An Interview with Clearwater's Official Photographer J. Arlos Ogg, the official Clearwater photographer for many decades, is one of the individuals most responsible for preserving the heritage of the city. In this interview, he reminisces about his life and offers insights into the Clearwater of today, including why it is so named.
Four years after Arlos Ogg employed his first unwieldy camera, a large box Brownie, his parents moved to a farm in Brooksville, Florida. Ogg was only 11 at the time, but he had already learned to drive four-horse teams hitched to gangplows, and to build a house from the foundation up.
About the time he was ready for high school, the family moved south 50 miles to Clearwater where Ogg attended Clearwater High School, behind the current site of Ward Elementary. "The population was 2,900 at that time," he recalled, "and I think that included the cats and the dogs." He graduated in 1922 with 28 others from Clearwater, Dunedin and Safety Harbor. Most students arrived for classes by car, as there were no buses then. They met in the courtroom of the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater for the graduation ceremony.
Ogg went on to the University of Florida in Gainesville where in 1926 he earned a degree in chemistry. He then accepted a position as professor of chemistry at the State College in Raleigh, North Carolina. One year shy of his doctorate, the Depression caught up with the college and Ogg's salary was reduced so drastically that he was unable to afford his job. He returned home to Clearwater.
In addition to taking some 60,000 photographs, such as this 1940 aerial view of Clearwater Beach (bottom right), Arlos Ogg (bottom left) collected many others, like the view above of the 1902 recreational pier. 
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