LA shooter Fred Prouser steps down after 'quite a ride'

After 22 years as a Reuters photographer in Los Angeles covering crime, natural disasters and more than 3,000 show business events, Fred Prouser (photo)​, has stepped down following a return of the cancer he has battled for the past four years.

“I have spent my career freelancing and doing wire service photography encouraged by my late wife Rose Prouser, from my first wire service job in 1975 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for UPI when Pat Benic, UPI staffer at the time, hired me at $12.50 per picture, then moved to the AP in the same city, until 1992,” he told The Baron.

“I met Reuters’ Larry Rubenstein at a National Press Photographers Association seminar before moving to Los Angeles in March 1992, gave my resumé, and at the end of March Washington assignment editor Tim Aubry called saying they may need help in LA with the Rodney King trial. On a hunch, I drove out to the court house in Similar Valley, California and the verdict came down. I shot the acquitted officers leaving, worked the Leafax transmitter to get pictures on the wire from the court and then headed to the LA bureau to process and transmit riot photos taken by Reuters freelancers Lee Celano and Sam Mircovich.

“I worked for Reuters ever since, the last 16 as senior staff photographer. From earthquakes, riots, floods, fires, to shooting OJ Simpson and the various trials, space shuttle landings at Edwards Air Force Base, covering presidential and heads of state visits, to an exclusive on Frank Sinatra’s 80th birthday, 19 Academy Award ceremonies, to business features - it’s been quite a ride.

“My late wife Rose also shot as a contract photographer for Reuters. She died in 2013 after a four-year brain cancer battle. I took care of her while still working full time. I was diagnosed with liver cancer in November 2009. I had surgery, but the cancer came back and in 2012 I went on the UCLA liver transplant list. I was for 18 months almost at the top of the list for a new liver but got knocked off the list in November 2013 due to a poor biopsy finding, so I worked one last award season. A new tumor has developed and I’m due for a procedure on April 2.”

He added: “I decided to go out on disability and concentrate on being, enjoying life and a new relationship. So, it’s not retirement.” ■