Portfolio: A
Life in Photos
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| Wallace: seasoned
shooter
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Jim Wallace started taking photographs for Duke when he was
nineteen years old. More than forty-six years later, he took
his last official shot for the University Photography office
in December.
He's seen the university through historic events, from campus
violence in the 1960s to presidential visits to NCAA championships.
But what he enjoyed most, he says, was taking photos of Duke
faces and places. "Duke people have always been cooperative
in having their photo taken," Wallace says. "It's not
an easy thing--a lot of people don't like it, but everyone always
ends up being helpful. "When photographing someone, you're looking for what props
would be appropriate to incorporate in the shot. You want to
end up with an interesting photo of the researcher in his or
her environment."
Wallace was on the scene February 13, 1969, at the time of the
Allen Building takeover and, later, when students outside the
building clashed with police. "I was outside between Allen
and Perkins Library," Wallace recalls. "I was with
Ben Powell, the university librarian. I remember seeing the students
being overcome by tear gas. Ben and I tried to get the students
to get the heck out of there.I shot a few pictures and got away.
The gas was drifting our way, and I was starting to tear up. "The other thing I remember was there were students on the
other side of the quad who were trying to stay in their rooms.
Some said they were studying. But the tear gas drifted their
way and they had to leave the dorm."
One pleasure of being a campus photographer was getting to photograph
one of the loveliest campuses in America, Wallace says. "I
loved shooting the gardens. Each season brought a different kind
of photo. Fall and spring are the best seasons. Every winter,
I look forward to spring, and every summer I look forward to
fall. "Of course, photographing the snow is always fun as well.
It brings out interesting behavior in people. One of the things
I like about the bus stop photo, if you look closely, you can
see one of the kids' tongues is sticking out. He's trying to
catch snowflakes."
--Geoffrey Mock
Mock is editor of Duke's Dialogue, the university's in-house
tabloid newspaper.
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