Jerry Cooke (photographer)
| Jerry Cooke | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Yuri Kutschuk October 18, 1921 Odessa |
| Died | October 27, 2005 (aged 84) United States of America |
| Nationality | Russian-American |
| Occupation | Photographer |
Jerry Cooke (Russian: Yuri Kutschuk), (October 18, 1921 – October 27, 2005) was a Russian-American photojournalist from the 1940s-1990s.
Born in Odessa as Yuri Kutschuk, his family emigrated to Milan, Italy and then to Berlin, Germany in 1923. While in Berlin, Yuri's father, George Kutschuk sold photographs to European publications. Yuri's Aunt, Cecile Kutschuk, worked at the Associated Press, with Wilson Hicks, who later became Executive Editor in charge of photography for Life.
In 1936, after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the family fled back to Italy, where they then had to flee from Benito Mussolini's regime to Bombay, India. In Bombay they lived in the Outram Private Hotel owned by his uncle, George Azrilenko. In 1939, the family emigrated to Seattle from Japan on the "Hiye Mare." Once in the U.S. his name was anglicized to Jerry Cooke. Cecile Kutschuk, who had studied photojournalism at the Rhine University, emigrated to the United States in 1935, and started a photo agency in New York City called Pix Publishing. She gave Jerry his first camera, a Rolleiflex. Cecile Kutschuk put him to work in the Pix darkroom, where he was assistant to photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, George Karger, and others. In 1945, on V-J Day in Times Square, Jerry Cooke was with Eisenstaedt when he photographed the iconic image of the nurse and sailor kissing.
Cooke's career in photojournalism began working for newspapers and magazines, including Life Magazine, Collier's, Ladies Home Journal, and others. In 1948, Cooke, Robert Capa, and Tim Gidal traveled to Israel to photograph the new state for the book, This Is Israel, written by I.F. Stone. One of Cooke's first assignments for Fortune was Nabisco, the Dough is Rising, 1948.Walker Evans described the lead photograph, "The picture is quiet and true. Since I am writing about photography let me point out that this picture is a better part of the story at hand than either a drawing or a painting would be. There is a profitable and well-run cracker firm in a sweaty part of the town, there is a knot of men talking on the pavement about anything but crackers, amidst the irrelevant trucks. This is where Mal-o-Mars are cooked and this is where last week's newspaper meets the gutter too. And the Strand Hotel becomes famous for flavour. My point is Fortune photographs should take a long look at a subject, get into it, and without shouting, tell a lot about it."
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