Book Description

Mike Viola’s work has universal appeal, having as its subject the daily events and situations that touch the lives of people everywhere. During his long career with The Philadelphia Inquirer, he met and conquered the challenge of every assignment. In this publications, twelve categories and approximately 350 photographs are presented to give the reader insight into the scope of Mike’s work. Even in what sometimes seemed like an “ordinary” assignment became the extraordinary front page photograph in the hands (and heart) of this master photographer. The photographs in this volume were taken by staff photographer Mike Viola for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1964 to 1988. As they sipped their morning coffee, readers were accustomed to seeing the familiar byline under a photograph that, indeed needed no byline. Whatever the subject, there was no mistaken his inimitable style. Aside from their newsworthy content, Mike’s black and white prints are perfect studies in form, contrast, mood and balance. When he was just 13 and living in rural Brazos County, Texas, Mike received a small Kodak camera. He looked through its viewfinder and clicked the shutter, but had no idea the role it would play in his life. Four years later the Navy offered him an opportunity to serve as a photographer’s striker aboard the USS Miami and the click of that small Kodak camera resounded again and again throughout a career dedicated to excellence. Mike Viola served in the Navy from 1944 to 1947. He photographed activity in the Pacific and participated in Operation Crossroads aboard the carrier USS Saidor as photographic specialist in connection with the Bikini Atomic Bomb tests in July 1946. In 1964, Mike won the Look Magazine Sports Photo Award and throughout his twenty-five years as a staff photographer with The Philadelphia Inquirer, has won numerous awards given by the Press Photographers Association of Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania, the New Jersey Press Association, the National Headliners Awards and the Society of Professional Journalist, Sigma Delta Chi. Mike was also a member of The Inquirer staff team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1980, for their report on the Three Mile Island accident. Mike Viola is retired and lives in Philadelphia with his wife Kitty of 62 years, and their two Pomeranians, Coco and Bindi.