- JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Dellmar (second right) is flanked by his wife, Carol (right); daughter, Karen; and Red Stripe's marketing manager, Wayne Lawrence; during a special tribute to the veteran cricket photgrapher at the company's headquarters earlier this month.
Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
IT WASN'T him peeping through the lens of the camera this time. But the spotlight at Red Stripe's Vibes Sports and Fitness Centre focussed brightly on Headley George 'Dellmar' Samuels, the 63-year-old freelance photographer who has been covering the West Indies cricket team for more than 25 years.
A video production titled 'Through Dellmar's Lens' and a most fitting token - a cricket ball breaking the stumps - that was done by artist Mortimer McPherson, were used primarily by Red Stripe to pay tribute to the man last week.
Not surprisingly, it contained clippings of Dellmar at work on cricket fields and cricket people, who shared their experiences with him.
Former West Indies skipper, fast bowler Courtney Walsh who was Test cricket's leading wicket-taker until late last year when spinners Shane Warne (Australia) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) overtook him, talked about 'mouthing off' Dellmar on a tour about his 'little' camera not being able to compete against that of other photographers because of their very long and large lens.
Walsh said the next time he saw Dellmar, he had one of those huge cameras.
Tony Becca, the former Gleaner sport editor, talked about smuggling Dellmar into India as, while they were travelling, they realised he had no visa to enter India. As it went, Becca told Dellmar to let him go first and talk on behalf of both. By the time the immigration officer had processed his documents and recognised who he was, he asked if he was travelling alone. At that point, he said 'no' and pointed to Dellmar, whom the immigration officer processed without bothering to scrutinise his documents.
Of course, Dellmar would have a say on this one, claiming Becca couldn't leave him because he did not know his way around India.
It was all in good taste and brought much laughter. From another angle, the experiences showed the determination of Dellmar to get the job done and his willingness to move with the pace of the game, even at a technological level.
SEVEN EXHIBITIONS
No wonder he has covered all seven previous cricket World Cup events and hosted seven exhibitions with more than 116 pieces.
Included among those are pictures of one of the game's greatest ever batsmen, George 'Atlas' Headley. You don't have to look hard to realise the similarity of their names and you can't blame Dellmar for believing he was named after him.
The Jamaicans actually have more than just name and cricket in common. They shared a room during a home Test series in Barbados.
"I read somewhere in the papers where he said he's not supposed to stay by himself because he has a heart problem and he moved out of the hotel where they had booked him," Dellmar reminisced. "Someone brought him down to the hotel where I was staying and I asked him 'if he wanted to stay with me? he replied 'yes'.
"We had a jolly good time. We had a lovely time and from then we became friends and called each other Headley. It was a privilege to have chatted and stayed with that man for six days," he added.
Last year Dellmar launched what is to become an annual
scholarship for a young cricketer at Kingston College (KC), where his wife, Carol, was guidance counsellor and school nurse for many years and his daughter, Karen, now teaches. His sons, Kornell and Carey, are both old boys of the North Street institution and are overseas, Kornell working with Air Jamaica in Baltimore and Carey is in Miami.
His wife and daughter flanked him at the function held 10 days ago while Wayne Lawrence, Red Stripe's marketing manager, delivered the tribute for his "contribution to the field of sports photography, specifically the field of cricket photography".
Lawrence pointed out that "many never forget his kindness", and added that "we recognise you for going well over a quarter of a century and still going strong. Keep turning your negatives into positives".
The company's managing director Mark McKenzie and Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) president Jackie Hendriks also said their bit while addressing the other side of a two-part function - the launch of the US$18 million sponsorship of the Red Stripe Cricket Championship.
IMPACTFUL ASSOCIATION
McKenzie recognised Dellmar, saying: "He's one who has had a long, strong and impactful association with sports. He has captured some of the most important cricket moments for many of us to look back at them in the years ahead".
Hendriks also showed gratitude, saying "Dellmar, I want to congratulate you on a great career. You've done some marvellous work over the years."
When the cameras were turned on him at the podium, Dellmar, who used to shoot weekly action from the premier league football competition, admitted he never started out in sports photography.
"I was trained as a people's photographer who used to do a lot of weddings and personal shots," he said.
Dellmar did formal training in photography at New York Institute of Photography and graduated in 1967. He lived in that state while working social functions for The Gleaner and did a photography refresher course at the same New York Institute, and also in Hong Kong, before returning to Jamaica in 1974.
Immediately, he went off to cover the Miss World Beauty Pageant at the Royal Dorchester Theatre in London, where Andrea Lyons, wearing an 'Afro' hairstryle - was Jamaica's representative.
He later covered the Olympics in Montreal, Canada, where Donald Quarrie captured the 200m gold and admits he started covering cricket because of his "love for the game".
LIVING HIS LOVE
"What I'm doing is what I love," he reaffirmed, adding that "we've to give thanks, love and thanks."
He expressed as much to those who had sponsored him to provide photo coverage all across the cricket world and Red Stripe for honouring him, also presenting the company with a huge cricket photo, as well as a personal photo of a ballet dancer to their marketing representative, Maxine Whittingham, for her role in the function.
Dellmar also paid homage to one he called "a diplomat of no mean order", the late Dickie Coke (former sports administrator at D&G, now Red Stripe)
and journalist Raymond Sharpe (former Sport Editor at The Gleaner and Jamaica Herald), who also passed on a few years ago.
Given the vast amount of incentives announced for the cricket championship earlier, Dellmar challenged the youngsters, saying:
"Something is going on in cricket right now. Play well and you'll be rewarded."
They don't have to look far to realise the benefits of such advice. The spotlight was trained on Dellmar this time because he has played well.
