QUESTION:  Tell us where you were born and raised?

BINGHAM: I was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939. I was the oldest of seven siblings. My father was a minister and a Pullman car porter for the railroad. He had always heard the saying, “Go West young man.” The south wasn’t that nice of a place for black people at that time.

My parents wanted better lives for their family, so we moved to Los Angeles when I was four.

QUESTION:  Do you have any memories of your early years in Mississippi?

BINGHAM: Not many, but I’ve been back and forth many times. I still have family there.

QUESTION:  Where did your family live in Los Angeles?

BINGHAM: We moved in with my aunt and uncle on 49^th Street. We moved to the projects on North Alameda Avenue in South Central Los Angeles for about six months. After my father saved some money to buy some property, we moved to south LA. I still remember the address. I was by there about five or six months ago.

QUESTION: It sounds like your parents were a big influence in your life.

BINGHAM: My parents taught me right from wrong and to treat people the way I want to be treated. They were married for 42 years until my father died in 1985.

QUESTION: What did your father do to make a living in Los Angeles?

BINGHAM: He worked as a baggage handler for the Santa Fe Railroad, so we got passes to go on the trips every summer. When we were older, my brother and I rode the railroad to Chicago and on to Mississippi. As a matter of fact, one of our last train rides, I think it was 1955, was when Emmett Till was murdered. It was very hard. We had stopped at my aunt’s house in Chicago. Emmett Till was living in Chicago with his mother. She lived near the mortuary where they had his funeral in Chicago. I remember long lines of people lined up to see him in his coffin.

QUESTION:  You had to be relatively young at that time, still in your teens?

BINGHAM: (Laughing). I’m still young.

QUESTION: Seriously, what were your feelings at the time?

BINGHAM: I felt bad. I don’t think he meant any harm. He was a 16-year-old kid who was at the wrong place doing the wrong thing, whistling at a white lady in Mississippi.

QUESTION:  What are your first memories of becoming aware of photography?

BINGHAM: I’ve always been around photography at school and in my neighborhood, but I wasn’t interested in it. I was a music major at Compton Junior College from 1956 until 1958. I took a course in photography and got an F. My instructor advised me to try something else. It told me that it wouldn’t be prudent for me to choose photography as my life’s work. I ended up being kicked out of school after a couple of years because I wasn’t focused.

QUESTION:  Why were you a music major?

BINGHAM: I was pretty good at music. I had a gift for the piano and was learning to play the violin. I lost interest, because while everybody else was out having fun playing football and basketball, I had to practice playing the piano. I decided that I didn’t like music that much.

QUESTION: What inspired you to seek a career in photography?

BINGHAM: After getting kicked out of Compton Junior College, I didn’t have a job, and I was still living with my parents. I worked in a Vons supermarket mopping the floors beginning at four o’clock in the morning. Each month, I asked the manager if I could get a job as a box boy or a clerk? He’d say come back next month, but it never happened. After about 16 or 17 months, I said, “Take this job and shove it.” A couple of our neighbors were photographers. I used to see beautiful women coming to one of their houses to have their pictures taken all of the time.

QUESTION:  Do you remember their names?

BINGHAM: Myra and Laverne Hudson were a husband/wife photography team. They did portrait work and weddings. I saw the beautiful ladies they were photographing, read about them in the newspaper, and saw them at different events. Another neighbor, at the other end of the street, Gladys Allen, was also a photographer. I decided to become a photographer.

QUESTION:  How did you get started?

BINGHAM: I went to the local weekly newspaper called The Los Angeles Sentinel. It was one of the country’s largest black newspapers. They had a photographer whose name was Cliff Hall. I went to his darkroom and knocked on the door (knock, knock, knock). “Mr. Hall, can I help you today?” He said, “No, come back tomorrow.” I went back each day, and after about five days, he said, “Okay, come on in, but don’t bother anything.” I hung around for a month just watching him, carrying his bags and driving with him on assignments. Then, I started asking everyday, “Why don’t you get the editor to hire me?” He finally said, “Okay, if you give me half of your salary.” I said, “fine.” He went to the publisher/owner of the newspaper and said, “Ms. Washington, this guy is Howard Bingham, and there’s nobody like him in sight.”

QUESTION:  Did it work?

