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Make It Awesome

Gary Gardiner photographs daily life in Westerville – every day

Gary Gardiner has captured history for many years. Some of it has been an intentional effort, working in newspapers and for the Associated Press, and some has been by happenstance, such as a long-standing project which he stumbled into in retirement.

Both have value to Gardiner – and to the subjects he captures.

Gardiner, who moved to Westerville in 1982 for his job with the Columbus AP bureau, has become well-known around town. For his project My Final Photo, he’s taken and posted a photo every day from within the three-to-fivemile radius of his home in Westerville since Nov. 15, 2004, following his retirement. That’s 19 years of photographs, or more than 6,700 images.

Following his retirement, Gardiner knew he had the time, energy and interest to continue his passion. So, My Final Photo was born.

“I’ve got a lot left in me,” Gardiner says. “I’m going to take a picture every day for as long as I can, make it as journalistic as I can, and make it, in the true use of the word, awesome as I can.”

He’s found a permanent place for his work as he intends to donate the entirety of the project to the Westerville Public Library.

A portion of his work is already on display, housed and curated by the Westerville History Museum in an exhibition called Accidental History, capturing life in Westerville from 2011-2021.

“The picture I take of someone today will end up in the history museum for someone to look at in the future,” he says. “That’s a really powerful incentive for me to continue.”

Early history

Gardiner grew up in Gainesville, Florida. He first became fascinated with photos when he was young. He loved spending time with his father, looking through his father’s photo book from World War II.

“My dad had a huge photo album from his experiences during World War II and he had great stories to tell,” he says. “I would always love hearing his stories, but his stories always related to the photograph.”

His mother also helped light the spark by gifting him a book of the photos from the seminal Museum of Modern Art exhibition, The Family of Man, which featured a collection of photographers from around the world seeking to capture life from birth to death.

Although Gardiner acknowledges its shortcomings, as it was curated by all white men, the exhibition made an indelible impact on him.

Gardiner decided that college was not right for him, and instead joined the U.S. Air Force. He took his own photographs of life in the service. He was stationed in North Dakota and worked on technology for the Martin B-57 Canberra.

When he and his wife Sherry got their own place, a basement apartment, he would turn the kitchen into a darkroom by covering the small windows.

After three years in the service, he left to reenroll in college at the University of Florida. He thought he would major in engineering since he enjoyed working with electronics. Yet again, however, he found it wasn’t for him.

He left school and began work at a photo studio selling camera equipment and outsourcing film processing. He took on the role of manager at another camera store, which gave him access to camera equipment and fellow photographers.

“I got to meet a lot of photographers, got to ask a lot of questions about a whole lot of things. I shot a lot of photographs, which is the only way you learn to make pictures,” he says.

Portfolio of potential Eventually, Gardiner learned that the University of Florida had an opening for a photographer in the division of publications shooting photos for brochures and pamphlets for the school. He also built a direct relationship with the local news bureau as they didn’t have a photographer of their own, so Gardiner got to shoot every time the newspaper had a story.

In what Gardiner considers a seminal moment, he gained access to the UPI photo transmitter with his job at the university. With access to the photo transmitter, he was able to send his photos across the wire to be accessible nationwide. He says he was always on the lookout for shots that would be of interest to people outside Florida.

When he went to apply for a job at the Orlando Sentinel, his work and reputation preceded him.

“‘I don’t need to see your portfolio. I’ve already seen your portfolio,’” Gardiner recalls the editor telling him. “That UPI transmitter, I describe it today as my social media of the ’70s, because I covered every University of Florida football game they had. I covered every basketball game. I covered baseball, I covered track. I covered incidental stuff. I traveled with the football team.”

He also covered major events that happened on the university’s campus, including demonstrations in protest of the Vietnam War and “Black Thursday,” when hundreds of students marched to the university president’s office with a list of demands for more equality for Black students on campus that would turn into larger protests.

After the Sentinel, he worked for the Fort Lauderdale News and The ClarionLedger in Jackson, Mississippi.

“It’s dynamic, the newspaper business, and you really have no idea what you’re gonna see,” he says. “How’re you going to handle it? What’re you going to do that’s new, different, better?”

In 1977, he went to work for The Associated Press bureau in Atlanta. He then moved to the Columbus AP bureau in 1982. Ohio was the largest AP member state outside of Texas. During

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his time in Columbus, in the mid-’90s, he helped the cooperative transition its photo operations from film to digital and traveled the Midwest, training newsrooms on the new system.

When he retired from the AP in 2004, he was far from ready to retire his camera. Most of all, Westerville which has benefited from Gardiner’s continued work.

“I don’t think anyone has done more to capture the recent history of Westerville than Gary Gardiner,” Nina Thomas, Westerville History Manager, says. “From photographing the asbestos removal in the former Kyoto Tea House to photographing the first beer served at Old Bag of Nails, his work tells our city’s stories. We are excited to showcase his photographs in an exhibition that highlights the history he’s captured over the past 20 years.”

For the Accidental History exhibit, Gardiner gave the museum years of unedited photos from 2011 through 2021 that are now on display. Museum officials pared down his decade-plus of photographs to the 75 that are on public view today.

You can view Gardiner’s daily work at www.myfinalphoto.com.

“One of the things you want to do, especially as a news photographer, is to make people understand they have value,” Gardiner says. “You’re taking their photographs not because it’s valuable to the photographer, but because they have value and you want to show other people their value.”

Claire Miller is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at cmiller@cityscenemediagroup.com.