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Transcription below by: Brad Baker (2010 adult workshop). Edited transcription by: Judy Minton (volunteer). Please report errors to: info@tellingstories.org

Middle East Photography

How did you become interested in photography?

At the University of Michigan, I had gotten involved in ceramics. I was throwing pots and mixing glazes. I had always taken pictures. My mother was very, very handy with her hands and very creative. She was a weaver, a tapestry designer and a knitter. She spun wool, dyed it and taught weaving. She was the first weaving teacher in Rochester. She also had a camera, and built a dark room in our cellar— a cold damp place. I learned to make prints, probably somewhere between seven and nine. I had a camera, which I used for recording things, my trips, my friends and so on.

I had no idea that I had any abilities in the visual world at all. But at the University of Michigan, I became involved in creating pots and ceramics. Then in my Middle East studies, the art courses were the ones I found the most fascinating. Without any sense that there was any future for me in this, I went off to the Middle East. The first thing that I looked for in this small Arab town, was a place where I could throw pots. There was nothing. There was a factory where they made earthenware pots but I soon realized that that wasn't going to work for me.

Cameras were cheap so I bought a camera and started taking pictures. Then I subscribed to Popular Photography Magazine which arrived three months late. I devoured every issue. I build a dark room at the school and I began teaching dark room technique to kids.

This was all in the Middle East, correct?

Yes, this was all in Ramallah.

Was this when you decided that being a photographer was what you wanted to do as a career?

This grew gradually. So, I'm in this fascinating world, shooting in Jerusalem and taking pictures. Pretty soon I got to be known as the photography nut. The Middle East was kind of a focus and photojournalists would come through. They were always looking for an assistant, somebody who would lug their equipment and not get in their way. I would always be recommended. So I spent a couple of days with Howard Sochurek, a LIFE photographer, and a couple of other people. I saw this profession of photojournalism which was very interesting and glamorous in those days. This was also the beginning of Magnum Photos. Werner Bischof and some of the people who had photographed the Spanish Civil War became my heroes and I started thinking about this.

Then when I finished my two years at the school and went to Beirut, I ran into a classmate of mine from Princeton who was editing the alumni magazine for The American University of Beirut. He started giving me assignments. I wrote a couple of articles on Jordan and Jerusalem, illustrated with my photographs. Then he said, "Well, why don't you just take pictures for me?" So I began thinking, "Hey, I'm a photographer." At that point I said, "Yeah, I want to be a photojournalist." I didn't know quite how to do it but I wanted to be like those Magnum guys. I say guys, as there were very few women involved in this at the time.

I got married, which is a another very long story, and on our honeymoon we ended up in Paris. There was a Magnum show, and I took my wife to it. Going through the show and looking at the photographs, she finally got, for the first time, that this was something important that I could do. I wasn't going to become a school teacher like her father or something like that. So I came back to the United States intent on pursuing a career in photography. I called Kodak and said, "I'm a photographer and I want to work for you."

And their response?

It so happened that one of their photographers had broken his leg the week before, talk about serendipity. It was a compound fracture and it was going to take a long time to heal. So for the first time, they did need a photographer. I went in and showed them my lame portfolio and they hired me. That was when I discovered what it was actually like to take a camera and go out and work on assignments. I spent, I don't know, six months, nine months, working for that job.