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Physics 45

Posted on July 28, 2011July 28, 2011 by Staff

A Thousand Words
By Jock Lauterer

“Physics 45, Photography: A course that has been retired, and the instructors who taught it … are all retired as well, into the darkroom in their basement or into that ‘Darkroom in the Sky.’” So reads the plaque accompanying several dozen framed black-and-white 8×10 photos from the mid-’70s hanging in the dimly lighted bowels of old Phillips Hall. A rite of passage for photo wannabes of the ’60s and ’70s, Physics 45 was the toughest class I ever took. Taught by the unforgettable duo of Ross Scroggs and Earl Mitchell, the class was more about physics than art. “Everything had to be explained in terms of physics,” recalls Dennis Efird, one of the photo gurus at Carrboro’s Southeastern Camera. Dennis still distinctly remembers the photo he made of melting ice columns in Blowing Rock for his final exam print back in 1973. Largely forgotten and unsung, the little exhibit serves as a revealing dive back into another era when pre-digital photography was an intense and hands-on affair. Here’s one of my faves: a mop-headed boy playing with his plastic cowboys and Indians, accompanied only by the photo credit: George C. Brown. (How I wish Scroggs and Mitchell had insisted on full captions!) Such a well-lighted and pensive moment makes us wonder: Whatever happened to this little thinker? By now, he’d be a 40-something.

A THOUSAND WORDS
Do you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.
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