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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Kurt Wentzel. Timecode In: 00:00:31. Timecode out: 00:57:04. Notes: Photography. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Split track. Radio Expeditions/Geographic Century Kurt Wentzel Interview 9/23/1999 KW = Kurt Wentzel DS = Don Smith KW -I'm Volkmar Kurt Wentzel¿. I was born in Germany in the kingdom of Saxony in 1915 ... DS -your father was a photochemist? 1:16 KW -he studied photochemistry in Berlin under Prof. Fogle (?) ....he knew how to make emulsions for photographic papers and photographic films and I remember with my father, he and I built a pinhole camera and then I saw him mix a small batch of photographic emulsion and coat it on a glass plate ....then we went to a nearby park ....and we took a picture of one of the many classical figures in the park, it happened to be Medusa ... .I grew up, as a matter of fact no one could have started earlier than I did at least my fascination for photography. My father, who could be strict ....would lock me up if I did something bad, he would lock me up in his darkroom for 10-15 minutes .... well it was traumatic but I found the switch to the red inspection light and that of course opened up a whole new world for me .... 3:46 DS -when did you come to the U.S. KW -... 1926 ....his father was offered a job at the oldest photo company ... DS -did you ever consider yourself an explorer? 4:25 KW -Well, I don't know whether I consider myself an explorer, but my mother was really a fascinating person ...she read Grimm's Fairy tales as well as Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer who crossed the Gobi desert ....5:33 ... they inspired me, I dare say subconsciously. Also I should say my father, when he was a young man ...his favorite place was the Balkans and he took a number of trips to the Balkans and took excellent photographs with a camera ... DS -you've done several things in Africa? 6:17 KW -well you could say that. I had some wonderful assignments that happened to be timely bc I got to see Africa before the ending of the colonial period. Two countries come especially to mind, Angola and Mozambique .... 7:52 -tell me a little bit about what it was like in the field for a photographer. 8:08 -KW -We had to carry lots of equipment. I might tell you a little bit about my India assignment... .1 was called down to Mr. Fisher and he said we'd like to have you do India, get going as soon as you can and stay out of politics ... .I went by freighter to India which took a month ... 14 cases bc I still did some processing in the field, which for echtochrome meant 11 different baths ... chemicals, all that I took along, plus (1946) was still the time when NGS wanted color and b&w .. .1 had to have large format and then the smaller format ... .I never forget I photographed the Aganta (?) caves that were discovered by Buddhist monks ...1'11 never forget, I was in one of these caves and I arranged all these trays in front of a Buddhist offering .. .1 had to send for ice 75 miles away to cool my solutions to 65 degrees ... so I stayed alone, bats flying around my ears, it was scary, but ... .it was two days of processing and afterward the emulsion just dripped off bc the ice wasn't enough so I had to send again for twice as much ice and had to do it again .... 13 :00 DS -it's difficult to process bc your hands are kind of trapped. 13 :08 KW -oh yes, that's also tricky bc lots of times I had to hold my holders in a changing bag, so my hands are trapped and just then a mosquito lands in your ear and there's nothing you could do ... (laughs) ... DS -you just had to have a broad back to carry all this stuff. 13:38 KW -well, I didn't have a broad back, I've never been a great physical specimen .. .I've had 6 hernias .. .I wonder how the devil I did carry it around. DS -now all of this changed when 35 mm photography came into vogue. 14:07 KW -well ... (Notes truncated)
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