Bernie Boston

As a photographer for the Dayton Daily News, the Washington Star, and The Los Angeles Times, Bernie Boston covered every president from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton, beginning his career as a teenager. Born in 1933 in Washington, Boston’s passion for photography began at a young age. In high school he was a photographer for his school newspaper and yearbook.

After graduating from RIT in 1955, he studied at the School of Aviation Medicine in the Air Force and then served time in the Army, spending two years in Germany as a radiologist in the neurosurgical unit. He was discharged in 1958 and moved back to Washington to work as an assistant manager at Custom Craft Color Service.

In 1963, he left Washington to take a job at the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio, only to return three years later to work at the Washington Star. After two years with the Star he became the director of photography, a position he held until the paper folded in 1981. He was hired by the Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times to establish a photo operation in the nation’s capital.

In addition to being nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, Boston won dozens of awards throughout his career as a photojournalist, including from the White House News Photographers Association, the National Press Photographers Association, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and Ohio Press Photographers Association.

Biography text taken from WHNPA, Remembering Bernie Boston.