As an undergraduate, I had many fine teachers… above all, was Tom Eckersley.  Imagine how happy I was to recently discover he is retired and well in South Carolina.  I had Tom as a teacher for Photo II and also Color Transparency Materials, which sounds very dry and technical.  It was, but it was so much more.  We were required to take all images on Ektachrome transparency film.  NO margin for error - Shoot, and Develop, using the hour-long E-4 process.  Exposure had to be perfect.  Composition had to be perfect. Unlike the darkroom, or even Photoshop, there was ZERO chance to manipulate or change the image in any way.  What you shot was what you got.  It was an entire photo-education in a single course!  We learned to slow down, and craft our images, something that has followed me my whole career.  I really wish there was a digital equivalent – no “fixing it in post”. I will be forever grateful for this course, and especially Tom Eckersley’s patient instruction.

While in Professor Eckersley’s class, I became friends with another young photographer, Ben Partick.  Ben was a student (disciple) of the Zone System (made famous by Ansel Adams) and a supreme technician, while I had more of a spontaneous, discovery, process kind of technique.  We frustrated each other, and we connected instantly.  We lived in the darkroom and soon became the “young guns” of the department.  We taught and challenged each other.  As seniors, Ben and I were chosen, to do the first undergraduate exhibit in Tyler Gallery.  We would remain friends after graduation… in fact, he photographed my wedding.  Ben went on to a career in fine woodworking and construction, then he would become a magazine photographer. Sadly, Ben was killed, while on assignment out West in a flash flood.  I think about him often.