Ed Brinsko was a wonder for a young reporter. When he showed up for a shoot on a story it was like: phew, if the article sucks Brinsko’s magic is the safety net. He was that good.
When Ed retired from the Bridgeport Post-Telegram, the predecessor papers of the Connecticut Post, his photography came to life in the short-lived, yet lively, Bridgeport Light community weekly newspaper.
Check this out on Sunday.
The Stratford Library continues “Sunday Afternoon Talks,” its series of informative and entertaining talks featuring prominent local guest speakers, on Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 2pm with Jay Misencik, Geralene Valentine and Ed Brinsko, Jr. and their presentation, “ReVisit Bridgeport: Photographs by Ed Brinsko”. The talk and slide presentation will be presented live in the Library’s Lovell Room. It is free and open to the public.
Ed Brinsko was a life-long Bridgeport resident. His career with the Post Publishing Company spanned 43 years. Like the best of early to late 20th century newspaper photographers, Ed Brinsko carried heavy cameras and many rolls of film and then spent hours developing his images in the darkroom. From 1945 to 1988–with a two-year interlude in the U.S. Army as a reporter with Pacific Stars and Stripes–Brinsko was a photographer for the Bridgeport Post-Telegram.
The images he captured during those years are flash-frozen specimens of times that have passed, a simpler time of post-war relaxation of Barnum Festival Ballyhoo Shows and the comedy of a Jack Benny. But the ’50s and ’60s were passing, and Ed Brinsko was there to document, from the JFK Inaugural Ball in January 1961, to the fiery speech of Malcolm X at the University of Bridgeport on November 21, 1963, the day before Kennedy’s assassination.
For the Library talk, Brinsko’s work will speak for itself in a lavish slide presentation: portraits of heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson training in Newtown in 1959, Jane Fonda cavorting at Compo Beach in Westport and, perhaps most interestingly of all: Charles DeStasio–Charlie the Bum–who wandered the streets of Bridgeport for close to 50 years.
The “Sunday Afternoon Talks” series, hosted by Charles Lautier of Stratford, is held from 2-3:30 pm in the Stratford Library Lovell Room, 2203 Main Street in Stratford, CT.
For further information visit: www.stratfordlibrary.org or call the Library at: 203.385-4162
Ed was a terrific photographer and an even better man, always a pleasure to work and spend time with, with a sly sense of humor. With Matthewson, Decerbo, Roman, Ratzenberger, et al, he was a Bridgeport Post legend. Sounds like a great event.
Henry Roman was a central-casting beaut.
Remember when he knocked over a buffet table at some classy society event? Or told security at an event where George HW Bush was appearing that he was there to “shoot Bush” and nearly got busted? He was a trip for sure.
Yes, Henry was the ultimate unmade bed.