THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280248
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DREW WILSON
LENGTH: 129 lines
A CASUAL COMMENT to a very green wannabe in the winter of 1985 led me to what has become more than a decade of photography on the Outer Banks for The Virginian-Pilot and The Carolina Coast.
Former Virginian-Pilot reporter Gene O'Bleness, who had the beach beat in the late '70s and '80s, moonlighted as a WOBR radio personality covering Manteo Redskin football games with former Manteo teacher Bartow Houston. O'Bleness and Houston traveled to away games each week to broadcast via telephone from Columbia, Creswell, Belhaven and Mattamuskeet.
As a 22-year-old reporter/photographer covering games for The Coastland Times, I sometimes hitched rides with the radiomen. On one trip, O'Bleness told me a Virginian-Pilot editor named Dan Jones needed pictures to illustrate the daily North Carolina section of the paper - and would pay well for them.
I was familiar with the North Carolina section of The Pilot. Francis Meekins, publisher of the thrice-weekly Coastland Times, had the daily editions of The Pilot stacked in the center of his newsroom on Budleigh Street. As an aspiring photographer, I was in awe of The Pilot's use of color photograghs. Whenever a Pilot photographer came to the Outer Banks, it seemed like a big deal when we saw the paper the next day.
Jones' office was in the middle of the big daily's newsroom in Norfolk. After lining up an interview, I took several of my photographs used by The Coastland Times. Jones seemed mildly impressed, and agreed to allow me to shoot pictures for the North Carolina section of The Pilot. ``I don't care what it is, it's just got to be good,'' he said.
The arrangement was that I would shoot the pictures, then develop and print them in the jerry-rigged darkroom in my Manteo apartment. The black and white 8x10s were then placed in a manila envelope and given to the Virginia Dare Transportation bus driver at the now-closed Manteo depot. The bus made two daily trips to Norfolk and was dependable enough to catch on the fly on the beach road after a late-breaking event.
I often drove all the way to Norfolk to develop and print in the darkroom where chief photographer Bill Abourjilie lent a guiding hand. Watching the veteran Norfolk shooters do their work improved my skill drastically.
During the next several months, I developed a regular freelance association with The Virginian-Pilot and in the spring of 1986 I heard the company was planning an expansion in North Carolina.
The Pilot, which had established community tabloids in all five South Hampton Roads cities, wanted a publication that would serve northeastern North Carolina readers.
Job postings were advertised for The Carolina Coast, a twice-weekly tabloid to be included in the Sunday and Thursday editions of The Virginian-Pilot and distributed free along the Outer Banks.
Without a college degree and with only months of daily freelance experience, I felt sure that heavy competition from veteran photographers would spoil any chance I had of being hired as the full-time photographer for the new Coast magazine.
I was a hard worker, familiar with the territory, and could boast a few A1 clips in addition to daily North Carolina section front photos. At the urging of Jones, O'Bleness, and North Carolina reporters Mason Peters and Joe Fahy, executive editor Sandy Rowe offered me a job.
Working as a photographer in my home state, for pay, with company cameras, was a dream come true. It was one of the ``big breaks'' in my life.
Under the leadership of editor Jeff Smith, The Carolina Coast staff began work 10 years ago. An early budget of cover stories and inside features was assembled for the summer run of Sunday Coasts. ``The Lost Colony,'' the Elizabeth II, lighthouses, the Wright Brothers and other Outer Banks icons all became staple subjects of interest to our readers. Coverage of commercial and recreational fishing, local culture, history, personalities, profiles in nature were the bread and butter of our beats.
The phones rarely rang in our new Nags Head office. But we were determined to build an identity as the source for fascinating stories and photographs of the most interesting subjects. We wanted to write them with style and illustrate them with the best moments. We covered the beach from Carova to Portsmouth Island, talking to the people about what they wanted to see in the newspaper.
``Y'all might be interested in this,'' is my most favorite recommendation from a local.
It has been the people of the Outer Banks and northeastern North Carolina who have shaped the identity of The Carolina Coast.
These same people have shaped me as a photographer. A kind word from a reader about a photograph he or she saw in the newspaper tops any photo contest award. Some readers, like Butsie and Charlie Brown of Ocracoke, Lessie and Vern Davis of Manteo, and Penny Leary of Aydlett have written complimentary notes of appreciation many times. They tend to pick me up after I miss the ferry, get stuck in the sand on a key assignment, or forget to put film in my camera.
I've felt honored to photograph the late, great personalities of our region, like Capt. Ernal Foster of the Albatross Fleet, who pioneered the art of Gulf Stream fishing; Judge Harry Whedbee, who popularized coastal North Carolina folklore in several books; and Carolista Golden, whose dedication to the preservation of the East Coast's largest natural sand dune led to the creation of Jockey's Ridge State Park.
Ten years is not a long time. But change comes quickly around the Outer Banks. Oregon Inlet has moved south nearly a half-mile. Workers have shifted N.C. 12 west along two stretches of Hatteras Island to keep ahead of the Atlantic's advancing tides. Many of the tall pines on lower Hatteras Island were sheared by Hurricane Emily, altering the face of the locale. And rebuilding has made a new skyline along the beach villages.
While storms have shaped and reshaped the place we live, other events have reshaped us as a staff. After a January fire in 1994 at our Nags Head office destroyed years of records and photographs, readers turned out to help us rebuild. Carl and Sally Nunemaker and Gail Kowalski of Nags Head provided helping hands in a time of need. It's kind support like that has made us feel like a part of the community.
And now, as my wife Hellen and I celebrate the recent birth of our daughter, Meredith, we have even more reasons to help maintain our community as our daughter grows up in this wonderful place.
In all this change and as we head into the 21st century, there is at least one constant. I'll be doing the same thing I've always wanted to do: looking through the lens at my favorite people, places and things.
MEMO: Drew Wilson's work has graced the covers of The Carolina Coast for
10 years. Send comments and questions to him at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. ILLUSTRATION: Illustration by DREW C. WILSON
A self-portrait by Coast staff photographer Drew C. Wilson. Wilson
has been The Carolina Coast staff photographer since the tabloid's
inception 10 years ago and his photographs have been on almost every
cover. Note the variety of aids required to cope with the variety of
environments.
Photo by RONALD L. SPEER
Coast staff photographer Drew C. Wilson in the environment he loves
best - the beach.
Illustration by DREW C. WILSON
A self-portrait of Drew C. Wilson, who has been The Carolina Coast
staff photographer since the tabloid's inception 10 years ago. His
photographs have been on almost every Coast cover.
KEYWORDS: 10TH ANNIVERSARY by CNB