PGA Honors Danbury Sports Photographer With Lifetime Achievement Award

DANBURY, CT — The Professional Golfers Association of America has named a Danbury resident as only their third recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism.

Stephen Szurlej, 73, served as Golf Digest’s senior staff photographer for nearly 30 years, first appearing on the masthead in 1980. The majority of his tournament action photography was featured in Golf Digest’s sister weekly publication, Golf World. Szurlej also shot sequences and other instruction-focused content for Golf Digest. In addition, the photographer worked for Tennis Magazine, shooting 15 consecutive U.S. Opens from 1981 to 1995.

According to Szurlej, there was a clear turning point in his career, in the coverage of golf, and in the sport itself — and it was the same turning point.

"The biggest change was Tiger Woods," Szurlej said. "Because before Tiger there was a limited demand for golf, limited media interest in golf, it's not football, it's not basketball. So there was just a small group of regulars who covered golf."

That "tight-knit fraternity" blew up when Woods took the sport by storm in the late 90s, and many more publications who previously gave no ink to the PGA started scrambling for credentials to cover tournaments.

Throughout the second half of Szurlej’s tenure with Golf Digest, he started photographing golf courses throughout the United States and across the world. The gig took him to Tasmania, Korea, Ireland, Canada, Scotland, England and Australia. The photographer's tenure with the magazine ended in 2010 following 446 tournaments, 104 major championships, and 15 countries visited. Now he divides his time between Danbury and Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Out of college with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Szurlej spent five years at The News-Times. He had a keen interest in photography, but not very much experience. Happily, his editors put him on a loose leash.

"We were fortunate to be close to New York, and they gave me the freedom to go and shoot New York professional teams," he said. "That's how I whet my appetite for sports photography."

Digital Photography: A New Ball Game

As lucky as he counts himself being early in his career, Szurlej reckons he was just as fortunate getting out when he did. He said it's much easier to take good photographs today, but it has become extremely difficult to earn a decent living as a photographer.

"When I first started shooting sports, you had to really be sharp, you had to know how to focus," Szurlej told Patch. "I can remember match points at Wimbledon, focusing, and trying to be ready for the most dramatic reaction. And then along came autofocus, and now photographers who weren't as skilled that way, can also get pretty good pictures."

The next coffin nail was the advent of digital photography, which did away with film and its costs.

"So you could be blasting away forever, and with any luck, you might get a pretty good picture."

Apple then put a digital camera in the hands of just about anyone who wanted one, and photos "good enough for the web" became good enough, period. Photographers became videographers to stay afloat, but their art form lost something in that transition.

"I don't think you can ever replace the value of the split-second frozen single image," Szurlej said.

Rather than focus on their craft to succeed, Szurlej said today's successful photographers need to find the right gimmick.

"There's that woman who photographs babies, puts them in buckets and drops flower petals on them. She's got a niche, she found a way to make some money. But are you going to make money in journalism? Now? I don't think so."

Szurlej and his career will be celebrated on May 17 during the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.