A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

This week's coverage of Liberty Weekend festivities in New York harbor includes the largest photograph ever published in TIME. A shore-to-shore image of the fireworks display at the Statue of Liberty, it spans four pages and is followed by a three-page panoramic picture of Operation Sail ships on the Hudson River.

Not surprisingly, the project posed some unique and vexing challenges. To be in the right place at the right time for sweeping views, photographers stationed themselves on wharves, docks, boats, helicopters and even blimps around Liberty Island. Obtaining pictures of brilliant fireworks bursting above a completely lighted Statue of Liberty required deft calculation of proper exposures, plus a certain amount of luck. Finally, the endeavor called for printing single photographs across multiple pages, necessitating the convoluted folding of outsize pages into the rest of the magazine.

Planning for the effort began months ago. "At first we were told it couldn't be done," says Art Director Rudolph Hoglund. "But then Operations Director Gerard Lelievre figured out the answer." Explains Lelievre: "We had been thinking of doing it like double doors, but that was not possible with the story's late closing. I came up with the idea of two single gatefolds bound next to each other, and then I explained the concept by folding yellow-pad sheets." White House Photographer Dirck Halstead was charged with deploying 15 photographers for this week's centennial coverage. He arranged for locations with the Navy, Coast Guard and White House, plus the states of New York and New Jersey. The planning paid off. From the New Jersey side of the harbor, Ted Thai, who immigrated to the U.S. from Viet Nam in 1973, snapped the four-page fireworks vista on Friday night. Photographer Neil Leifer was on Governors Island for the cover photo, taken after the torch- lighting ceremony Thursday. He caught the Operation Sail scene the following morning from a helicopter. A sea-land relay team rushed all the film from the harbor to the photo lab. Deputy Picture Editor Michele Stephenson, Assistant Picture Editor Peter Kellner and Special Projects Art Director Tom Bentkowski reviewed the color transparencies and sent the editors' selections to printing plants in locations around the country. Says Stephenson: "When we began, the venture seemed so complicated that it couldn't possibly come together, but it did. It worked out just as we had hoped."