Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton during their historic visit to Denver in August, 1993. (Bob Weinberg)
Former Intermountain Jewish News photographer Bob Weinberg was honored when History Colorado added a collection of his photojournalistic and portrait photography to its permanent collection.
Nearly 100 of Weinberg’s photographs, including many from his 14-year tenure with the IJN, will be added to the historical collection, some for archival purposes and others as decorations for the History Colorado Center, the state’s main historical museum, at 12th Ave. and Broadway in Denver.
The collection includes some 30 framed photographs and 40 additional shots, many of which were originally taken for IJN news and feature articles.
These include photographs of Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton during their 1993 visit to Denver for World Youth Day, dancer Cleo Parker Robinson, artist Yaacov Agam and Halachah expert Rabbi Gedaliah Rabinowitz, broadcaster Dan Rather.
The collection includes a series of photos Weinberg took in 2002 of homeless individuals living along the South Platte River while he was on assignment for the United Way.
Now retired, Weinberg began working for the IJN in the late 1980s, covering a wide range of assignments, until he was gradually forced to retire from professional photography due to a progressive vision disorder known as cone dystrophy. He subsequently entered a career for the visually impaired, working for the US military.
He is currently working on preparing Braille captions for all of the photographs recently donated to History Colorado.
More than 200 of Weinberg’s prints and negatives are already part of the permanent collection of the Beck Archives of the Rocky Mountain Historical Society at DU.
Many of these were photos chronicling activities of Colorado Jewish organizations, including the Allied Jewish Federation (now JEWISHcolorado) and the Anti- Defamation League.
“For my work to go to a place that will take care of it, archive it and use it for research is very meaningful to me,” Weinberg told the IJN last week, referring to the History Colorado acquisition.
“I never knew when I got into this business that I would be documenting history for all these years. In many ways these photographs are my children. I am so happy it brings tears to my eyes.”
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