Casa Grande, AZ
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 class days before his death.
I still consider myself an amateur photographer as almost all my work displayed here has been self assignments. After graduating from an announcing school in Minneapolis in 1964 I began employment as a news anchorman/booth announcer/writer/still photographer, at the now defunct KXAB TV in Aberdeen, South Dakota, without having taken a journalism course or ever have taken a photograph. (I bluffed my way into the job.) Being essentially my own boss of a one man news team, I could repeatedly blunder and bury my numerous mistakes. There I began my thematic, photo essays as stories for broadcast in black and white slide form. I found photography much more rewarding than being a media celebrity.
After an abortive try at the Peace Corps I landed at KVOA TV in Tucson, Arizona in April 1967 as a news editor/cinematographer. I continued with the photo essays now shot on negative film, and printed/ rephotographed with 16mm film. My only on air appearances were when I did "stand-uppers" or interviews.
Since then I have spent decades as a teacher of arts related subjects (acting, film making/history, creative writing, art history, literature and photography, English, etc.) in various community colleges, universities and prison facilities in Arizona.
My images, with the captions and descriptions, speak for themselves. I am presently building a website (vanishingamericanwest.com) which will feature my photo essays and short films.
My photo essays are in numerous archives/museums in the US and Europe. I am the only living photographer who has his own archive at the University of Arizona Special Collections Library in Tucson.
My prize winning short films/videos have been screened at festivals in Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan. Malta and Spain; and on many US cable systems.
Since 1994 I have lived in an adobe house in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Mrs Evelyn Nesbit and Son Russell William Thaw Arnold Genthe photo New York 1913 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Men line up to enlist in the Army at the start of WW1 London 1914 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
German soldiers marching in town at the beginning of WW1 1914 color frame added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Life in a Western Penitentiary Moving Picture World trade ad Dec 27 1913 Citagraph Company 1914 col by David Lee Guss
Messenger boy for Mackay Telegraph Co. Lewis Hine photo Waco Texas 1913 color frame added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Lewis Hine photographing children in a slum location or photographer unknown circa 1910 by David Lee Guss
Film Homage Billy Bitzer Miriam Cooper Intolerance 1916 Screen Capture Color Added 2012 by David Lee Guss
Recruiting Display 23rd And Broadway Flatiron Building New York City April 1917-2014 by David Lee Guss
Plank Rd first planks 1915 entrance Holtville California circa 1915 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Remnants of Old Plank Road Algodones Dunes photo by Perdelsky number seven Imperial County CA 2007 by David Lee Guss
Soldiers marching in WW1 parade El Paso and Southwestern Depot Tucson Arizona circa 1916-2015 by David Lee Guss
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