0.16 Earlie hudnall, jr., b. 1946  (Page 2/3)

I was hooked at that point on being a photographer, and during that summer in high school I remember going to the community swimming pool, taking my father’s camera that he purchased while he was in the service and making photographs—but lo and behold, I dropped the camera in the pool. The lifeguard dived in and got the camera out. I tried to dry it out—I took it home and hid it in the attic. And for some particular reason, my father never asked about it. Later on in life we talked about it and I told him what happened. So the seed of photography was basically planted. Going and joining the Marine Corps, I purchased a small camera and began to make pictures of the guys that was around and our activities, the places we traveled. So this is how it started, never knowing that I would pursue photography as a profession, but having that experience.

Campus connections

On campus there was a guy named Nathaniel Sweets, from East St. Louis, Illinois. His father was a newspaper editor and he was a photographer. I met him and I said, “Hey, man—I have a camera up in my room. I made a lot of pictures while I was in Vietnam.” He said, “Man, why don’t you get your camera and shoot some pictures? I can develop the film.” So I went up and got my camera and that day I made photographs. He developed the film in his room, using water from his aquarium to cool the chemicals down. This was my first introduction to actually developing film. Almost within a couple of weeks of that time, I discovered that there was a darkroom in the art department. One day here comes Dr. Biggers down the hallway, dressed in a white dashiki and white pants and sandals, and I said, “Dr. Biggers, I heard that there’s a darkroom here in the art department and I would like to know if I could use it.” He said, “Sure man—go right ahead.” And he provided the darkroom for me.

So from there on, Nathaniel Sweets and I would go down to Southwestern Camera Store which was located on Main Street and buy a box of paper for $12, [then] come back and use the darkroom in the art department. This is where I began to learn and experiment. There at TSU at that time we were able to work in the art department till 10:00 at night. We was able to come over there early in the morning…people would play their music, and there would be people in the painting room…four or five people in the ceramics room…somebody in the weavings room. Almost any evening at any time students would go back to the art department and work. There would be an instructor around, or one would be in and out. You could come right off the street—the door was open—go in and work till 10:30 or 11:00 at night.

I think having the ability to create absorbed a lot of energy rather than finding places to go. That was a time when integration was just beginning to blossom and students began to branch out from campus. This was right after the time that Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and the Kennedy assassination. Students were in this new renaissance mode of working and producing, and the faculty was encouraging students to work. We was able to observe Mr. Simms