The Fall of 1980

I shot this image while attending college. At the time I was enrolled in

photography courses, developing everything I shot. This was taken in

October of 1980. The economy was in a tailspin and the hostages in

Iran were still being held, To offset the oil crisis we were told to don a

sweater and drive 55. President Carter's poll numbers were abysmal. It

was all beyond his control, and he knew it. This was supposed to be an

upbeat campaign stop but the reality of the times forced their way past

Carter's famous smile.

Lately I've been going through old negatives and scanning them, trying

to learn the in and outs of the digital darkroom while I decide which Dslr

to call my first. This is a crop from a larger image I shot using my old

Nikkormat Ft2 and a borrowed 135 since all I had at the time was my 50

f2 that came with my camera. I cropped the image in faststone to try

and better capture the mood of the President that day.

All comments,critiques and ratings are much appreciated. Thank you for

looking.

Wonderful, Bill! The heavy grain gives a wonderful mood to the image. This one's going into "favorites" folder.

Regards,

John

A very striking portrait of Carter.  You caught the mood of the moment.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful story. Photo is really cool. I happened to like Carter, even though I was only 12 at the time. - Sean

Bill,

Either of your two photos of Jimmy Carter are excellent news photos. I can imagine either of them being used in a newspaper or news magazine as they capture something beyond the carefully managed campaign image. They capture a real emotion and sense of despair. Congratulations on two excellent and historic shots.

I remember once watching a video where Eddie Adams (a great photojournalist of the 60s-90s) was talking about shooting lots of pictures.  He said, "I know photographers who shoot 10,000 frames and still don't get the picture."

Well, sir, you GOT the picture!

Steven King