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A year after the Seattle P-I stopped the presses, Grant Haller remembers

To mark the one-year anniversary of the last Seattle Post-Intelligencer print edition, I recently talked with Grant Haller, a P-I staff photographer from 1974 to 2009.

The 65-year-old always had an interesting story about some topic – which made the newsroom lively and unpredictable.

He started delivering newspapers in the sixth grade in Port Angeles, Wash. Before the P-I, he worked at other newspapers. He also has pursued freelance photography.

So why talk with Haller?

He makes me laugh.

When we were walking in his yard earlier this month, he told me that he has about 200 trees. Then, he pauses and asks whether I’d like to take one home – and points to one that’s about 6-feet tall.

In fact, we talked at his house for about four hours, just getting caught up – I hadn’t seen him since last year.

And on this day, I hope my former colleagues are well.

Some have found new jobs. Some stayed at the online arm, Seattlepi.com. Others are studying and pursuing job opportunities.

My first bureau mate at the P-I, Gordy Holt, was kind enough to show me around, point me in the right direction and invite me to his house for holiday dinners when I didn’t return to California.

I’m grateful.

He’s now retired in Southern California. 

I’m doing this not to prove any point. I’m doing this because I’ve always enjoyed learning about the past.

What’s that phrase?

Meet interesting people. Talk with them. Listen. Learn. And see what universal themes surface.

At his house, Haller showed me where he kept old photographs, equipment, signs and press badges.

The images that I’ve included are, as the description goes, raw.

They’re what I saw when I visited and documented with my digital camera.

At his home, former Seattle P-I photographer Grant Haller holds his first camera above, a Kodak Retinette 1a, from the 1960s.

When Bill Clinton ran for president, Haller documented the candidate and the crowds in the streets of Seattle.

On a freelance assignment, Haller once made a picture of Pele – one of the world’s greatest soccer (football) players.

Thanks, Grant.

Oh, yes: I forgot to say that Grant and I covered Hempfest in Seattle in 2007.

He made an image of a man putting a drill bit to his nose.

And when Mount St. Helens blew in May 1980 and threw ash about 60,000 feet into the sky, he was in the air and made this image.

I also came across this piece by Andy Rogers, a former P-I photographer and assignment editor. He talks about what staff photographers were doing as of December.