E AST O REGONIAN
LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, JuNE 22, 2019
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
CAREER IN THE
A basket on the Ferris wheel passes in front of
the setting sun on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2018, at the
Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
Inside
To see more photos from the career of E.J.
Harris, turn to Page C4.
REAR VIEW
EO photographer says farewell after
lengthy career
By E.J. HARRIS
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — I do not do well with goodbyes.
They are hard for me. I don’t like being the center of
attention.
For the last 16 years all I have wanted to do — the
focus of my everyday existence working for the East
Oregonian — has been to come in, put my head down,
and report the news to the very best of my ability.
Now that my time out here is done I’m left wonder-
ing, “Did I do everything I needed to do? Did I do the
job justice? Did I tell your stories the way in which they
ought to have been told?” And truth be told, that is not
even really for me to answer. I mean, I’ve won some
awards for my work. I’ve had photos run in newspapers
and magazines all over the world. I know I’ve had pho-
tos run in the New York Times on at least two occasions.
But I don’t think any of those things are a good measure-
ment of a career.
Often, when I would return from an assignment, I
would be left wondering about all of the photos I wasn’t
able to take. The moments that I missed for one reason
or another. The potential photographs that were lost to
time because I was distracted, rushed, or simply looking
in the wrong direction. It was those “photographs” I did
not take that weigh heavily on me.
It weighs so heavily on my mind because what we do
The Pendleton High School softball team dog piles onto
their pitcher Hailey Kline after defeating Putnam 2-1 in
the 5A state championship softball game Saturday, June
7, 2014, in Corvallis.
here at the newspaper is important. We record the his-
tory of the area in real time. We cover the triumphs, to
the tragedies, and everything in between. So getting it
right has always been my No. 1 focus.
And now that it is time to let it all go and move on
to a new life, I have been getting well wishes and sin-
cere gestures of appreciation from people who have fol-
lowed my career with the newspaper and those who’s
lives I’ve been recording over the years. They all have
a story about a photo I took, or a favorite moment from
their lives they remember of me while working the job.
One encounter spoke to me more than the others. I
was dining at Dairy Queen finishing my Blizzard when a
man said my name. I didn’t immediately recognize him.
He introduced himself as Warren Moses. I then put it
together that he was a Facebook friend. I wasn’t even
sure if I had actually met him in person (It is very possi-
ble, I have met so many over the years). He went on to tell
me about how my photography over the years affected
him and how much he appreciated the work I have done.
He said he could recognize one of my photos even before
reading the photo credit. And that my photography had
even influenced him to buy a DSLR, digital single lens
reflex, camera to use in creating his own photography.
And that is when it hit me. I changed Warren’s life.
He wants to be like me. I gave him something to aspire
toward. It took me a while to ever wrap my mind around
that thought. And that there most definitely had to be oth-
ers. Many more than I will ever know. And that is OK. I
do not need to know about them all. Because just know-
ing that I affect one person in that way means I must
have made a difference in my time in Eastern Oregon.
Blue Mountian Community College forward
Kyle Davis took a two-year hiatus from bas-
ketball after graduating high school in 2007.
A Division-I recruit, Davis chose work as a mis-
sionary over attending college and playing the
game he loved.
Tuf Cooper of Weatherford, Texas, leaps through the air toward a steer and is dragged through the grass by his
horse during steer roping Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, at the Pendleton Round-Up.