I enjoyed reading Frankie Solinsky Duryea ’26’s article about photography classes in the January issue (Student Dispatch). However, saying that the classes offer a “welcome creative respite” does not do justice to their impact on some students. I took a photography class with Emmet Gowin in 1974, soon after he joined the Princeton faculty. It was the most engaging and inspiring class I took at Princeton, and it changed my life. Gowin had a warm and conversational teaching style, and his enthusiasm and even reverence for photography was contagious. I’m still infected, over 50 years later.
I majored in economics at Princeton, and after graduating, I worked in advertising, business, and eventually in academic teaching and research. Sadly, I had to put my photography on the back burner for most of this time in order to earn a living and raise a family. When I retired from college teaching a few years ago, I threw myself back into photography with a vengeance, and it felt as if I had never put my camera down. I’m currently pursuing a new career as a (newbie) fine art photographer, and I am more inspired today by Gowin’s teaching and photographs than I have ever been before.
I enjoyed reading Frankie Solinsky Duryea ’26’s article about photography classes in the January issue (Student Dispatch). However, saying that the classes offer a “welcome creative respite” does not do justice to their impact on some students. I took a photography class with Emmet Gowin in 1974, soon after he joined the Princeton faculty. It was the most engaging and inspiring class I took at Princeton, and it changed my life. Gowin had a warm and conversational teaching style, and his enthusiasm and even reverence for photography was contagious. I’m still infected, over 50 years later.
I majored in economics at Princeton, and after graduating, I worked in advertising, business, and eventually in academic teaching and research. Sadly, I had to put my photography on the back burner for most of this time in order to earn a living and raise a family. When I retired from college teaching a few years ago, I threw myself back into photography with a vengeance, and it felt as if I had never put my camera down. I’m currently pursuing a new career as a (newbie) fine art photographer, and I am more inspired today by Gowin’s teaching and photographs than I have ever been before.