Lock, Anchorage, Alaska Photo by Barry Epstein
called A Child is Born with amazing photographs of fetal development. His other work included microscopic views inside the body and brain and he produced photo stories on the heart and heart attacks. He used a Hasselblad camera hooked up to various types of microscopes including a scanning electron microscope. His photographs were displayed in museums and institutions worldwide. It was my thought at the time to consider being introduced to him by his niece and then traveling to Sweden and studying scientific photography. Although this could of happened, I decided that it would then be difficult to make a living from this. So I researched other careers in medical photography and found that medical imaging, using ultrasound, was just becoming popular particularly with monitoring and diagnosing babies in the womb. The job market for an ultrasonographer seemed good so I enrolled in a one year Diploma course at the New York Radiological Institute soon after. Yes, that meant that I had to return to the East Coast and attend courses, workshops and practicums in New York City.
Old Barn, Matanuska Valley, Alaska, Photo by Barry Epstein
Don Parker and I had invested in some real estate together in Phoenix Arizona and I had saved some cash from working in Alaska. A third investor was to manage the 26 unit apartment complex and we would all share the profits. The third investor was our friend Sam who drove a scraper most of his life and was a real nice person to be around. Sam also had a twin engine airplane that we flew in several times. Sometimes just he and I would get in the plane and I sat in the co-pilot’ s seat. He would look at me and just talk and all of a sudden we were airborne and headed out over the mountains. Many times, he would let me fly the plane. But he would also kid around quite a bit and say that he saw someone down on the road and dive the plane downwards to make me sick. One time we radioed ahead to friends who were driving on a road and they stopped the traffic as we landed and then took off later on. Airplanes were common, but most of them were single engine planes that allows a bit shorter room for landings and takeoffs.
I remember my friend Doug Pope crashed his airplane and we all went to help him salvage it. But Doug walked away from the crash unscathed. Doug was a mechanic wiz. I remember one time in possibly 30 or even 40 below zero, he performed surgery on my car’ s cooling system as it had jammed up.
My Old Girlfried with Doug Pope, Hope Alaska, Photo by Barry Epstein
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 40 of 156