Creator of iconic police photo found
Image of officer in buffalo coat became famous
Peter Schwake never knew a photograph he took of an onduty officer in the 1960s is an important piece of Edmonton police history.
Schwake died in 1999 before anyone could connect him to the photograph.
The black-and-white image of a beat officer on duty in the customary outfit of the time — an 11-kilogram buffalo coat —was known around the police department.
But no one knew anything about the photographer or the subject for years, yet the picture appeared on the cover of the Edmonton phone book in 1992 and on the front of the magazine for retired police officers for several years. It was put up in a police lounge and was on display at police headquarters.
Janette Schwake said her husband would have been “thrilled” to know its value to the police department.
“He’d be just tickled pink. He knew a lot of policemen and was friends with a lot of them,” she said.
It wasn’t until she read about the photograph in the Journal last month, when the subject was finally identified as police officer Harry Surcon, that she realized its significance.
“I’m really surprised that this photograph actually ended up so famous. We never thought about it,” Schwake said.
The original was stored in a box, just one of many tubs containing Schwake’s 36 years of work as a photographer.
It was a cold Saturday in November or December 1963 when Schwake, a first-year photography student at NAIT, captured Surcon at a call box on Jasper Avenue, across the street from the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Barbara. Schwake left a copy for Surcon at police headquarters, but didn’t leave his name or phone number.
Schwake, a German immigrant who was a plasterer in Edmonton before becoming a photographer, went on to shoot a range of assignments, including a series on the Bohemian Maid Brewery on Saskatchewan Drive and the Alberta Phoenix Tube and Pipe Limited.
He had a particular interest in mechanical and industrial photography, but shot weddings and “every flower that I ever grew in the garden,” his wife said. He also became a manager at McBain Camera.
Surcon is pleased the photographer has been given the credit he’s due, but is disappointed he never got to meet him again.
“I would thank him for recording a piece of history,” Surcon said, adding that he hopes to meet Schwake’s family one day.
Schwake went back in nicer weather and shot another police officer at the call box. It’s almost an exact replica of the image of Surcon, but the officer wore a pea coat.
Who is this man?