My Mentor: Mike Kovac

I had just gotten my first “real” camera when I met Mike Kovac. It was a meeting that was to change my life. Mike was a freelance photographer. He had been a combat photographer, but now he was based in New York City. His assignments took him all over the world and his world was one exciting place, especially for a young teen kid in the Bronx. He was even occasionally asked by local police to help in cases. It seemed like everywhere Mike went, there were always beautiful women, guys with guns and one adventure after another. Right then seeds were planted. My career path was set.

I got to watch Mike at work just about every week and learned a lot from him. I paid particularly close attention to his equipment. His main camera was 4x5 Super Speed Graphic. That was then the top of the line of Graphic Press Cameras. It used single sheets of film, loaded one at a time. Film was in cumbersome film holders, but Mike rarely needed more than one sheet to get the perfect shot. Sometimes he shot with a Rollliflex Twin Lens Reflex that used roll film. Occasionally he used a Leica M-4. When ever an assignment called for other equipment, he always had it right there. Mike also carried a tiny Minox subminiature “spy camera” and got some of his most dramatic shots with it.

My camera was a Yashica “C” Twin Lens Reflex, and it looked a bit like Mike’s Rolli. A few years later I got a press camera of my own, a Crown Graphic; not quite as fancy as Mike’s, but it also  looked a lot like his. And most people couldn’t tell the difference. I could never change those film holders quite as smoothly as Mike did – or get my perfect shot first time with a single sheet of film. Actually, that Crown Graphic turned out to be heavy, clunky and not nearly as easy to use as Mike made it look. But I wasn’t about to admit any of that right then. I also never mastered Mike’s trick of carrying loose flashbulbs in his jacket pocket. The one time I tried this, static electricity set it off and my jacket caught on fire. It was an embarrassing moment. It was years later that I got my first Leica. I bought it used. It was made in the 1960’s, so it could well have been used by Mike. I still have that camera.

Mike Kovac also had the greatest darkroom and it was right in his apartment. It was the neatest, best stocked and most orderly darkroom I have ever seen. It was a far cry from my first darkroom that I put together in a corner of my room and could only use after dark. And even though Mike’s darkroom was in his apartment, the chemical fumes were never a problem. My parents were convinced that the photo chemicals I used were deadly, so I not only had to wait until it was dark to make my prints, I also had to wait until they were out of the house or asleep. Mike of course never had such problems. And his prints were always perfect.

Unfortunately, despite our long relationship over the years and all the help and encouragement he gave me, Mike Kovac was not real. He was a character created by Charles Bronson on a TV show called “Man With A Camera.” The show began sometime around the time I spent some of my Bar Mitzva loot to buy that first camera. Our timing was perfect! With Mike’s weekly guidance, I soon became photographer for my school paper. I watched the show with religious zeal. Each week brought new insight into his (our!) profession, new equipment to dream about and, of course, a new adventure. Needless to say, I owe much of my professional success to the inspiration of Mike Kovac.

Recently I found some of those original shows on YouTube. That’s where I snatched some of these shots of Mike. It is great to see him still in action, looking trim and not a day older.

Thanks Mike!!

Ps: One disturbing fact about Mike and those flashbulbs. Seems that early on, he used an electronic flash, one also made by Graflex. I got to carry one on a few jobs. It had a huge battery pack and was a pain to haul around. When Mike started using flashbulbs, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was years later that I learned that this switch coincided with a new sponsor for his show: it was GE, the company that made those flashbulbs! Ah, well, I don’t blame Mike. After all, a buck’s a buck. But I am still a bit pissed off about that jacket…………