BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM Ken Sakamoto waves goodbye on his last day at work, in December.

Photographer’s
parting shots

Ken Sakamoto retires after
27 years of shooting the news
for the Star-Bulletin

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By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

It may be presumptuous to gauge the effect one photographer has on another, for talent is a slippery thing, full of eddies and shadings and cloudy interpretations. But in at least one way, Star-Bulletin photographer Ken Sakamoto, who retired at 2001's close, had a profound influence on the paper's chief photographer, Dean Sensui.

"I was a kid at my very first assignment, and Ken was there, and I looked at him and thought, huh, so THAT'S what a photojournalism professional wears to work," recalled Sensui, who, to this day, and every day, wears polo shirts and jeans.

KEN SAKAMOTO / KSAKAMOTO@STARBULLETIN.COM Ken Sakamoto was on the scene in February 1996, when John Miranda terrorized workers at Seal Masters of Honolulu, a waterproofing company on Sand Island Access Road. Miranda taped a shotgun to employee Tom McNeil's neck and held McNeil hostage for hours as he negotiated with police. Miranda was eventually shot and killed by police; McNeil escaped.

"Uh yeah, that's working clothes," laughed Sakamoto. "I was also the first guy I know to wear a photo vest, and people kept asking me if I was going fishing."

Hailing from British Columbia -- he'll be dividing his time between Hawaii and Vancouver from here on out -- Sakamoto transferred to the Star-Bulletin from the Calgary Herald in 1974. He continues to be a stringer for Black Star syndicate, which buys photographs to sell to other outlets.

"Practically the first assignment I had, reporter Arlene Lum and I were sent up in Cobra gunships and I looked down on Pearl Harbor for the first time and thought, 'Wow, that's not very big. No wonder the Japanese knocked it out.' "

The Hawaii assignments that stick out in his mind are volcanic. "We'd rush right over (to the Big Island) in the early '80s and stay several days during those early eruption phases," said Sakamoto. "It was incredibly awesome."

He won several awards. His pictures of the Berlin Wall coming down hang in German embassies around the world. One series of pictures -- of Japanese honeymooners photographing themselves at the beach -- was widely imitated.

KEN SAKAMOTO / KSAKAMOTO@STARBULLETIN.COM Sakamoto captured dramatic images of early eruptions at Kilauea crater. Hurried trips to the Big Island in the early 1980s remain clear in his memories. "It was incredibly awesome," he says.

Sakamoto was chosen by Kodak to test the first digital cameras, which he says have changed photojournalism the most since he started shooting. "We can go right up to deadline, and get breaking pictures into the paper right away," he said. "That's what news is."

Another picture subject blew up hotter than the volcano. "Frank Sinatra was appearing in a 'Magnum P.I.' episode and the P.R. agent hustled us to get a picture of (the cast). Well, they put them right under a hot light and it went right through his toupee and glared off his head. When Gannett ran it in USA Today, they called it 'Old Baldy Goes Hawaiian' or something like that. Well! Sinatra's people went ballistic. Columbia Studios told me never to show my face in the studio again."

On the other hand, Sakamoto said his favorite photo subjects are firefighters. "Most dangerous job in the world, and the nicest folks you can imagine."

KEN SAKAMOTO / KSAKAMOTO@STARBULLETIN.COM An East German border guard peers through a newly made crack in the Berlin Wall, gaining a glimpse of West Germany and the free world. Ken Sakamoto took this shot in November 1989, as the wall was coming down. His photographs of this moment in history hang in German embassies worldwide.

"What I learned, working alongside Ken, was economy of motion," said Star-Bulletin photographer George F. Lee, who was still a teenager when Sakamoto started showing him the ropes. "Don't waste time running around, get right to it and focus, be reflective, not directive. It's not just technique that makes a news photographer, it's attitude."

"Ken's been here so long, he's part of the architecture of Honolulu," said Sensui. "We're going to think, where'd that support beam go?"

"No kidding," said Star-Bulletin photographer FL Morris. "I'm the new guy around here, and what struck me was how helpful Ken was. Not competitive at all -- except with the other newspapers."

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