Hidden behind the camera's lens
New Hope Gazette
By Joe D'Aquila, Assistant Editor
11/11/2004

  If you've spent any time in New Hope in the past few years, there's a good chance you've come across Gordon Nieburg, snapping away with his digital camera, his wife Libby never far from his side. But with him spending so much time behind the lens, there's a good chance you haven't gotten the chance to know him other than as that photographer guy.

At The Gazette, where we use his photos on a nearly weekly basis, we thought this Veterans Day would be a good time to learn a little more about Gordon Nieburg -- the man, the veteran -- and how he came to capture so much of life in New Hope.

He grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, and soon after high school he decided he'd enlist in the Air Force. Nieburg's decision to enlist was met with mixed feelings. His mother disapproved, but his father, a Philadelphia Police captain and WWII veteran, felt it was a good decision for the 19-year-old. It was the early 1950s, the Korean War was underway, and after a year of studying electronics, Nieburg got his orders to head to Korea.
"It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but you gotta do what you gotta do," he said.