BINGHAM: They hired me for $60 a week. I had to give half of that to him. At first, I went on assignments and came back with no film, out of focus and overexposed film, and all kinds of problems, but I always had an alibi for what happened. That was my on the job training. I learned very fast from my mistakes.

QUESTION: What were you shooting with?

BINGHAM: They gave me a Yashica camera. Eventually, I bought a Yashica Mat camera. It was black-and-white film, of course.

QUESTION: How long were you there?

BINGHAM: I was there until they fired me in 1962. That really hurt me, because I had learned very fast. I got fired because I was hustling freelance work, weddings and other social events in the community. My parents bought me an Argus C3 mm camera. Getting fired, turned out to be the best thing for me even though it hurt at the time. I haven’t looked back since then.

QUESTION: What did you do then?

BINGHAM: While I was at the newspaper, I had an assignment to cover this big, loudmouth boxer named Cassius Clay, who had come to town to promote an upcoming fight with George Logan. I went to the news conference, introduced myself and left. Later that afternoon, I saw him and his brother standing on the corner of 5^th and Broadway. I hollered and asked if they needed a ride. They said no, they were just hanging out. I told them I had some errands to run, but afterwards I could show them around Los Angeles. So after I did my errands, I took them to a bowling alley. My mother’s house was nearby, so I took them to meet my mother, father, brothers and sisters. The next day, I took them to L.A. City College and introduced them to some girls. I actually took them to the fight that night. Cassius won. He came back in May for another fight. He was in Los Angeles a little bit longer that time. I hung out with him. I took him to interviews, press conferences and workouts. He also went with me on some assignments for the newspaper, including a wedding. Cassius would call and ask about my mother and other people he met. He came back to fight Archie Moore that same year. He won that fight. Ali was always offering me money for doing things, but I said I didn’t want his money. I was having fun. On New Year’s Day in 1963, Ali called and asked me if I wanted to hang out with him for a couple of weeks. At that point in my life, I had never been on an airplane. He sent me a ticket that next week. I flew to Miami, where he met me at the airport. It was a Sunday night. We drove to the Carver House, a hotel in Miami for black people. The next morning, we got up early, because he was meeting a couple people from Life magazine, Don Moser and photographer James Drake, who also worked for Sports Illustrated. They followed us when we drove to Louisville from Miami. It was freezing in Louisville. I had never been back East when the weather was that cold with snow falling. Cassius ended up buying me long underwear, earmuffs, a hat and an overcoat. I also met his mother and father. We went from Louisville to Pittsburgh, where he fought Charlie Powell, who was an ex-football player. The visit ended up being more than a couple of weeks. I left Los Angeles on January 7 and didn’t come back until about March 1. The reason why I came back then was because Uncle Sam had sent me a notice from the draft board. I didn’t pass the physical.

QUESTION: When did you meet Gordon Parks?

BINGHAM: I met Gordon Parks in Los Angeles in 1963. Ali was in town and we were walking down Broadway. Gordon Parks was in Los Angeles photographing Malcolm X for Life magazine. Malcolm X introduced Gordon Parks to Cassius Clay and then to me. About six months later, I was in New York City. Ali had won the heavyweight championship. We were about to head overseas to Africa for the first time. While we were there, I went to visit someone at Life. I was on the 28^th floor walking down a hallway. A door was open and there was an office on the other side. This guy in the office said, “Howard Bingham.” It was Gordon Parks. That was wonderful. Gordon Parks knew my name. We’ve been friends ever since and talk all the time.

QUESTION:  Did you ever work with him on anything?

BINGHAM: No, but I have watched him work and have tried to emulate some of the things that he did with his lens, which I could never get down. He was my idol. It was nice just being around him and hearing him speak. I also read his books. He was very inspirational. He would show you things and would talk about what he was doing for Life. He was always asking what I was going to do with my life. Once I asked him about his agent, because I thought I needed an agent. He said that he didn’t have an agent because his agent hadn’t been honest so he fired him. He ended up making The Learning Tree and Shaft and other movies and also writing books. I had the honor in 1992 of having him photograph Ali and me for the back cover jacket of my book, Muhammad Ali, A Thirty-Year Journey. I still talk with Gordon at least once a week, or every other week, for sure.

QUESTION: Tell us about your book.

