lynn, circa 1950
but when you begin a journey, you don’t always know what’s most important to bring along.
This brief story will help explain how I became a photographer.
In 1965 I was a college student inspired by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who called for volunteers to join him in the civil rights movement.
Black Americans in the South were engaged in a determined struggle to gain the right to vote. They were facing violent resistance, beatings, jail and death.
By June I was on a train heading from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Greensboro, Alabama to join the registration campaign.
Greensboro Herald newspaper
Klu Klux Klan Leaflet
A photographer friend insisted I had to document my experiences and gave me a camera. But when I got to Greensboro I pushed the Nikon under my bed where it stayed all summer, a decision I have regretted ever since.
Lynn & friend, Greensboro, Alabama, 1965 ©mary swope
The friends I met, and the actions of that summer shaped my life. I realized later I had lost a unique opportunity to tell their story with a camera.
But after my mother’s sudden death in 1968 I got a second chance.
Lynn photographing kids at Project One.
A strange and detailed dream led me to discover her old Olympus camera, hidden in a drawer in the attic of her house.
This time I embraced the opportunity and became obsessed with the act of shooting, developing film and watching images as they magically emerged in the darkroom tray- and then sharing them with others.
By 1970 I was in San Francisco, and with several other photographers founded Optic Nerve, a photographic collective focusing on social issues and American culture.
While the impetus for Optic Nerve was the still image, in 1972 we were drawn to the new medium of portable video. We produced documentaries going behind the scenes at beauty pageants, rodeos, county jails and truck stops.
In 1980, I joined with two other former members of Optic Nerve to create a partnership, Ideas in Motion, continuing to apply the documentary approach in our work.
However, throughout the years, I never stopped taking photographs.
Recording sound on site in Cuba, 1979
Recording sound on the road in the U.S, 1978
This work reflects how I saw moments of my life with my camera — from politics and culture, to global explorations, to my community and family.
Lynn and Maya