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.
Nazi propaganda poster circa 1933 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Newspaper ad Mussolini Speaks 1933 Winter Garden Theater Fredonia NY color and frame added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Graf Zeppelin flying over Gothic Cathedral Cologne Germany March 1936 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Graf Zeppelin flying over Washington DC 1931 by David Lee Guss
Graf Zeppelin flying by the Empire State Building circa 1933 color and vignette added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Hindenburg flies over Brooklyn New York 1936 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Hindenburg flies over Manhattan New York City 1936 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Hindenburg flies over Manhattan New York City April 1st 1936 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Zeppelin Hindenburg at Lakehurst New Jersey 1936 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
The Hindenburg lobby card 1975 color and frame added 2015 by David Lee Guss
The Hindenburg Disaster Number one Lakehurst New Jersey May 6 1937 Color Added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow publicity photo number one 2004 by David Lee Guss
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow publicity photo number two 2004 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Ascending Balloons Arizona City Arizona 1980-2008 by David Lee Guss
Fairchild Zeppelin over Manhattan New York City 1931 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Start of womens bike race Fox Tucson Theater Tucson Arizona 1933 vignette and color added 2010 by David Lee Guss
Junk and close by living quarters Carl Mydans photo FSA April 1939 Milwaukee Wisconsin by David Lee Guss
Joes Auto Graveyard Walker Evans Pennsylvania Ohio 1935 by David Lee Guss
Main Street block Walker Evans FSA photo Selma Alabama 1936 by David Lee Guss
Family living in field on U.S. Route 70 near the Tennessee River Carl Mydans FSA photo March 1936 by David Lee Guss
Resident Ben Shahn Farm Security Administration photo Smithland Kentucky September 1935 by David Lee Guss
Children of rehabilitation client Ben Shahn FSA photo Maria Plantation Arkansas October 1935 by David Lee Guss
Mahlis Malt Co store front black residents Columbus Ohio Ben Shahn FSA photo Columbus Ohio August 19 by David Lee Guss
Boys salvaging coal Ben Shahn FSA photo Nanty Glo Pennsylvania 1937 by David Lee Guss
The Alamo Theater John Vachon Bela Lugosi serial number one Washington DC 1937 color added 2010 by David Lee Guss
The Alamo Theater John Vachon Bela Lugosi serial number two Washington DC 1937 color added 2010 by David Lee Guss
Midcity Cinema John Vachon FSA photo Washington DC December 1937 by David Lee Guss
Watching the Armistice Day parade John Vachon FSA photo Omaha Nebraska November 1938 by David Lee Guss
A and P store ben shahn fsa photo somerset ohio summer 1938 by David Lee Guss
The Roaring West Buck Jones Homage Walker Evans photo 1936-2010 by David Lee Guss
The Stag flophouse John Vachon FSA photo November 1938 Omaha Nebraska by David Lee Guss
Criterion Rooms flophouse cots 75 cents per night 138 S. Meyer Tucson Arizona 1967 by David Lee Guss
Hitlers personal standard color and frames added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Adolf Hitler greeting adoring fans Nuremberg Germany 1933 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
Adolf Hitler viewing parade in Nuremberg full frame 1936 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Adolf Hitler screening a film Berlin Germany circa 1936 color and frame added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Lyric Theater King Kong Collage Tucson Arizona 1933-2013 by David Lee Guss
Fay Wray King Kong publicity photo 1 RKO Radio 1933 color added 2016 by David Lee Guss
Fay Wray King Kong publicity photo 2 created for Argentinian magazine RKO Radio 1933 color added by David Lee Guss
King Kong Poster number 4 French Rko Radio 1933 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
King Kong Remake Poster Mall Casa Grande Arizona Christmas 2005 by David Lee Guss
Mae West With Wings publicity photo Circa 1934-2015 by David Lee Guss
Martin Landau Sitting Ed Wood Publicity Photo 1994 by David Lee Guss
Pico Drive In Los Angeles California 1934 color added 2015 by David Lee Guss
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