Introduction to photography was when I was 10 meeting a son of my mother's friend. He was a hippie with a rich father with a Pentax 6x7.

He had already published a book called "Screamers", photos of people screaming.

He was so cool to me.

He showed us secret places in Monterey peninsula in his Toyota Land Cruiser going over rocks bumping our heads on the ceiling of the car. Toyota Land Cruiser is an alternative to Range Rover in Laos now.

We were at one of those secret places where everyone was naked, a nude beach. His brothers and I were similar age and we were giggling watching people naked.

Then, I saw his camera laying around. I was just curious; I had never seen a camera up close. This thing was huge and heavy. I picked it up nervously because I hadn't asked for a permission. I found the viewfinder and looked into it~~~~! Voila!!! I saw a new world.

As I remember it, it was a rectangular box, gray and blurred with dark spots like an abstract picture. I didn't know anything about art at that time but it moved me, somehow.

It was my decisive moment.

Now that I think of it, the camera was out of focus on a gray day. It was an overcast day.

Then, when I became an 8th grader. My school offered a photography class to my surprise and I, of course jumped in. My mother had a small Fujica instamatic camera that she wasn't using, so I took it to take pictures. I just release the shutter on things that was interesting to me. The school had an art show and those pictures were printed exhibited!

I was blown away.

When I got into Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades where we lived, now burnt down, I took a photo class where I learned the process of Black & White photography. I skipped other classes to be in the darkroom. I bought a big portfolio case to haul my photos from school to home every day.

In those days, Kodak ruled the photography world. They had a nationwide contest of all graduates across the USA.

I remember thinking that no one was putting in so much effort as me in the converted darkroom that I had made in the storage room of our house. In those days, photography wasn't considered as seriously as an art form. Painting was.

I would still be up at 3 am washing photos that I've printed. Then, I would meditate because I was so into Zen then.

My photo teacher, Mr. Doucette, told me that I had won prizes in the Kodak contest. And a lady who I didn't know wrote a letter to the school to tell them how great my achievement was.

It wasn't as exciting news at the time because I didn't know about the contests and processes so I didn't know the magnitude of the happening. I was so naive.

Local newspapers wrote an article about me and my mother's name was mentioned and she was proud of that more than me.

When I graduated from high school, I was voted the Class Artist and they had an award ceremony for graduating seniors. All the families of the students came in droves, the auditorium was full of them. They called up my name and I got up to the stage. They started to read all of my awards that I had won and I looked out to the audience. It took longer than 2 minutes to read all my awards but I was just looking out to the audience trying to find anyone from my family. No one.

After the ceremony, the parents of my friends came and congratulated me and I got a tongue kiss from a girl I had known. It was the first time that I felt a girl's tongue in my mouth.

That was my life's prize that I still cherish.

Your genius comes out of you when you're young. Mine was when I was too young and naive. I still listen to Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon regularly. They made that album in their twenties. I still cannot believe that they wrote the lyrics at that age and with such an everlasting music. The lyrics of the "Time" is as if it's written by an old wise man, not a long-haired young hippie in their twenties.

Anyway,

the beginning of photography career started by chance. Somethings last and somethings fade away. It's always by chance. Photography stayed with me all of my life and it's still demanding that I go to the next step.

Can I go to the next step at this day and age?

I know what the next step is and now, I am working on it!