OREGON PHOTO STILLS
After earning my degree in Photography at Ohio University and coming out as a lesbian, I traveled with six other women to the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico for the Summer Solstice Celebration in 1974. I ended up hitchhiking from Tucson, to San Francisco, California. With little money, I encountered Hell's Angels, the Moonies, and lived on the streets and under bushes for months. Eventually, I made it to the San Diego Women's Music Festival. In rough shape and out of money, I decided to return to Minnesota.
That winter, I lived in the back room of a house across from the Minneapolis Institute of Art, rebuilt a one-ton mail truck, and took photos. Some of them are in the Minnesota portfolio. Then, I drove my truck to New Mexico for the Summer Solstice, bought a camera, and started a new life.
Upon hearing about a WomenSpirit Gathering in Oregon, I drove there and met Ruth and Jean Mountaingrove. Next, I traveled to Eugene, Oregon, and parked my van behind Gertrude's Silver Note Cafe. At that time, using a professional camera's mechanical adjustments and developing and printing photographs were rare skills for women. I gave developing and printing classes in the upstairs bathroom at Gertrude's and tutored women on how to see like a camera and operate it. My photos of Oregon are from the summer of 1975 to the summer of 1976. Many of us used chosen names; mine was Meadowlark.
I began my career at the Albany Democrat Herald in the winter of 1976. It ended after a job assignment to photograph two FBI dogs, an assignment which happened to be an FBI convention. I believe my being a lesbian was connected to my job loss. In the fall, I returned to Minnesota to enter Dunwoody Trade School and became the first woman to graduate in electrical construction.
