Longtime Vegas newspaper photographer Germanier dies

Friday, Oct. 8, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

Las Vegas newspaper photographer Rene Germanier was always ready to take shots of cars wrapped around utility polls, but he enjoyed capturing the Las Vegas Strip glimmering at sunset and the rustic landscapes of rural Nevada.

"When I came to the Review-Journal in 1971, we were still running tons of traffic accident photos, and Rene would listen to the police scanner and run out to get those pictures in time for deadline," former Review-Journal Managing Editor Mary Hausch said.

"He loved the nuts and bolts type of photography. But he also enjoyed taking photos of rural Nevada for (the Sunday supplement) and was a sucker for sunsets and moon-over-Las Vegas photos. He was content to let the younger guys do the more glamourous assignments."

Germanier, who got his start in newspaper photography with the Las Vegas Sun in the 1960s, where he chronicled major events including race riots in West Las Vegas, died Sept. 29 of a heart attack, his family said. He was 74.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of nearly 50 years were private.

Germanier long was a mentor to young newspaper photographers.

"He was a good teacher from the old school of newspaper photography," said Las Vegas photographer Lee Zaichick, who worked as an intern for the Review-Journal in the early 1980s and later as a staff photographer for the Sun.

"He had an eye for the art of photography and was always there to answer my questions, including how to overcome lighting problems. He had a fire in his heart for the business."

Hausch, who today is an assistant journalism professor at UNLV, said Germanier was "extremely dependable." So much so, she said, he never took sick leave in nearly 20 years with the company until he had a heart attack in the late 1980s. Germanier underwent heart bypass surgery 10 years ago.

"He was fanatic about just about anything he did -- really on the edge," said Frank Mitrani, director of the Media Group, a loose organization of old-time newspaper and television reporters and other news media members who meet for monthly lunches -- a group of which Germanier was an active member.

"In recent years, he loved doing stock trading on the Internet."

Born May 4, 1930, in Martigny, Switzerland, Germanier came to the United States as a teenager.

Germanier, who never lost his strong European accent, worked for a photo processing business on Oakey Boulevard before joining the Sun in the 1960s.

He left the Sun in 1970 to work for the Review-Journal and served for a time as that paper's chief photographer. His work for that newspaper included covering the volatile Culinary Union strike in the 1980s.

Germanier is survived by his wife, Helen Germanier, a daughter, Lisa Stevens; a stepson Burton Spencer; and three brothers, Albert Germanier, Andre Germanier and Jean-Pierre Germanier.