The photos on contact sheet #41 were taken in Iowa City in the spring of 1981.

The first few photos, a39 - a41, were of a visiting photographic dignitary to the University of Iowa School of Journalism.  Professor Carol Becker Ohrn sits on the right.  Photos a42 and a43 are of the passage between Seashore Hall and Van Allen Hall on the university campus.  Seashore Hall no longer stands.  This passage exists only in photographs now.

Photo a44 is of a journalism student writing a story on the computer.  I don’t remember its particular operating system, but it was much like Word Perfect on MS/DOS running on Univax.  Clumsy.  Prone to failure.  It taught us all to save frequently.  It was a lot easier than using a Morgenthaler hot lead type foundry.

The photos with a b are of construction in Iowa City.  I think that this may be the first of the parking lots going up downtown.

Photos 4101 through 4106 were taken in the beer garden of Gabe’s tavern.  The first two were of a student of mine taking a photo of me.  I wonder if she has the negative somewhere.  I was a teaching assistant in photojournalism.  The last four photographs are of Pam French and a friend of hers.  Gabe’s beer garden was a marvelous place on a Friday evening, a great place to begin the weekend.  There were a lot of friends and friends of friends and circles of friends that circled about.

There are other photos from the beer garden.  I hope I still have them.  I’ll tell more of those stories when those photos appear.

Photos 4114 through 4117 are from the lounge of a hotel on the easterly side of downtown Des Moines.  I forget the name.  My friends Wang Wei Kei, and another guy whose name I forget, were trying to take pictures of the women attending the state’s convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  I was trying to take pictures of them trying to take pictures of others.

Photos 4118 through 4134 are of the judging of student photographs by the Iowa State Association of Press Photographers.  I had photographs among those being judged.  The journalism school faculty told me that they expected me to compete as a precondition of keeping my teaching assistanceship. My photos were not well received.  One judge asked, “What drug was he on when he shot this photo?”  I replied, “Caffeine.”  It was the picture of the bicycles and shadows.  I had a very strong portfolio but the association chose to give no award than to give it to me.  My photos didn’t look journalistic to their eye.  Over in the art department my photographs would have been too realistic, too narrative.  I was using a wide-angle lens as my ‘normal’. long before most.  Go back and look at journalistic photos of the era  The experience confirmed my view of photograph contests.  I have only participated in two photographic contests since - I sent in a photo of Mt. Baker to the Washington Trails annual photo contest, and got nothing.  I also participated in the yearly Pacific County Fair, where the photographic judge was a retired fire chief.

I felt dismal after getting no love from the judges for what I thought were ground-breaking images.

I have had the great fortune of having had many friends and the fortune that some of them are exceptionally pretty.  Immediately after the photographic judging everyone left the conference room for the foyer.  All the photographers went to the buffet being served in the bowels of the hotel, but I had my friend Suzanne Searles waiting for me.  She was absolutely gorgeous and I was so happy that the photographers got to see me leave with her to our own dinner.  Did I mention that there was not a single woman in the Iowa Press Photographers Association back in 1981?  At least none at that meeting.

Suzanne met a terrible end.  I miss her.  Not only was she gorgeous, she was intelligent, fun, and a talented graphic designer.  She was extremely attractive whether or not she was pretty.  She was pretty.

The photos referenced in this essay can be found in the Photo by Numbers section in the gallery 00040.