ME
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My father owned
a camera store and gave me my first camera, a Baby Brownie, around 1946,
when I was in nursery school. I remember bringing it proudly to school and
having a teacher try to take it away from me because she didn't believe
such a young child would have such a "sophisticated" piece of
equipment.
On weekends, my dad took me on "camera runs". Some were sponsored by the Baltimore Camera Club and others were just family picture-taking excursions. |
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As soon as I became competent with one camera, my dad would give me a more advanced model. I'm the one bringing up the rear with a Duaflex slung around my shoulder at age 7 or 8. |
Camera Club
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| As president of my highschool camera club, I posed photographing the members with my Rolleiflex for the 1959 yearbook. |
The Camera Mart
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| My
father and my uncle decided to go into the camera business together in 1945. Here's
how my mom remembered it: "My husband Ben was a struggling lawyer and camera enthusiast when World War II began. While he was stationed overseas in Guadalcanal, his brother Harry sent him film whenever possible and suggested starting a photographic supplies business when the war ended. In Baltimore, in 1945, Ben and Harry opened the Camera Mart for fellow hobbyists. Stock was hard to get since Eastman was not yet ready to supply new stores. When a shipment of scarce cameras and film arrived at the old drug store across the street, the newcomers rushed to buy whatever they could for resale. Staff in the early days consisted of a local youth who didn't know much and me who know even less, to supervise him. We longed for the day when we could stock little yellow boxes of film and display many cameras from Kodaks to Leicas. Fifty-five years later, the Camera Mart is one of the last of the old time camera shops and is still owned and managed by the Cooper family." |
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| 1945 |
My Mom in front of the Camera
Mart, 1984 | Early
Camera Mart film envelope c. 1950 |
In college I studied art and anthropology but eventually became a professional photographer.
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| as
a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand with Hmong and Nikon F in 1964 | Photography
intern at National Geographic 1968 | Staff
photographer NY Post 1977-80 | in
Verichrome costume at NYC Halloween parade 1990 | in
Mali 1997 |
Contact: Kodakgirl
