Senior Planet Talks to…Woodstock Photog Burk Uzzle

As Life Magazine’s youngest photographer, Burk Uzzle, now 88, defined the Woodstock era with his iconic 1969 cover photo of young couple Bobbi and Nick Ercoline hugging one another beneath a quilt.

A photographer for more than 70 years, Burk Uzzle refuses to put his camera down – even while living at a senior living home in North Carolina.

Previously immortalized in Jethro Waters’ 2020 Emmy-winning documentary about his life, F11 and Be There, today Burk is trying his hand at acting with a small role in Waters’ new comedy horror film, Gunfighter Paradise.

Burk tells SENIOR PLANET about his extraordinary life:

Q: What first drew you to photography as a boy?

BURK: I first thought I would be a musician, but I wanted to see the world. I could have had two music scholarships – but I hate classrooms. I break out in a sweat if I’m forced to go into a classroom. Next thing, I’m looking at Life magazine and said: Let’s go see the world. At 23, I was the youngest photographer they ever hired – and off they sent me.

Q: Who gave you your first camera?

BURK: I bought my first camera with money I earned from a paper route. I would get up early in the morning and carry newspapers and throw them up on porches. I always bought all my own stuff. Nobody ever gave me anything.

Q: Did your parents encourage you?

BURK: My mommy and my daddy said: You got no business wasting time on photography. You’ve got a real career in music. Then – a week after Life magazine hired me – my mother decided she would become a photographer. So now I’ve got a big box of her negatives in my studio which are unadulterated garbage.

Q: Everybody has a camera on their phones today – but photography was a very technical process back in the day. How did you learn your craft?

BURK: I had a good dark room in my home, and I just worked and worked at it. I learned a fair amount of it because I had to, in order to take pictures and get them out and then this wonderful photographer at Life magazine, John Mealy, taught me the meaning of black and how it’s the most interesting color to work with. Astounding.

Q: What did your parents do?

BURK: My dad was city manager of a little town called Dunn in North Carolina and my mother was several things. She was the worst cook that ever had to cook, but she was one hell of a musician, and accompanied me when I did concerts with my clarinet. I have two brothers Robert and Warren who also live in N. Carolina and we talk every now and then.

Q: Did you find time to marry and have your own family?

BURK: Five times! I love women and I love women to love me back. I’ve got three adult kids, Tad and Andy and Caitlin.

Q: Where do you live now?

BURK: I’m in a retirement community in Morrisville, North Carolina – which was created as a place where people come to wait out their dying years. When I came here, I said: I am not planning to retire. I’m a working photographer so if I can continue with my work, I would like to live here. They loved that idea. So I rented an apartment here, and it’s a great spot. It’s not a big studio, but it works really well.

Q: What drew you to photograph the audience instead of the musicians at Woodstock?

BURK: Woodstock was an interesting idea for me. I just brought a pocket full of black and white film and went to work. I took my wife and two boys, and we made a lean-to out of a piece of tarp slung over some barbed wire. I’m an old time survivalist after working in so many different locations. I’d get up early in the morning and start walking around. I’d heard about this hill way up beyond the stage so I went up and, lo and behold, there were all these people running around with no clothes on! And that’s never bored me to death, I can tell you.

Q: Did you get a sense that the world was changing while you were at Woodstock which symbolized the peace and sexual liberation movements?

BURK: We thought Woodstock would be the beginning of a new world, certainly a new United States. We counted heavily on that being the case, and it lasted for not very long. Politicians got hold, and here we go.

Q: Which photograph are you most proud of?

BURK: Everybody says the Woodstock cover is my most famous photograph. But there’s a picture I like even better of a black guy called Jim which you can see on Instagram. He has a beautiful face and there was one moment when he sort of looked to the side, and I saw something really interesting. And bam, bam, I took a picture, and it got to be a very famous photograph after it was prominently hung at a local exhibition. Everybody loved the picture of Jim and I’m proud of that photo as both a photographer and as a human being. Because it’s empathetic. I was him and he was me.

Q: How long were you on the staff of Life Magazine?

BURK: Six years maybe. My pictures in Life received a lot of attention by an outfit called Magnum Photos so I joined them and was there for 18 years.

Q: You photographed many famous people. Who was the most impressive?

BURK: That would be hard to say. I’ve never bent over backwards for famous people. I’m not a famous person type of person.

Q: How about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr?

BURK: Martin Luther King was my first magazine assignment. I was based in Atlanta and Jet Magazine called and said: We’ve got a very young preacher who’s getting a lot of attention. His name is Martin Luther King. Would you go take a portrait? So I went over, sat him down on his couch, and took a very nice photograph. He was a very straightforward guy. Sadly I did not photograph him again until he was dead when I was sent to Memphis and went to the Lorraine Motel where he was shot. The police were all there, pointing to the top of a hill where the assassin had shot the bullet that killed him.

Q: Talk about playing “Uncle Dean” in Gunfighters Paradise. Was that the first time you’ve acted on screen?

BURK: Yes. I’ve been very good friends with the director Jethro Waters after he made the documentary about me. We think alike. We are two people that I feel like are one. We’re very close.

Q: How do you keep fit today after years of lugging around heavy camera equipment?

BURK: I go to bed early and I get up very early and go to the fitness room and do yoga and work out. I spend a fair amount of time on all the machines – I’m a skinny little creature, but I’ve got strength. I raced motorcycles for many years, during which time I broke 14 bones. So, over a period of time, I’ve had to heal a lot, and all those bones have kind of caught up with me. But I’m an old pro at healing.

Q: And what do you do for nutrition?

BURK: I don’t eat any sugar. Sugar is bad for you, so I don’t eat any and I don’t drink any alcohol at all. Years ago, when I lived in Spain, I enjoyed drinking wine after Life sent me to do a story on bullfighting and I stayed on afterwards. But when I came back, I gave up alcohol.

Q: Any favorite memories from your world travels?

BURK: I spent a fair amount of time in Vietnam, based in Saigon, after Life sent me to cover the war. Saigon was still on our side, but the bad folks were on the other side of a river. Life wanted me to do a story on a guy was looking for the remains of his brother. They flew me in a helicopter to the Mekong River, and while I was in a boat getting across, snipers were shooting at me. They missed but when we got to the other side, the Viet Cong granted me safe passage, just because they had an emotional relationship to what I wanted to do. I’ve also traveled and worked in Haiti, Cambodia and Saudi Arabia. But I enjoyed my time in Spain the most – if I had to leave this country and live elsewhere, it would be Spain. I learned to speak Spanish fairly well and even read Moby Dick in Spanish.

Q: What’s your secret to aging with attitude?

BURK: I love life. I can’t leave life alone. I don’t have any real sex adventures these days, which is unfortunate, because I did enjoy it. But I love my life.

NB: Gunfighter Paradise is in cinemas and on demand.

YOUR TURN:

Were you at Woodstock? Share your experience in the comments!

Photo, Top:  © Burk Uzzle.

Photo: Inset: Burk Uzzle Photo © Jethro Waters

Gill Pringle began her career as a rock columnist for popular British newspapers, traveling the world with Madonna, U2 and Michael Jackson. Moving to Los Angeles 27 years ago, she interviews film and TV personalities for prestigious UK outlets, The Independent, The i-paper and The Sunday Times – and, of course, Senior Planet. A member of Critics Choice Association, BAFTA and AWFJ, she wrote the screenplay for 2016 Netflix family film, The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure. An award-winning writer, in 2021 she was honored by the Los Angeles Press Club with 1st prize at the NAEJ Awards.