![]() ![]() ![]() Muriel was a graphic designer, and she told me that she had noticed my work being exhibited around Boston. I didn’t really follow his advice, but, as it turns out, someone had mentioned me to Muriel Cooper, who was head of the Visible Language Workshop, which was part of the Media Lab. Jonathan did say to me, however, that there was a program at MIT that would be very interested in the kind of work I was doing. When I was looking to go to graduate school, Jonathan had taken over the photography program at Ohio State, and he offered me a full scholarship and stipend, but I didn’t want to live in Ohio. Minor White ran the photography program at MIT, and I also got to know his assistant, Jonathan Green, who eventually took over the photography department after Minor’s death. When I got out of Mass Art, I was invited to participate in what is now called the “Media Lab” at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”), which was a place for interdisciplinary people.ĪrtSpeak: How did the Media Lab come to your attention?įO: While I was at Mass Art, I was lucky to meet Minor White and spend some time with him. My mother said, “Well, you’re completely out of your mind, so best of luck.” I visited a variety of art schools, like RISD, the Philadelphia Art Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, and I ended up at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (“Mass Art”), where I met like-minded people and had a fantastic experience. I said that I was going to go to an art school. I couldn’t run the insurance agency that my father left me. The army actually propelled me toward a career as a photographer, so when I got out of the army I went home and told my family that even though I had tried to help out with the family business, and I didn’t want to abandon the family, it was not in me to be a businessman. I got to do a lot of photography during my two years in the army, and met other photographers as well. Luckily, that’s what they assigned me to do. They asked me what I did, and I told them I was a photographer. In 1969, I left college, and I was drafted into the military. I read about such things in photography magazines, and I became interested in what other photographers were doing. ![]() I remember that, instead of putting her photographic paper in a tray with chemicals, she would use a spray bottle and spray developer on the paper. I built my own little darkroom in my closet and I started to manipulate images, trying to emulate Imogen Cunningham. And to this day, I can still see those pictures in Life that made me want to be a photographer. The series on Albert Schweitzer in Africa. I remember the series on the country doctor, which is one of my favorites. And I can clearly remember seeing Eugene Smith’s pictures in Life magazine. ![]() Like a lot of photographers of my generation, I grew up looking at the big picture magazines like Life and Look, which shaped our world of information, and also shaped the way I saw the world. Babbage is the father of modern computing.ĪrtSpeak: Francis, what was the winding path that enabled you to become successful in the divergent worlds of technology and fine art?įrancis Olschafskie: In the 1960s, I was struggling with what I really wanted to do with my life, and I was also struggling with the changing culture of the 1960s, the Vietnam War and the military draft, and all the other things that were going on at the time.īut at the same time, I was really interested in pictures. (left to right) albino snake, Oxford University Charles Babbage’s brain, London. Untitled, diptych, 2008, photograph, 30 X 50 inches ![]()
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