UNC Press publishes book of photographs by noted N.C. photographer Hugh Morton

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Many of North Carolina’s creatures, both great and small, notable residents and visitors over more than a half century and its often stunning natural beauty are the subjects of a new book by one of the state’s best-known photographers, environmentalists and promoters, Hugh Morton.

To be published Sept. 22 by the University of North Carolina Press, the 204-page "Hugh Morton’s North Carolina," draws together hundreds of examples of the 1943 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate’s favorite work since his days on the Daily Tar Heel, the campus student newspaper.

Bald eagles, soaring peregrine falcons, springing whitetail bucks, fawns, scampering river otters, playful bears, turkeys, hummingbirds, laughing gulls, horses, cows and even pigs appear in the book.

Scenes range from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Orton Plantation and a Hurricane Hazel-battered Carolina Beach to UNC’s Old Well, the N.C. Zoological Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Grandfather Mountain, which Morton owns.

Among those pictured are former presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Others are senators Sam J. Ervin, Jesse Helms, John Edwards and Elizabeth Dole, all N.C. governors since 1942 and such entertainers and athletes as Andy Griffith, Bob Hope, Michael Jordan, Ted Williams and Catfish Hunter.

Still others are journalists David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt and Charlie Rose, famed musicians Doc Watson and Arthur Smith, who wrote "Dueling Banjos," and racecar driver Dale Earnhardt. Less-than-famous state residents also appear.

"For seven decades Hugh and his trusted cameras have roamed our state, creating the photographic essay now spread over these pages for the reader to enjoy," wrote UNC President Emeritus William C. Friday in the foreword.

"He has watched North Carolina as it weathered the Great Depression and the years of World War II and has been a part of its progress in the new age of science and technology, banking and cultural growth," Friday wrote. "And he has been a forceful leader in developing tourism into the major industry it is in the state today."

Over the years, the former combat cameraman became the state’s unofficial photographer, Friday said. He championed numerous public causes from protecting the environment and promoting the Azalea Festival to preserving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the massive Jockey’s Ridge sand dune. He also helped bring the U.S.S. North Carolina, World War II’s most decorated battleship, to a permanent berth in Wilmington as a memorial to the 10,000 service personnel who died in the war.

Among Morton’s honors is the 2003 John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities from the N.C. Humanities Council. His photographs have appeared in countless publications, including Time, Newsweek and The Saturday Evening Post and grace nearly every visitors’ center and rest stop in the state.

"My parents gave me my first somewhat primitive camera when I was 13 and a camper at Camp Yonahnoka in the mountains near Linville," Morton wrote in his preface. "Little did I know then, when I took the camp’s photography course in 1934, that photography would become the principal means for expressing my thoughts and fostering my interests for the rest of my life."

The following year, camp staff asked Morton to teach photography, he said, and that responsibility forced him to learn the craft well. What followed were five years teaching at the camp and freelancing for state newspapers while at UNC and then shooting newsreel footage for the U.S. Army during fierce fighting in the Pacific.

In March 1945, he was wounded after covering Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Luzon in the Philippines. The same day, he learned his father died back in North Carolina.

"I idolized my father, and losing him, especially on the day that I was wounded, was the low point of my life."

Later, Morton said, he was heavily influenced by the professionalism of well-known New York Daily News photographers Johnny Memmer and Joe Costa as well as the leadership and integrity of governors Luther Hodges and Terry Sanford. Other major influences included knowing Friday and seeing the positive life lessons sports could teach.

"I feel very fortunate, for example, to have been able to observe the devotion Dean Smith continues to show to his former players and the reciprocal loyalty the players have for their coach," he wrote.

With the encouragement of Thomas S. Kenan III, the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust will fund placement of Morton’s book in every public library and high school library in North Carolina. On Oct. 13, WUNC-TV will air three hours of programming with and about Morton beginning at 8 p.m.

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Note: Morton can be reached at (828) 733-2013. Photographs and more information about the book are available at www.ibiblio.org/uncp/media/morton and http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-7123.html, respectively.

UNC Press Contact: Gina Mahalek, (919) 966-3561, ext. 234, gina_mahalek@unc.edu
UNC News Services Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596