Former Sports Photographer Winston Oudkerk … 80 years on

Oct 17, 2021 Sports

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By Sean Devers

Kaieteur News – Veteran former Guyana Chronicle’s Sports Photographer Winston Oudkerk celebrated his 80 birthday last month with his family but for someone who had served Guyana for close to 50 years in his field…even being awarded the Medal of Service for his work…his life is someway short of what he had hoped for.
Oudkerk has been married for 55 years since tying the knot with his wife Carol on April 16, 1966 and has eight children; five with his wife and three before. He resides with his wife and grandson in the Village of Paradise on the East Coast of Demerara and because of a stroke he suffered while returning home in August from the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio, he can’t do the things he once could.

Since then he has done two surgeries and later developed arthritis which forced him to retire as Chief Photographer of the Chronicle after serving all of Guyana’s Executive Presidents from Forbes Burnham to Bharrat Jagdeo.
His ailments have resulted in him having to use a walker to move around and he is unable to function properly. “It’s hard for me. When my wife and grandson leave for work I am alone and can’t do much for myself. All of my children are now adults and working. So it’s tough but I thank the Almighty Jesus that I am still here,” lamented Oudkerk, who says he never received any pension from Chronicle.
His first overseas sports assignment was in 1969 in Boa Vista and Oudkerk said he took photos of so many sports that he could not remember all of them but says one of his most memorable sports photo was at a Grass Track Motor Cycle Event at Better Hope ground.
“A rider fell and Stanley Ming was behind him and he and his motor cycle jumped over the guy and I got a photo of him airborne,” explained Oudkerk, who travelled to Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad to cover Motor Racing Meets.

He was in Barbados when West Indies played Pakistan and journeyed to Trinidad, Suriname and French Guiana to the cover Football. “I have been to all the grounds in Guyana where Guyana played cricket. I always loved sport but cricket is my favourite,” Oudkerk said.
Oudkerk was born on September 22, 1941 and lived at 100 Regent Street before his parents moved to 113 Duke Street, Kingston when he was seven. He attended Kingston Methodist, now the Kingston Government School up to sixth standard and had no secondary education.
“I grew up in Kingston and it was a bit tough since our family was a poor family and it was eight children. I was the eldest. The National Library had its first nation-wide essay competition and you had to write the best about reading, I got second place in the 14-16 age group and Governor Sir Patrick Rennison presented me with an encyclopedia from Fogarty’s.” remembered Oudkerk.
Oudkerk explained how he got into photography at a time when it was not in his wildest dreams to become a photographer. “As a youngster I used to help a friend who was my neighbour (Steve Narine) to deliver Guiana Graphic newspapers to homes in the Leopold, Hadfield, Durban Street area. The paper delivery with his neighbour gave him his break in life.
“He (Narine) was working with the Guyana Chronicle on Main Street and told me that the Chronicle wanted an Office Assistant. I took the job for six dollars and 30 cents per week.
At that time two brothers had a store and one held a competition to hide a Camera box with a paper inside and who found it would get a camera. I was lucky to find the box in front of Queen Victoria’s Statue,” Oudkerk disclosed.
Oudkerk bought a 120 roll of films for sixty cents and when the films were full, he asked Mr. McDonald, the Chief Photographer at the Chronicle to have them developed. Oudkerk remained the Office Assistant even though some of the established photographers had left the job.

There was a fire on Cummings and First Street, Albertown, at around 11pm and the photographer who took pictures had left.
“The child that was saved in the house was the one he did not print and they asked me to do it and I did.” A week later the newspaper decided that the photographer needed an Assistant and Oudkerk was appointed as the Dark Room Assistant.
“I threw box hand and bought a professional Camera from Acme. It was forty-four dollars for it and I was now taking pictures for the Chronicle,” Oudkerk recalled. When the Senior Photographer left for Trinidad on an assignment, Oudkerk showed his photos to the then Editor in Chief, Mr. George Willock and Oudkerk’s task was to bring in the offbeat photographs for the Chronicle’s front page.
In the 1960s he covered the riots and burnings and excelled as a photographer during that period. He also covered several regional Heads of Government Meetings throughout the Caribbean. Later he began traveling with the then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham on overseas assignments which took him to places such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, among other countries.
He covered events at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where he rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s best photographers. In 1964 Oudkerk said his work began to affect him and remembered having to duck from bullets and at one time he had to hide in a toilet.
“I got my head cut in 1963 during the general strike but one of his most frightening experiences as a photographer was when Father Bernard Darke was killed. I took the pictures of the killer with the knife is his hand about to commit the act.
I never thought that the man would have stabbed Father Darke. I was the only photographer there and I took five pictures.” Said Oudkerk. Just after that incident Oudkerk was sent on a press tour to China where he spent 46 days and on his return began covering cricket.
He said Stabroek News’ Chief Photographer, Ken Moore (his major competitor) was one of the best photographers he had ever met. Moore died in February 2012. According to Oudkerk, back in the days there was no telephoto lens that we have now. There were few who could buy a wide angle lens. So what we used to do is take the picture with the ordinary lens and as a dark room technician, I would blow up the picture or enlarge it.
“These days you don’t have to do that because you have the different lens and just print it. Back then you had to work hard and think unlike today when you could just pick up a camera and shoot pictures since everything is automatic on the camera and take it to a lab.
My days were rough…if you take out a picture at 11-o-clock in the night…of a fire, murder or night sports, you had to go back to the dark room, develop the film, print the picture and give it to the editor.
“The photographers now have things much easier with the technology and the digital camera. When you try to advise them about the different angles and what to look for when taking Football and Cricket photos they don’t listen…they know everything.
When you look at the quality of photos in the newspapers it’s not good at all.” He said there is much to be done for training and suggested that media houses embark on a programme to train their photographers.

 

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