BINGHAM: It consists of 185 black-and-white photos that I took of Ali over 30 years (1962-1992). A lot of them are pictures of moments in Ali’s life that no one had seen before. I started working on it after Ali retired. Muhammad and Lonnie Ali, Bill and Camille Cosby, Jim Murray, Gordon Parks, George Plimpton, Budd Schulberg, Ralph Wiley, “Doc” Young and Dr. Alvin Poussaint all wrote introductions. Bill Cosby suggested Dr. Poussaint. He’s a Harvard medical school professor and a psychiatrist who understands what Ali means to America and to the world.

QUESTION:  How did you support yourself during the 1960s?

BINGHAM: I was freelancing and doing pretty good.

QUESTION: What was the next step on your journey with Ali?

BINGHAM: I didn’t hookup with him again until September. Promoters George Parnassus and Aileen Eaton at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles knew that I was a good friend with Cassius Clay. They gave me $100 and an airplane ticket to persuade him to come Los Angeles and fight Sonny Liston. I went back to see Ali, but I never did say anything to Cassius about flying to Los Angeles to fight Sonny Liston.

QUESTION:  Were you photographing him regularly at that time?

BINGHAM: Everyday I was with him. There were a lot of news people around who thought I was his personal photographer, but at that point I never enlarged a photograph for him. I had assignments to take pictures of him from Life, Sports Illustrated and other magazines. Life offered me a lot of money for photographs of him with Malcolm X or with Elijah Muhammad, but I wouldn’t sell those photos. I got a lot of magazine assignments for informal photographs of Ali. They would have rather have their own guys come in and take those pictures, but I was there with Ali. I was also photographing weddings and other things in the community.

QUESTION:  Did you run into any racial prejudice regarding photo assignments?

BINGHAM: I ran into that here and there, but as a matter of fact, not a lot. Sometimes I’d get “black” assignments, including photographing riots. Sometimes other photographers got assignments instead of me, but it wasn’t obvious prejudice. Some of the art directors just had their favorites. It’s the same thing today. It still happens every now and then.

QUESTION: Do you have any regrets about things you didn’t do at that point in your life?

BINGHAM: There are some things that I wish I had done in the early days. I had a real good friend named Fred Hicks. He’s dead now. I met him while I was working at The Sentinel. He was an ambulance driver and attendant. I used to ride in back of the ambulance with him. When we would get to an accident or shooting or whatever, they would introduce me as a medical photographer. He would always ask, “Howard, did you write all the information down?” I never did do that, and I’m very sorry for that now. If I had known that Cassius Clay was going to become Ali I would have written down a lot more about what I was photographing.

QUESTION:  Did you get to keep your negatives? We’ve heard that it was a big issue for photographers who were doing work for hire and didn’t get to keep their negatives.

BINGHAM: I have all my negatives from every place. It’s an issue in the movie industry today, but when I was working for magazines on assignments I always got my negatives back.

QUESTION:  You mentioned going to Africa with Ali.

BINGHAM: It was very interesting and excited going to Africa. I had heard about Tarzan and Jane swinging from tree to tree. We went to Ghana, Nigeria and to Egypt in 1964, after he won the championship. When we landed at the airport, we were kind of shocked because we saw American business signs, Coca Cola and Mobile Oil. When we went into the city there were hotels where both black and white business people wore suits and ties. Once we got to the hotel, we saw this big line of people out in front. We asked why all those people were lined up. They were waiting to get into the zoo at the hotel. That was amazing to me. People in Africa were waiting to get into the zoo to see the animals, elephants, monkeys and lions.

QUESTION:  You also mentioned meeting Malcolm X. Did you photograph him?

BINGHAM: I did some work for him at the court trial following the incident at the Mosque in Los Angeles. I took photographs every day. I’d bring prints to the court the next morning.

QUESTION:  How about Eldridge Cleaver?

