James Atherton (photographer)

He was the son of Fairfax Malcolm Atherton (1892-1971) and Mildred Herrsher (1900-1958), the daughter of a Bavarian immigrant who settled in Fort Worth, Texas.

[6] His father, Fairfax was born in Atlanta, and worked for the U.S. Federal Court in Washington D.C. Atherton graduated from Roosevelt High School, before joining the United States Navy.

Atherton served in Honolulu, and travelled to mainland China, and other parts of Asian Pacific region, and eventually became a U.S. military photographer during the period of Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll by the United States.

[7] The United States Navy gave Atherton the opportunity to pursue a trade in order to return to civilian life and he elected to attend a photography college in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Initially, as the rookie, he worked the night shift, and soon encountered difficulty gaining access to high society parties in Washington D.C.

That year, he also won first in the White House Photographers Association “personalities category”, with photo of Caroline Kennedy in conversation with a playmate.

[15] As a freelance photographer, he covered every U.S. president from Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon, as well as the major events of the day, such as the McCarthy hearings, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the State funeral of John F. Kennedy in November 1963.

[9] Under the President Richard Nixon administration, in 1970 he was recognized one final time by the White House Photographers Association receiving the First Prize in the “presidential class” category.

That same year, Atherton chose a different career path, by becoming the picture editor at The Washington Post, moving on to be their staff photographer in 1973, allowing him to return to his passion, using his own camera.

He died on November 29, 2011, aged 83, in Annapolis, Maryland, while walking alongside his wife towards a friends house, a short distance from his home.

[32] Atherton's peers also photographed him at notable historical events, such as a spoof picture of him seated with many of the press credentials mandated to cover the First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953; years later standing in a pool car in 1968, while he covered the visit of Pope Paul VI to New York, waiting for the Pope and President Lyndon Johnson to leave the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.