Tony Hodrick retires: Legendary KTVU photographer hangs up his camera

OAKLAND, Calif. - After four and a half decades in the TV business, most of them at KTVU, legendary photographer Tony Hodrick hung up his camera for good. No more bulky camera. No more ribbon cuttings. No more early alarms waking up before the crack of dawn.

His last day was April 3. 

Hodrick, who first came to KTVU as an intern in 1981, said he can't pinpoint his favorite story. "Are you kidding?" Hodrick asked. "There's no way I can do that after 40 years."

But then he quickly rattled off his career highlights, which all include international travel: Flying to the Soviet Union before it was Russia. Covering "The Troubles" conflict in Belfast, Ireland, between Protestants and Catholics. A massive and dangerous dump in the Smoky Mountain area of Manila, Philippines. The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 in Kobe, Japan. And the repatriation of prisoners of war at the Korean DMZ.

Over the years, Hodrick has done it all. 

Just look at all the images he's captured and selfies he's taken with Joe Montana, Steph Curry, Condoleezza Rice, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Gavin Newsom and many more over his storied career. He's won multiple Emmys and Edward R. Murrow awards. 

"And let's not forget about the time Tony was hit in the face by the BART janitor with a broom while he was following him," said KTVU news director Simone Aponte, who also used to lead the station's investigative unit. "He's been everywhere and done everything."

Master of the stakeout

Hodrick can shoot just about anything. 

But he soon distinguished himself as a master of the stakeout, always getting the photo that eludes less-seasoned photographers. One of his tricks: Pretending to leave the scene, only to make an illegal U-turn to circle back and surprise the subject with a lens in their face.

That's how he got photos of almost all the FCI Dublin guards who tried unsuccessfully to avoid his camera, including Warden Ray Garcia, who almost started a fistfight in a parking garage when confronted. Because of his stakeout skills, he was also the only one to get photos of Chor Ng, the landlord of the fated Ghost Ship warehouse.

And he was also the only newsperson to capture Stanford swimmer Brock Turner in 2015, after a perp walk in San Jose, amidst an international media frenzy. 

Hodrick didn't stop there. He hopped in a truck with a colleague and streamed his chase of Turner across freeways. Hodrick finally cornered Turner and his mother in a hotel lobby and KTVU was the only media outlet to have those visuals.

A legendary Luddite

KTVU's tech support desk is reportedly "breathing a collective sigh of relief" at news of Hodrick's retirement. Colleagues worry about how he will survive without a team of assistants to navigate his login screens, remember his email password for him, or remind him how to text a link "just one more time."

The prison photographer

Despite only learning how to text in 2016, Hodrick makes up for his lack of tech skills with an impressive array of other credentials. His experience shooting interviews at nearly every prison and jail in the area came in handy when he and reporter Amber Lee were sent, without a plan, to interview murderer Hans Reiser in Mule State Creek Prison in 2009.

"We had nothing set up," Lee recalled. "And Tony said to me: 'We have got to get him'." When they arrived, Lee described how Hodrick charmed the public information officer, who admitted that she had steered another network away from Reiser on purpose because she didn't like them. "But for you guys?" Lee recounted the PIO saying. "I'll take you right there." She "literally led us right to where he came out and we got our interview. It was all Tony."

Visual artist: The flipping best'

Stakeouts and prisons aside, Hodrick is a visual artist. 

There are no VOSOTs in Hodrick's world. Everything is shot as if it should be a package. Just ask him. 

He'll often call the station—most often it's Mark Richardson on the desk who gets the earful—to rail about what tiny sliver of footage was used on TV, when he had shot reams and reams of close-ups and wide shots that could have made a better picture, and therefore a better story.

"He's the flipping best," longtime KTVU video editor Michael Cerruti said. One time, Cerruti had the chance to leave the editing bay and see Hodrick in the field. "I got to see firsthand his dedication and attention to detail," Cerruti said. "When photographers use one light, Tony uses three. He's an artist with the camera as well as a hardcore journalist. He's the best photojournalist I've ever known."

Seeing what others don't

Former KTVU reporter Diane Dwyer remembers her second day of work in 1990 with Hodrick. They were assigned to cover Operation Yellow Ribbon leading up to the Iraq War. She was nervous. It was 4:15 p.m. Hodrick gently nudged her. Aren't you going to get your story in? There's a 5 p.m. newscast. "I turned purple," she said.

Hodrick calmed her nerves. "We got this," he said. "Here are your two best interviews."

Dwyer also credited Hodrick's "Spidey sense." 

When they were waiting for a suspect in Richmond to exit the building, the media gaggle was all waiting together by one door. 

Hodrick said they should move to the other door.

 "What if we miss him?" Dwyer recalled. 

"What if we don't?" Hodrick shot back. 

Of course, Hodrick was right. They were the only crew to get an exclusive shot of the suspect leaving through the back door.

"He hears and sees stuff that other people miss," Dwyer said. "He knows how important video is in our line of work. You can't pinpoint his talent."

He is so much an artist that assignment desk manager Kellee Hollinger has said out loud on more than one occasion, "if one more reporter specifically asks for Tony, so help me." 

Tell that to anchor Pam Cook who has been stockpiling Hodrick's stories because she wants the master behind the camera.

A lasting legacy

During her first week on the job, Hodrick told digital journalist Lisa Fernandez, "When we're in the field, I'm the boss. You listen to me." 

She quickly learned why. 

Whether it was taking the time to capture the perfect shot or adding nats at just the right moment, Hodrick proved the value of his storytelling instincts again and again. "He knows how to cut straight to the emotional heart of the story," Fernandez said. "He really is the best."

And Hodrick didn't just leave an impression on those who worked alongside him. 

After years of appearing on the other side of Hodrick's camera, attorney Michael Cardoza put it most eloquently in a congratulatory goodbye letter to his favorite cameraman.

"Reporters delivered the words. You gave those words a heartbeat," Cardoza wrote. "The audience rarely knew your name, but they felt your presence on every broadcast. We were lucky to have you as long as we did."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lisa Fernandez reported and wrote the story, and inserted an anecdote about herself.