Exhibit revives turbulent times

New Ulm's own Flip Schulke 'returns' with photos documenting 20th century

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--It was Flip Schulke Day in New Ulm Saturday, and although the guest of honor couldn't be here, a video with a "Saturday Night Live" opening made it feel like he was.

Schulke, 70, who is battling prostrate cancer, was told by his doctors that he couldn't travel during radiation treatments. In his video, he told viewers that he planned to make it up by coming to New Ulm in September.

"We'll have a party at the Kaiserhoff. The town raised me during those four years I was there. I'm the last Schulke to live in New Ulm. I've felt closer to New Ulm than any other place in the United States, or the world, for that matter," he said.

A proclamation by Mayor Arnold Koelpin highlighted the opening reception Saturday night for Schulke's "Through the Lens of My Heart--The Works of Photojournalist Flip Schulke" photo exhibition at the Brown County Historical Society Museum.

"I wish I had known him, but I know him now through his pictures," the mayor said. "He shows a great sensitivity to the human predicament. New Ulm is proud of its native son."

The museum's curator, Pam Krzmarzick, said, "Even though he's not with us tonight, we can still appreciate the depth of his work." The exhibition will continue through Sept. 22.

Representing Schulke at the festivities was New Ulm High School classmate and long-time friend George Glotzbach of Santa Fe, N.M., who received a proclamation plaque to give to Schulke.

Schulke and Glotzbach were part of the Class of 1949, and several other classmates showed up for the reception.

Schulke's video traced his career as a freelance photojournalist over 49 years, and it included a number of remembrances from his student days. He told about stealing five books on photography from the high school library. When he returned them 25 years later at a class reunion, he found that the school librarian wasn't angry ­ because she knew "that they were taken by someone who would put the knowledge to good use."

Although he was born in St. Paul, family problems caused him to take off at age 15 for New Ulm to live with his grandmother. His grandfather, Adolph G. Schulke, founder of Schulke and Sons Department Store, died in 1932. The store was located where Herberger's is today.

Schulke lived with his grandmother until her death in 1947. He then lived with Vern Zahn, NUHS history teacher, and his family until graduation.

Schulke's connection with New Ulm remains strong. In fact, he has told friends that when he dies, he wants to be buried in "the Schulke family plot, overlooking the river." He jokes that it "may be a while because my grandmother lived to be 93."

It was in New Ulm that Schulke's love affair with the camera began. He photographed school and community activities, and got his first photo, of a crucifixion scene in a visiting Black Hills Passion Play, published in The Journal.

"I really appreciated my high school days in New Ulm because they set me on my course of photojournalism," Schulke told the group.

Schulke got the nickname "Flip" from his fellow students because "I liked to play around on the trampoline." He has been Flip ever since.

Then, it was on to Macalester College, St. Paul, where he enrolled in the photography program. His studies were interrupted by the mobilization of his National Guard unit, and as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he taught photography.

Having seen the effects of discrimination in the army, Schulke returned to finish his degree at Macalester with a heightened interest in race relations. He obtained his degree with majors in sociology, journalism and political science.

While at Macalester, Schulke was named College Photographer of the Year; the prize was a week at the 1952 University of Missouri Photographic Workshop. He made contacts with several established photographers who had documented the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration. "Meeting those people was among the influences that made me want to become a magazine photographer," he said later.

After graduation, Schulke was hired by the University of Miami to teach and help with its picture magazine. When Wilson Hicks, retired picture editor of Life magazine, joined the staff, he mentored Schulke and arranged for him to work with some of the top photojournalists in the Miami area.

He soon began to do freelance photography, and by 1955 had a good enough reputation to freelance full-time.

Early assignments included photographing an up-and-coming young boxer named Cassius Clay who would soon be known worldwide as Muhammad Ali. He also photographed Fidel Castro's triumphant march into Havana; the first space launches at Cape Canaveral, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Carla on Galveston, Texas.

Schulke developed a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., a friendship which resulted in intimate photographs of King, and his associates and family. Schulke also covered John F. Kennedy and did a pictorial history of the Berlin Wall which will be his eighth book.

Schulke developed a special interest in underwater photography and invented the dome lens for underwater work ­ but he couldn't get a patent for it.

Schulke has received numerous awards for his photography, including the Crystal Eagle Award from Eastman Kodak and the National Press Photographers Association award for his decade-long documentation of the Southern civil rights movement.

But his life has not been without bumps. He faced diabetes when he was young. Then, in 1994, cataracts in both eyes robbed him of his vision so he couldn't photograph or drive a car. Lens implants restored his vision to the point he could read without eyeglasses.

Now, with his wife Donna guiding his business operation as president and CEO of Flip Schulke Archives, he is in the process of transferring, over a three-year period, his vast collection of more than 300,000 images, to the Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin.

He was deeply hurt when the University of Minnesota wouldn't accept his collection. He told friends that concern about funding for putting 9,000 images on CD-ROM disks was the deal-breaker.

A duplicate set of images will go to Macalester College. Brown County Museum Director Bob Burgess says negotiations are in the works for having Macalester supply the Brown County Historical Society with images of New Ulm and its sister cities in Germany.