Greg Robinson

Robinson had worked for The Examiner for three years when he got the assignment to travel to Guyana with reporter Tim Reiterman, now a senior assistant metro editor at the Los Angeles Times. Robinson had already taken pictures that won him admiration: getting in the right spot to capture Jimmy Carter carrying his own luggage; a hijacker and his hostages surrounded by FBI agents; victims of a tram accident at Squaw Valley. Among his own favorites were shots of football, baseball and skating. After an arduous journey and delays in Georgetown, Guyana's capital, the group arrived at the small airstrip in Port Kaituma, then continued by flatbed truck to Jonestown. Robinson made pictures of the smiling faces at a celebratory dinner, of Ryan addressing Jones' followers in front of a sign reading "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it." He photographed Jones caressing the chin of a little boy he claimed was his son, he snapped kids dancing, a baby sleeping on its mother's shoulder and children in the nursery. And as he was leaving, he took the last pictures of Ryan alive. The congressman's shirt is flecked with the blood of a man who tried to stab him and was injured as he was being disarmed. Ryan looks exhausted, tense. The photographs show Robinson's knack for being in the right spot, for catching what is essential. Part of their impact also comes from the sheer nature of photography, its power to capture what the naked eye cannot see alone. There was something horribly wrong at Jonestown, something Robinson would not live to see on his film. Shortly afterward, Robinson himself was shot dead. A photograph shows him lying on the ground near Ryan, NBC correspondent Don Harris, NBC cameraman Bob Brown and temple defector Patricia Parks, all slaughtered as they waited to board a plane. This time, the picture was taken by Reiterman, himself injured in the attack. Four rolls of Robinson's film were transported home. Another 35 seized by police in Guyana as evidence were later recovered. Some were printed for the first time for the Veterans Building exhibit.