Leo Hetzel, a retired photojournalist, tells his life story through his images.
The people he met, interviewed, and the youth he mentored appeared throughout his images, as he presented his photos at the Library of the Canyons earlier last month to a captivated crowd of over a hundred people.
People from all over came to witness Hetzel’s life through his images; some were canyonites, others flatlanders, and some from Los Angeles, said Andrew Tonkovich, chair of the Friends of the Library, which sponsored the event.
Hetzel, 85, recalled the names of people in his photographs as he presented a slideshow for more than two hours, recounting how photography led him on years of adventure.
“Leo is just a really solid person with what I would call deeply humanist values,” said Tonkovich.
“This guy’s had the most vigorous and adventurous life.”
The photos ranged from his time in Chile, where he photographed former President Salvador Allende, to the indigenous peoples of South America, or African tribes living in clay homes, or images made in Southern California as a longtime photojournalist for the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“I left the United States for seven years, five years in South America and almost a year in Africa and Europe,” said Hetzel.
Hetzel, who started surfing in his teens, was fond of photographing the sport. After college, he started substituting as a teacher but realized it wasn’t for him.
He left teaching and hit the road, hitchhiking with his camera to chase waves across Southern and Baja California and beyond.
“Photojournalism was the dream,” said Hetzel, during an interview in his home.
Hetzel also took his audience to Peru, where he spent much of his time hitchhiking to rural corners of the country.
“I hitchhiked all the way down there [Lima, Peru], and got a ride with truck drivers, and slept on the floor of indians houses in little villages,” recalls Hetzel.
Hetzel got a job making surfboards in Peru in the late 60’s, and in his free time, he photographed the indigenous peoples living in the mountains.
Then, in Machu Picchu, Hetzel met a photo editor, while traveling with some friends, some of whom also took photographs of their travels, and it changed his life.
“I tried to make it as a surf photographer, but you couldn’t even make it to buy your film,” explains Hetzel.
“I met a photo editor in Machu Picchu who needed pictures [for textbooks], and we made $15,000 that year, which lasted me three years.”
After his travels, Hetzel found himself back in Southern California, mentoring kids in Long Beach’s Silverado Park on photography through the federal work program Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in the 1970s.
“All my friends were trying to make it as freelancers, and I couldn’t make it at all. I just am not a hustler– you have to be a hustler. I’ve got to be honest, my portfolio really wasn’t with the kind of jobs you get in Southern California,” said Hetzel during his talk, as he pulled up images of his time as a photography teacher to the youth.
“The recreation department set up this program where they got talented artists and put them in parks in what they call, economically disparaged … I went to Silverado Park on the west side of Long Beach, and it was an incredible job. I loved it.”
One day, during an exhibit with the youth, the chief photographer from the Long Beach Telegram, Roger Coar, came to do a story on Hetzel’s work with the youth.
Months later, the same photojournalist encouraged him to apply at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where Hetzel was hired by the editor.
“I found out Roger really worked very hard to get me hired. And I was hired by Larry Allison, the then-editor of the Long Beach Press- Telegram,” says Hetzel.
“Larry said, ‘If I look at your resume, you’ve never worked a steady job, and you’ve been gone seven years. We need you to commit,” Hetzel recalled,
“I thought for a second and looked at Mr. Allison. I was planning to work a couple of years, then travel again. I said, ‘Mr. Allison, if you hire me, I promise I’ll stay five years.’ He stood up, put out his hand and said, ‘Leo, I’ll take that.’ We joked about it for years.”
At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Hetzel was proud of the photo essays he produced alongside reporters, especially the first one he made in 1979, which chronicled the life of a young man from Holland who had been hitchhiking all over the United States, was beaten up, thrown out of a car, later becoming disabled.
Hetzel became close to the family and checked in with them throughout the years. The mother, her care, and her hope for her son were inspiring to watch, said Hetzel during a phone interview.
For 35 years, Hetzel volunteered as a firefighter in Modjeska Canyon, responding to fatal crashes that would later shape his work documenting roadside memorials.
“I went on a lot of crashes where people were killed,” Hetzel said. “I was a fireman, not a journalist, so I didn’t take my camera.” He now returns to those roads to photograph the memorials and draw attention to their dangers.
Although Hetzel has retired, he remains an avid storyteller.
“I retired because I wanted to, and I wanted to do a lot of stuff,” said Hetzel in an interview at his home.
“It was not easy to retire, because you can’t stop being a journalist, you’re always going to be curious.”
