UT-Austin 1970-1974

In the fall of 1970, I enrolled at the University of Texas as an English major, but halfway through my freshman year switched to journalism so I could get into the photography classes. That was quite a commitment, since I had to complete a year of introductory communication and journalism courses before starting the first photojournalism class. And that choice changed everything for me.

It was exhilarating to be a UT journalism student in the early 70s. A couple of young reporters at the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were untangling the Watergate scandal. The student newspaper was running as many as 16 full-sized newspaper pages, published daily, covering not just the university, but the city, the state capitol (visible from the campus), and the nation and world via the UPI wire service. Graduate students with years of newspaper experience supervised undergraduate reporters and editors. Garry Winogrand was teaching in the art department. And providing a sense of history and our place in the world, the university’s Harry Ransom Center housed the renowned Gernsheim photography collection nearby. (The collection includes the earliest known surviving photograph, created around 1826 by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.)

Confirming our conviction that this was the place to be, a new, world-class building for the School of Communications was rising on the northwest corner of the campus.

Within this educational and experiential juggernaut, the discipline of photojournalism was energized by the leadership of James (J.B.) Colson and Frank Armstrong. They team-taught several classes in a “lite” version of good cop/bad cop, where JB’s academic quickness and fierce intellect challenged us, and Frank’s unflagging encouragement and generosity kept us engaged.

I’m not sure what they saw in me, but after a couple of semesters, I was hired as a part-time photo-lab instructor and then later, instructor Larry Schaaf put me in charge of the darkrooms, studios and equipment room. The confidence they showed in me and the experience I gained were invaluable.

Back then, I thought I was learning photography and journalism, but now I know that during my years there, they taught me—rather, they showed me—what it means to practice a discipline with integrity.