Crestline resident’s photo becomes USPS stamp

Gary Clark got an unexpected call from his mom in North Carolina the first week of February.

“Your stamp is out,” she told him. “I told everyone it’s your stamp.” 

Clark, a Crestline resident of 20 years, headed straight to the downtown post office and bought books and rolls of the new Forever stamp. Then he got online and ordered postcards with the first issue date, Jan. 28, 2014. Today he proudly keeps a folder full of these keepsakes, including a copy of the Southern Living issue in which the image originally ran.

The U.S. Postal Service had originally contacted Clark, a 29-year Southern Living travel photographer, back in 2008 about using his photo after seeing it in the July 2005 issue of the magazine. 

Clark had captured the image the previous year while shooting a story on Baltimore. He had watched park employees in period costume as a part of the Defenders’ Day festivities and stuck around for the fireworks show on the harbor that night.

It was there, after all, that in September 1814, Francis Scott Key penned “The Star Spangled Banner” while watching an American flag flying over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. This year marks the 200th anniversary of that event.

Clark knew he wanted to shoot the flag on the fort in the foreground and with the fireworks over the harbor in the background, but first he had to get permission to enter the fort. Fortunately, the writer he was working with was able to make a few phone calls to connections in Washington, D.C. to grant the request.

A breeze kicked up as fireworks started that night, sending the flag into rapid motion. Clark, who was then shooting on film, was only able to get four or five shorts that were usable. The image that would run in the magazine was the best of them.

Fast-forward to 2013. Clark was no longer working at Southern Living, and the USPS had lost touch with him in the long process of bringing the stamp to life. 

A week before the stamp’s dedication service was scheduled in D.C. in March, a PR representative from the USPS finally contacted Clark and invited him to the event the following week. After a snowstorm delay, Clark and his wife, Jill, attended the festivities at the National Museum of American History, where the restored American flag that Frances Scott Key saw is on display.

“It was an honor,” Clark said. “They brought me up on stage, and I got to meet the designer of the stamp.”

Since then, Clark said friends from high school have sent stamps for him to sign, and he gets excited whenever he sees letters posted with the stamp.

Since leaving Southern Living, Clark has been dreaming of opening up a camera store in town and perfecting the art of Instagram @thegaryclark.