BINGHAM: I met Eldridge in 1967 when I was on an assignment for Life. They wanted to do a story about the Black Panthers. Someone from Life called and talked to him about a story. He said that the only way it could be done was if Howard Bingham shoots the pictures. I had not met Eldridge at the time, but he had heard about me. Gilbert Moore, a writer, came to Los Angeles to meet me. We went to Oakland together. We met everybody involved, and then I started shooting. A couple of days after we got to Oakland, Eldridge called me over and said, “I know you, but I think this guy you’re with is a pig.” (That was his word for cop.) I don’t remember my exact words, but I tried to explain that he was a good guy who had never been around militant people. We ended up being there for about two months, following Eldridge around documenting the lives of the Black Panthers who were fighting for civil rights. I took pictures of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton and all the other Black Panthers, including Eldridge and his wife, Kathleen. We even went to the United Nations with him.

QUESTION: How did it work out?

BINGHAM: Life wanted the journalist to write it one way, and he told them no. He was going to write it the way he saw it. The editors refused, so he ended up leaving Life and eventually writing a book about his experience. My photographs of Eldridge were never printed by Life.

QUESTION: Didn’t you also cover the Democratic convention in Chicago for Life in 1968?

BINGHAM: That was a very sad experience. I was staying at a hotel on Michigan Avenue. I could see people getting hurt through the hotel window. I always say, ‘If I had a gun that night I wouldn’t have minded going to jail.’ The next year, I went to Mount Bayou, Mississippi for Life with writer Dick Hall. We were there for a month and a half on a photo-essay assignment about an anti-poverty program. There was a cooperative, which grew and distributed food to members. They also provided health services and taught people how to take better care of themselves. People had to walk for miles to fill up a bucket of water.

QUESTION: Life has come up a lot in our conversation. Did you primarily freelance for them?

BINGHAM: I also did contract work for Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, People, Look, Ebony and other international publications.

QUESTION:  We know Bill Cosby is an important part of your life. How did you two connect?

BINGHAM: I visited Bill Cosby on a set of (the TV series) I Spy in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s. I was with Ali and his manager. I had taken a photograph of Bill and his wife someplace and delivered it to him during that visit. Newsweek was going to do a story about him, and he told them he wanted me to shoot the photographs. After that I did other magazine projects with him. When The Bill Cosby Show was produced for television in 1968, he wanted me to work on it as the still photographer. I found out that I had to join the union, Local 659 at the time. I went to the union to get an application. They told me that all the still photographers in the union had to be working before they could take someone new in. I went back to Bill Cosby, and told him. Bill wrote the union a letter that said Howard Bingham would be the only photographer to work on the show. He ended up paying a standby union photographer in order for me to work on the show. About 18 months later, I think I was already in the Guild, the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) had hearings in Hollywood investigating employment practices. Part of the agreement made was that I became a member of group number one. That’s when I became the official still photographer on the show. After that I did some freelance work on a couple movies for Russ Meyer at Fox in 1968 or ‘69 for a couple of weeks. I also worked on a lot of television shows for ABC and CBS.

QUESTION:  Did your relationship with Bill Cosby continue after the show?

BINGHAM: Yes. I am still a friend of Bill Cosby and also his wife Camille. I have taken many pictures of him for album covers, magazines, his Kodak ads, and whatever else they want me to do.

QUESTION: When did you begin working on movies?

BINGHAM: I had a phone call from Robert Redford’s company in 1971. They were about to make a movie called The Candidate. They wanted a photographer who had worked with magazines who would take pictures like he was covering a real political campaign. At first, I told them no, because I didn’t think I would like working on movies. About a week later, I got a phone call from Robert Redford’s company asking for me to meet with him. He was a super guy and I really enjoyed meeting with him. I ended up working with him on The Candidate followed by All the President’s Men with Dustin Hoffman and The Electric Horseman during the early 1970s. Victor Kemper (ASC) was the cinematographer on The Candidate, Gordon Willis (ASC) on All the President’s Men and Owen Roizman (ASC) on The Electric Horseman. They were all wonderful.

QUESTION:  You must be a good luck charm. All three of them went on to earn Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society of Cinematographers. What was it like working in movies? Did you feel like you were breaking new ground?

BINGHAM: It was both exciting and boring. There was a lot of hurry up and wait, and learning how to work with a lot of different people, including the actors who thought they were above everybody else on a set. But, you know, I always had a real good time with all the actors and actresses, and never had any problems. I once mentioned to a photographer friend that I was going to work on The Doris Day Show. He said, “Oh man, you’re not going to like her,” but I didn’t have any problems. Actually, I haven’t had any problems with anybody. Some photographers walk in with big attitudes, but that has never been a problem for me. It is all about respecting yourself and respecting others.

