MY DAD AT THE TRAIN STATION,
PAINESVILLE, OHIO, 1959

The first photograph I made that mattered to anyone other than me is this one, of my father watching a train leave the station in winter.

It's a picture from one of our photographic outings. We'd go to places he liked - circuses, train stations, working quarries, livestock auctions, parades with pretty girls, weddings and prize fights. I liked these places too, so the tone was always easy and light. He was a teacher but never instructed. He'd just say things from time to time, like "Look for strong diagonals", "Remember the 'S' curve", "Keep the sun at your back", "Bad weather makes good pictures" and a favorite "The unusual wins out over the usual."

In 1960 this picture won a small prize in the Kodak National High School Photo Contest. I sometimes wonder what would have happened to my photographic life without that little award.

My father was pleased. The picture has a strong diagonal, the sun's near my back and the weather is bad.