Herald, chronicling the events, big and small, that make his community special.

“Burriss has been,” says former Herald editor Terry Plumb, “the best goodwill ambassador for The Herald.”

Burriss’ work has run the gamut – festivals with frog jumps, arriving Santas, thundering tractors, sporting events from youth leagues to pros, politicians of all measure (He has photographed every president since Richard Nixon.), an escaping emu and other wandering animals, and, most importantly, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

He got the photo every time, except for a wandering bear in downtown Rock Hill. He had just put his camera in the trunk of a car when the bear ambled by.

“The human perspective makes his photos good,” said Tom Stanley, chairman of the Fine Arts Department of Winthrop University. “That’s one of his priorities,” Stanley said, adding the photographs are an extension of Burriss’ personality.

Soft spoken, a gentle soul, consummate professional and quick to laugh are the words most used to describe Burriss.

“He photographs his subjects in a way that his subjects want to be seen,” Stanley said. “He takes his time in a business where time is a luxury.”

Burriss, 65, is retiring after recent health issues. “Each time I had to come back. I didn’t want cancer to defeat me,” he said. “Now, it’s time to retire.”

Iconic ‘Jerry’s Slide’

One of the first photos Burriss took at The Herald remains among his favorites. He was at the Grape Festival in York – now named Summerfest. With his black-and-white Nikon camera, he snapped a photo of a little girl eating ice cream with a big smile. Her sister stood behind the girl, her hands on her head. “It was a cute picture; I’ve always liked it,” Burriss said.

The photo is one of the quintessential Burriss efforts, showing what former Herald editor Paul Osmundson calls “the sense of discovery.”

His work covering what once was the Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Co. allowed Burriss to focus on the human condition of work at the plant. Along with other Herald photographers and Winthop students, Burriss had unlimited access to the plant – also known as the Bleachery – in its final days, photographing workers through all the shifts. Burriss’ work and others’ became the “Social Fabric, the Men and Women of the Bleachery” exhibit.

When the Bleachery burned on July 3, 2009, Burriss took pictures from a plane and from the ground, just feet from the firefighters.

His most iconic photo was of televangelist Jerry Falwell at Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Heritage USA theme park in the Fort Mill area.

Burriss was among the mass of media assembled for “Jerry’s Slide” in 1987. Falwell was trying to raise money to keep the theme park open, promising to take a ride down the 163-foot water slide. Falwell slid down in his suit.

Burriss was one of those who got the shot of a sliding Falwell, his hands crossed over his chest. While others got similar pictures, Burriss was among the first to get the film developed, printed and transmitted to the Associated Press.

Thirteen years later, AP selected the photo as one of the 100 photos of the century.

Burriss, however, isn’t one to tout that or other honors. “If he has a weakness, it is he is not an advocate for his work. You have to ask Andy what his best shot is,” Plumb said.

‘You knew he would deliver’

His passion for photography all started with a turtle.

Someone had been fishing in his hometown of Anderson and brought the turtle home for the neighborhood kids to see. Gerald Shore, a photographer for the local newspaper, lived across the street and took a photo of the turtle with a 4x5 box camera. The next day he gave Burriss a print of the picture.

“That fascinated me,” Burriss said.

Later, Burriss worked part-time for Shore and had the use of his darkroom. Shore and camera store owner Tom Compton were Burriss’ initial mentors.

After graduating from Ohio University, Burriss returned to South Carolina and interviewed at The Herald.

“It was his first job,” said then-chief photographer for the Herald Lewis Murray. “His excitement, it energized me.”

Burriss tolerated the usual grip-and-grin photos of the day, Murray said. But on every other assignment, Burriss’ creativity was highlighted, Murray said. “He has an incredible eyes and technically he was top drawer.”

His keen eye and dedication were perhaps at the brightest when Burriss got the last-minute afternoon assignment because, he was told, “We don’t have a photo for the front page; go see what you can find.”

Burriss responded to the “4 p.m. 1A photo panic” with panache. When he got those assignments, “you knew he would deliver,” Osmundson said.

The key to his professionalism, Burriss said, was “not being the center of attention. You want to be the fly on the wall.”

The result: Burriss would shoot the one or two pictures people wanted to pose. Then he would spend the remainder of the assignment “capturing the event as it happened.”

‘What would Andy do?’

Burriss also proved to be an invaluable asset to Herald reporters. He wasn’t shy about asking a question or two, said Winthrop University spokeswoman and former Herald reporter Judy Longshaw. The answers were even better, she said.

And he was a quiet, but humorous, mentor to those on his photo staff.

“He is one of the greatest photographers and mentors, but not in the usual sense,” said Tracy Kimball, who has worked with Burriss since 1999. The mentoring came when Kimball studied a Burriss photo. “I would ask how did Andy get that,” she said. And on the next assignment Kimball asked herself, “What would Andy do?”

Travis Bell, a Herald photographer from 1995 to 1999, said working with Burriss often meant meeting high expectations from those he photographed.

When Bell got to an assignment the response was often, “We thought Andy was coming.” Bell said Burriss is so popular, “he could run for mayor.”

One of the most valuable lessons he learned from Burriss was “to understand what the readers wanted to see,” Bell said.

Over four decades, Burriss gave readers what they wanted, capturing memory after memory in photos that were carefully cut from the pages of The Herald and hung on refrigerator doors or sent to distant relatives and grandparents.

His legacy, said Plumb, is “there are scrapbooks throughout York County that are filled with the pictures he took.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Photographer Andy Burriss retires after 43 years with The Herald."