QUESTION:  This is a probably a dumb question, but I’ll ask it anyhow. How different was it shooting news stories for magazines and fantasy photography on movie sets?

BINGHAM: With news photography you take your pictures and leave. On movie sets, you are there all day, all week, all month. A lot of people like that. Sometimes I would get mad, because I was tied up on a movie, and I couldn’t do something with Ali at some important event.

QUESTION: Were you with Ali when he told the Army that he was a conscientious objector?

BINGHAM: I was there with him in Louisville (in 1964), and he failed the draft test. I was also with him in Houston, Texas, in 1967 when he did not take a step forward when Herbert Hoover, the FBI director, and others in the government went after him. Ali said he was a Muslim minister and kept his deferment. Ali knew that if he went into the Army, he would have never seen a battlefield, but that wasn’t the point. He gave up millions and millions of dollars and the best years of his life, when they stripped him of his heavyweight boxing title. He wasn’t allowed to box professionally. Ali was also threatened with going to prison for up to five years.

QUESTION: How did he handle that?

BINGHAM: It was hard, but he handled it. He did a lot of speeches at colleges, talking to students about his life and his beliefs. I was often with him, but on my own time. About four years later the Supreme Court ruled in his favor and all criminal charges were dropped.

QUESTION: Tell us about your impressions of Gordon Parks?

BINGHAM: There’s so much to say about him that there is no easy answer. Gordon Parks has inspired and helped so many people. He is a renaissance man, a photographer, writer, music composer and director. He is 93 years old and still writing books and taking pictures. I’m going to speak at an event honoring him at his showing in Texas, at the Dallas Museum of Art on Saturday, June 4 (2005). He wrote an introduction in my book Muhammad Ali: A Thirty Year Journey.

QUESTION: We have also seen some of your pictures with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Will you tell us about those?

BINGHAM: I wanted to go to the march to Washington in 1963, but I didn’t have any money in those days. Later on, I had opportunities to photograph him for magazines and also for myself. I met him with some of his friends Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez, and at civil right events. I photographed some of the marches he led down south. I was with him the week before he got shot. He was visiting the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles. He was on a mission. He was trying to do things to make life better for everybody.

Earlier that year, I took some photos of Senator Robert Kennedy in Delano when he was meeting with Ceser Chavez and also in Watts. I use these photos now in a presentation when I speak to college students around the world. The accompanying audio is the Senator’s speech that he gave on April 4 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was just getting ready to go out and speak when he heard Martin Luther King had just been shot and killed, and the audience did not know that. He breaks the news to them and delivers the speech off the cuff. I also include photos of Martin Luther King, his family and friends, as well as his funeral.

QUESTION: What was your involvement with the movie Ali?

BINGHAM: In 1991, the movie company wanted to do a film on Ali and had chosen Oliver Stone as a director. Oliver wanted to do it. He finally met with Ali, and they are both very strong people. Ali didn’t want Muslims to be filmed in bad light, but Oliver wouldn’t give him any assurances, so it didn’t happen then. Paul Ardaji, paid for rights to the story, and he made me executive producer. I was also a consultant on the film, because I had been there with Ali since 1962, and I knew the history and where to find out the information. Michael Mann ended up directing the film for Sony Pictures.

QUESTION:  After all those years with Ali, how did you feel about the film?

BINGHAM: You always have after thoughts … Monday morning quarterbacking, but I’m happy with the way it came out. Meeting Michael Mann was very interesting. I learned a lot from him just watching him. He works hard, researches and prepares. There is a scene in Harlem where Malcolm X and Ali are walking down a street that looks exactly like a picture I took years ago. They also used pictures that I took when I was in Zaire with Ali for designing costumes and other things. I had an exhibit at UCLA Fowler (Museum of Cultural History) called “The Main Event” in 2000. It consisted of pictures of Ali’s fight with George Forman in 1974, where he reclaimed his title. Michael Mann went to the exhibit and they copied things from those pictures to help recreate scenes.

QUESTION:  This is another esoteric question. Photography has only been around 150 or so years. How do you think it has it affected our culture and lives?

