In West Palm Beach, a photographer of life's biggest moments

A fly on the wall for the defining moments of the 20th century, photojournalist Ralph Morse saw and captured it all, from World War II to the Space Race.

A collection of Morse’s photos for Life and Time magazines will be showcased in “Once in a LIFE Time: The Photographs of Ralph Morse,” opening Friday, March 23, at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in West Palm Beach.

During a 50-year career, the photographer covered the D-Day invasion and Germany’s surrender the following year, Babe Ruth’s farewell game at Yankee Stadium and the first heart-bypass surgery. He followed the Mercury 7 astronaut team so doggedly in the early 1960s that John Glenn branded Morse the “eighth astronaut.” (Morse, at age 81, even photographed Glenn’s return to space in 1998.)
Famed Florida Highwaymen coming to Pompano Beach

For Morse, who lived in Delray Beach until his death in 2014, the stories of how he captured these iconic photos are legendary. Assigned to cover Albert Einstein’s death in 1955, Morse smooth-talked his way into the professor’s office at Princeton University with a fifth of Scotch. The resulting photograph, showing Einstein’s messy desk as he left it, became famous. To catch Jackie Robinson stealing home base, Morse left a foot-controlled camera on the third-base line so his hands were free to take more photographs.

Did he have a favorite image? Not really, Morse told the Sun-Sentinel in a 2000 interview. “It's what assignment I am on at that moment," Morse said. "I had 50 years. ... I happened to hit major news events all the way.”

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