My love of photography began at an early age. As a child I borrowed my parents’ Kodak Instamatic camera and took countless photos of the family house, my younger sister, our cat, and the toy models I had built. I took the 126-format film photo cartridge (the technology of the day) to a local drugstore to be sent out for development. My parents did not complain when I charged it to their drugstore account. My father did, however, grumble once to me about the number of pictures of our house—a subtle sign to diversify my photo subjects. I eagerly awaited the return of the printed images and negatives a few days later.
These images of my younger sister recorded her childhood at a time when to our young eyes the future seemed to stretch out forever. Now I am more aware of the swift passing of time, memories, and precious lives. This experience in taking pictures of people later made me aware that I was “capturing the moment.” The photographs I took of my sister are some of the few that exist from that time in her life, especially after a fire ravaged the family house.
My favorite pictures, if truth be told, combined my love of building model airplanes and warships with photography. I really enjoyed building Monogram and Revell plastic models of military aircraft and battleships. These were available for purchase at the nearby drugstore courtesy of mom and dad’s account! As my photographic interests evolved, I realized I could enact and photograph battle scenes with the plastic models being burned or blown up with firecrackers. Timing was, of course, everything with this photo shoot. I sometimes think that my later adventures as a photojournalist in strife-filled countries were somehow related to this early impulse of recording conflict. Then as now, timing and location is everything to capture the critical shot that tells a compelling story.
A consistent theme in these photographic activities is an interest in people. Coming from a family with interests in engineering, computer science, and math, I have always excelled in science—photography is both a physical science and an art—but understanding human behavior has been of greater interest. Photography has been one way to capture the complexity of human behavior and affirm the fundamental worth of each life. This is the path I have chosen, and I would not have it any other way.