BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Eyewitness: Photographer Bob Gomel's Stories behind the Photos

By Cathy Gordon, Staff writer | October 21, 2020

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

Bob Gomel has had a camera in his hand for most of his life. Here, his photographs grace the walls of his hallway. (Photo: David Scarbrough)

He captured some of the most significant events and people of the 20th century. Now, former LIFE Magazine photographer Bob Gomel shares memories, as vivid and sharp as the images themselves, in a story-behind-the-pictures Amazon Prime Video documentary, Bob Gomel: Eyewitness.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr

The Beatles pose for Bob Gomel in Miami, relaxing during the height of Beatlemania. (Photo: Bob Gomel)

“His stories are so great. How could you not want to hear them?” says documentary producer and director David Scarbrough of the Memorial resident’s body of work (see Buzz article Behind the Lens: The life of a LIFE photographer, Nov. 2016) covering presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, The Beatles, and Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), among others.

Bob captured this 1969 photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower lying in state in the Capitol rotunda via a floor switch, rigged by zip-line to his camera 200 feet high in its dome.

David, a former professional news photographer, hosted an American Society of Media Photographers meeting at his computer shop in west Houston a while back. Bob attended. They struck up a friendship. Had dinner. Talked photography. “And, wow, the interesting stories behind Bob’s pictures. This is the age of documentaries, the age of streaming media. I wanted to preserve those stories on film,” David says of the film, shot in the back of his computer store.

“I set up a soundstage, did the lighting and shot it. He looks really good on camera. He’s a handsome guy with a million-dollar smile and has that cool, raspy voice. So, yeah, he’s very good on camera and behind the camera.”

A new documentary about former LIFE Magazine photographer Bob Gomel reveals the stories behind his iconic pictures. (Photo: David Scarbrough)

It was a great experience, says Bob, who recently, with David, talked about his experiences and the documentary with members of the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, via a virtual Zoom conference. “I’ve been an active council member with them for years, so that was a very enjoyable experience.”

Bob is anxious to travel the world again, taking pictures. While the Covid-19 pandemic put a hold on such plans, he’s having fun hearing from viewers who watched the documentary. “Remembering and telling those stories never gets old,” he says. “I love that people like hearing them.”

Editor's note: Read more about Bob and see more photos in Behind the Lens: The life of a LIFE photographer by Cathy Gordon, Nov. 2016. See details on the Amazon Prime Video documentary here.