By AMY BANTON
Local photographer Joe Lista passed away Sunday only a week after an event was held celebrating his work and pictoral archiving of Aiken.
Lista, 88, couldn't make the program "Aiken Remembers our Community through the Lens of Joe Lista," held at the URS Center for the Performing Arts on July 23, but the event was packed with people eager to hear the story behind the photographs he took from the 1950s and 1960s.
"I'm quite shocked and stunned by the timing of his death," said URS executive and Aiken City Councilwoman Lessie Price, who proposed and helped produce the presentation along with Lista's son Todd. "I'm just so happy that we did this prior to his passing. Certainly, the photographs that he left us, those impressions, will be left with us forever."
Lista opened his studio in Aiken in 1953 on Laurens Street, which moved around over the years but always stayed in the downtown area. Initially, his job was to provide his photography skills to the newly established Savannah River Site, according to the business website. Lista later expanded his services to residents and businesses as well, taking photos of life in Aiken with his 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera.
Lista's shutter opened thousands of times over the next few decades, capturing so many moments and faces in the Aiken community. Some of those faces were well-known, such as the late Aiken City Mayor H. Odell Weeks and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Other faces were part of family portraits or the subjects of street photography in which they were seen at their jobs, schools or enjoying extracurricular activities.
Aiken Mayor Fred Cavanaugh didn't know Lista personally but had heard so much about him from those who did and was quite familiar with his work.
"He was a wonderful man, and he certainly cared about Aiken," Cavanaugh said. "His love for Aiken was shown through those pictures. The history of Aiken is shown because of his efforts and so much is there and because of that, we will have those memories forever. He was a wonderful citizen."
Wendall Hall, a former Aiken Standard staff photographer who recently retired from Aiken Public Safety, met Lista in the 1970s when just starting his career with the newspaper. Hall remembers Lista as a very professional man whose work he admired and someone he'd look to for inspiration.
"He was always the photographer you aspired to be," Hall said. "If he ever took a bad photograph, I never saw it. Many times I wished I could take good pictures like that."
In 1978, Todd joined Lista's business and later took over 10 years later after his father retired.
At the event held last Sunday, it was obvious that his work impacted this community and will continue to do so for years to come. Those images from 1954 to 1964 showed a very different world in Aiken, an honest view of a place that was beginning to transform with the new nuclear plant and the Civil Rights Movement.
George Anderson, an Aiken attorney and also a speaker at the retrospective of Lista's work, was impressed with the photographer's efforts to document the African American community.
"This is a real shocker," Anderson said Sunday of Lista's death. "Through his business, Joe conceived some genuine ideas around the community during those days of segregation in the schools. He used his great experience and expertise in dealing with schools throughout the county."
Lista provided Anderson with his high school graduation pictures. Nothing came easily in that era, but through Lista's ideas, his persona and his personality, one could see progress, Anderson said.
Others who knew him, or even just of his work, couldn't say enough about Lista's talent.
Public relations professional Steve Hale, who has long been friends with Todd Lista, said Joe was "ubiquitous," meaning he was found everywhere.
"He was a wonderful talent," Hale said.
Former Aiken Standard photographer and current photography professor Ginny Southworth always found Lista to be welcoming even though she worked for a different photographer upon first arriving in Aiken. She said Lista was an amazingly talented photographer.
"He really left a legacy behind," said local historian Allen Riddick. "He was very important in the photographic history of Aiken."
Senior reporter Rob Novit and reporter Haley Hughes contributed to this article.![]()
Local photographer Joe Lista passed away Sunday only a week after an event was held celebrating his work and pictoral archiving of Aiken.
Lista, 88, couldn't make the program "Aiken Remembers our Community through the Lens of Joe Lista," held at the URS Center for the Performing Arts on July 23, but the event was packed with people eager to hear the story behind the photographs he took from the 1950s and 1960s.
"I'm quite shocked and stunned by the timing of his death," said URS executive and Aiken City Councilwoman Lessie Price, who proposed and helped produce the presentation along with Lista's son Todd. "I'm just so happy that we did this prior to his passing. Certainly, the photographs that he left us, those impressions, will be left with us forever."
Lista opened his studio in Aiken in 1953 on Laurens Street, which moved around over the years but always stayed in the downtown area. Initially, his job was to provide his photography skills to the newly established Savannah River Site, according to the business website. Lista later expanded his services to residents and businesses as well, taking photos of life in Aiken with his 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera.
Lista's shutter opened thousands of times over the next few decades, capturing so many moments and faces in the Aiken community. Some of those faces were well-known, such as the late Aiken City Mayor H. Odell Weeks and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Other faces were part of family portraits or the subjects of street photography in which they were seen at their jobs, schools or enjoying extracurricular activities.
Aiken Mayor Fred Cavanaugh didn't know Lista personally but had heard so much about him from those who did and was quite familiar with his work.
"He was a wonderful man, and he certainly cared about Aiken," Cavanaugh said. "His love for Aiken was shown through those pictures. The history of Aiken is shown because of his efforts and so much is there and because of that, we will have those memories forever. He was a wonderful citizen."
Wendall Hall, a former Aiken Standard staff photographer who recently retired from Aiken Public Safety, met Lista in the 1970s when just starting his career with the newspaper. Hall remembers Lista as a very professional man whose work he admired and someone he'd look to for inspiration.
"He was always the photographer you aspired to be," Hall said. "If he ever took a bad photograph, I never saw it. Many times I wished I could take good pictures like that."
In 1978, Todd joined Lista's business and later took over 10 years later after his father retired.
At the event held last Sunday, it was obvious that his work impacted this community and will continue to do so for years to come. Those images from 1954 to 1964 showed a very different world in Aiken, an honest view of a place that was beginning to transform with the new nuclear plant and the Civil Rights Movement.
George Anderson, an Aiken attorney and also a speaker at the retrospective of Lista's work, was impressed with the photographer's efforts to document the African American community.
"This is a real shocker," Anderson said Sunday of Lista's death. "Through his business, Joe conceived some genuine ideas around the community during those days of segregation in the schools. He used his great experience and expertise in dealing with schools throughout the county."
Lista provided Anderson with his high school graduation pictures. Nothing came easily in that era, but through Lista's ideas, his persona and his personality, one could see progress, Anderson said.
Others who knew him, or even just of his work, couldn't say enough about Lista's talent.
Public relations professional Steve Hale, who has long been friends with Todd Lista, said Joe was "ubiquitous," meaning he was found everywhere.
"He was a wonderful talent," Hale said.
Former Aiken Standard photographer and current photography professor Ginny Southworth always found Lista to be welcoming even though she worked for a different photographer upon first arriving in Aiken. She said Lista was an amazingly talented photographer.
"He really left a legacy behind," said local historian Allen Riddick. "He was very important in the photographic history of Aiken."
Senior reporter Rob Novit and reporter Haley Hughes contributed to this article.