Once back, Kotalik's first big assignment came in 1946, when he was sent to cover rioting at the Airport Homes housing project on the South Side.

"Photography. It just came to me," he said. "I never took any lessons; I just started to shoot."

Press photographers during those years had greater access to the news than today's photogs. Police slowly walked suspects past waiting photographers. Some crimes were even re-enacted for film. And photographers were free to take pictures in criminal court-often behind a presiding judge.

Those were far different days, Kotalik said. "We used to go on walks with President Truman every morning when he came to town."