Retired photojournalist Hetzel, 85, revisits globe-spanning life through lens

Leo Hetzel, an 85-year-old retired photojournalist who spent 35 years at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, drew more than 100 people to the Library of the Canyons for a two-hour-plus slideshow tracing his life through photographs taken across South America, Africa and Southern California.

The presentation, sponsored by the Friends of the Library and reported by Voice of OC, offered a rare public window into a career defined by restless curiosity — from hitchhiking through Peru to covering Southern California news for three and a half decades, with an OC connection rooted in 35 years of volunteer firefighting in Modjeska Canyon.

More than 100 people — from Long Beach, Los Angeles and surrounding canyon communities — filled the venue for the event, which was organized by the Friends of the Library.

"This guy's had the most vigorous and adventurous life," Andrew Tonkovich, chair of the Friends of the Library, told Voice of OC. "Leo is just a really solid person with what I would call deeply humanist values."

Hetzel told the crowd he left the United States for seven years — five in South America and nearly one in Africa and Europe — long before settling into steady work. He hitchhiked to Lima, Peru, sleeping on village floors along the way, and later photographed former Chilean President Salvador Allende. A chance encounter at Machu Picchu turned his fortunes: "I met a photo editor in Machu Picchu who needed pictures for textbooks, and we made $15,000 that year, which lasted me three years," Hetzel said, according to Voice of OC.

Returning to Southern California, Hetzel struggled as a freelancer before landing a staff job at the Long Beach Press-Telegram in 1979. He recalled that editor Larry Allison confronted him at the interview: "If I look at your resume, you've never worked a steady job, and you've been gone seven years. We need you to commit." Hetzel promised five years. He stayed 35.

Alongside his journalism career, Hetzel volunteered as a firefighter in Modjeska Canyon for 35 years and mentored young photographers at Silverado Park in Long Beach through a federal employment program in the 1970s. He drew a clear line between his two identities during emergencies. "I was a fireman, not a journalist, so I didn't take my camera," he said.

Now retired, Hetzel photographs roadside memorials to draw attention to dangerous roads — a project that keeps his lens, and his curiosity, pointed forward.

Hetzel said retirement did not come easily. "It was not easy to retire, because you can't stop being a journalist, you're always going to be curious," he said. He still carries a camera.