White House News Photographers Association, Washington, DC 
Ron Edmonds announces retirement from AP
Senior White House photographer for the Associated Press, Ron Edmonds announced his retirement after 28 years. His coverage of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan earned Edmonds a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography the following year. In this NEWSEUM INTERVIEW/VIDEO Ron recalls the harrowing event:
On March 30, 1981, AP photographer Ron Edmonds waited for President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. John Hinckley Jr. joined the crowd. Both men intended to shoot the president. One held a camera; the other, a gun….
Among the major events Edmonds has covered in his illustrious career at the Associated Press are the historic meeting of President Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat, and the swearing in of President George H.W. Bush, when he used an experimental camera to transmit nearly simultaneous pictorial coverage of the event.
In an email to his colleagues, Ron said:
I have had one of the most fantastic jobs in the world. It has allowed me to work with some of the greatest journalists in the world and to make images of some of the biggest events in the last thirty years. I hope that in some small way, I have helped the Associated Press maintain its prominence as the number-one news organization.
I will never forget the experiences that I have been allowed to take part in: such as, walking through the Forbidden City in China or walking around Red Square with Ronald Reagan; ducking behind an inadequate rock in the Iranian desert as Iraqi artillery shells exploded around us; or, more pleasantly, drinking lemonade with King Hussein and Queen Noor at their summer home in Aqaba, Jordan; and boating down the Nile and strolling through the Valley of the Kings in Egypt with then-Vice President Bush….
The complete transcript of Ron’s email announcement to colleagues was reprinted in POLITICO. It’s a great read.
Hearty congratulations and best wishes to our longtime friend and colleague!
READ MORE @ PHOTO DISTRICT NEWS
UPDATED 7/23
AP’s White House Senior Photographer Ron Edmonds Takes Buy-Out by Donald R. Winslow READ ARTICLE @ NPPA.ORG
