Artist Bob Corujo

Virtually Unknown Even Though Millions Have Seen His Work

Like millions of others, I had never heard of artist, Bob Corujo until I saw this CBS segment of the now retired 60 Minutes artist. That’s right. Bob Corujo was the artist behind the incredible artworks, known to the 60 Minutes crew as ‘books’, which the correspondent would sit in front of while they introduced the news story.

Many viewers hardly noticed his work. Being an artist, it’s hard for me not to notice other works of art. I had noticed Bob’s of course, on the occasion I would watch 60 Minutes. But I had no idea that all of that work for over 35 years was the work of one man, three stories a week for every season.

Humble Beginnings

Bob Corujo grew up in the Bronx. A Puerto Rican kid with a passion for drawing. In the video he says that the art was just something within him that had to come out. Here was a kid with no college education that made a fantastic career out of what he loved doing. For 35 years, he had the first crack at illustrating history. The end of Apartheid, the Challenger disaster, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin wall, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 to name just a few. His work had to be powerful, simple, and easy to understand almost immediately upon seeing it. It was after all, only on screen for about a minute behind the correspondent during the story’s introduction.

I think it’s important to keep in mind that back when he started 1980, things were done by hand. There were no fancy computer graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop. It was done the old fashioned way with real film photography and traditional drawing and painting on cardboard, hand-crafted ‘books’. The number of his books is estimated at over 3,000, all lining the walls of the 60 Minutes studio or in the office spaces of the correspondents who delivered those stories.

The Man Who Turns News Into Art – CBS News

But I don’t want to give it all away. Check out the video and see for yourself. It’s an incredible story of how one kid made his dreams come true, not just by living his passion, but by so powerfully illustrating this world’s history.

And make sure to check out Bob’s Books: A Gallery of 60 Minutes Art to see a collection of 40 of Bob’s works.