Impassioned couple 1972 Democratic National Convention Miami Beach Florida Canvas Print

The rest of the crowd does not share their exuberance.

"The 1972 Democratic National Convention's platform has been characterized as 'probably the most liberal one ever adopted by a major party in the United States.' It advocated immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, amnesty for war resisters, the abolition of the draft, a guaranteed job for all Americans (it offered to 'make the government the employer of last resort.'), and a guaranteed family income well above the poverty line."

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...