The first time I
photographed Theodora was when she published her first book,
The Inland Whale. Another photo, from the same photo
session, was later used for the publication of Ishi. I
was under the assumption that she had come to my studio because
I had done a prior photograph of her husband, Professor Alfred
Kroeber, In actuality, it turned out, she was not aware of the
existence of that picture. So I don't know for sure how she
happened to single me out. I very often ask people this
question, but I didn't in her case.
She came at a
very interesting time in my own history. I had started out my
portrait photography using the 8X10 view camera with a dark
cloth over my head and so on. By 1950, I had gone down to the
5X7. The cost of 8X10 film had gone up so high that I had to
economize and found the process worked quite well in 5X7. Within
the session I could take six exposures. Compared to the film
cost of what I use now, that was quite a thing. In those days,
before we had strobes very well worked out, i would use flash
bulbs. In between each exposure I would unscrew the hot
flashbulb and put another one in. I used two different lights,
therefore two bulbs. It was really quite an expensive operation.
g. Paul Bishop