BINGHAM: Photography is the record of our history. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. You don’t have to say anything. It’s all there in the picture. Last July 12 was the 150^th anniversary of George Eastman’s birthday. I, Howard Bingham the guy who got an F in photography with no degrees or anything, was asked to give a talk at the celebration at Eastman House in Rochester. It was a big honor. I kind of broke down just thinking about what I was doing and who I was representing. There I was speaking on behalf of all of the photographers, amateur and professionals. I thought about where I came from and how I got there, and kind mentioned the fact that George Eastman, himself had dropped out of school when he was 14 or 15 years old during in the 1860s. A journalist who works for the Rochester newspaper, and also writes about George Eastman for the Eastman House, autographed a book that she had written about George Eastman for me. It’s a big, thick book, about 600 pages. I found out a lot more about George Eastman by reading that book. I called her up and asked if anyone had optioned to do a movie based on her book. You know this guy has affected everybody’s lives with photographs. Every human being comes in contact with some part of his invention. He was also a good person. He was fair to the people who worked with him, and he gave a lot of money to good causes, including health care for his employees. He was also involved in organizing the Automobile Club, United Way, Eastman House and Rochester Institute of Technology.

QUESTION:  Isn’t there a scholarship in your name?

BINGHAM: There’s a scholarship under my name that Kodak sponsored four years ago. It is meant to help minority students who are studying photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

QUESTION:  We also heard something about a museum with your pictures of Ali?

BINGHAM: I’m the honorary curator of the Muhammad Ali Center that opens on November 19 in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s 93,000 square feet. It’s a place where people can learn about what Ali has accomplished and how he lived his life. Ali was a dreamer. He wanted to become heavyweight champion of the world, laid a roadmap and followed it. He made many sacrifices along the way, but his dream came true. Today’s kids can learn from that. It’s the same thing as dreaming about becoming the world’s greatest cinematographer, camera operator, assistant or still photographer. The museum is also going to have a Howard Bingham Gallery. It is going to be wonderful. I am very honored to have this gallery named after me.

QUESTION:  What’s this we hear about a Howard Bingham Media Center?

BINGHAM: It’s true. The WLCAC, Watt’s Labor Community Action Committee, is starting a media center with my name for people who live in South Los Angeles. It’s going to be a center to teach kids photography, PhotoShop and things like that. I’ve always wanted to help people who want to learn to take photographs. I go out to schools and talk with kids about photography sometimes, but I can be some place and see somebody’s pictures and say, why don’t you come in closer, or a horizontal or vertical or whatever I think might be right for that shot.

QUESTION: We also heard something about a book called GOAT.

BINGHAM: The whole title is GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali. GOAT means Greatest of All Time. It has some 800 pages containing 3,000 pictures. Neil Leifer and I were the principal photographers of the book as well as photos from 300 other photographers. There are also essays and excerpts from published articles. It is a limited edition publication.

QUESTION: What have you been photographing lately?

BINGHAM: I haven’t been shooting a lot, but I’m going to start again. I want to come out with a book in the next year and do a big exhibit, which I think is going to be at the Eastman House; a sort of retrospective. Most people think that I’ve never done anything but pictures of Ali, but I have photographed people who were in the civil rights movement, politics, music, movies, television and many other things. I think I’m a very lucky guy. I like being me and a lot of that comes from the people who I have met with over the years.

QUESTION:  That raises another question. You have had opportunities to meet people who were leaders in all walks of life, Dr. King, Bill Cosby, Muhammad Ali, Robert Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Michael Jackson and his brothers, The Dali Lama, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, Nelson Mandela and many countless movie stars. Do you see common traits or characteristics in people who are successful?

BINGHAM: Some people are a lot more fortunate than others. Some people have a lot of money and others are poor. Some people are more successful than others. But the bottom line is that people are people, right? Ultimately, we’re all human beings.

QUESTION: Do young photographers contact you, wanting you to share the secret of success? We call that the Willy Loman question from The Death of a Salesman.

BINGHAM: Yeah. Some people call me, and I talk and I meet with them when I can. I give them whatever advice I can. My best advice is to tell them to keep focused.

QUESTION: How is photography is changing with the advent of digital technology?

BINGHAM: Everything is always changing. It’s important to learn how to use PhotoShop today. One thing that I think that is wrong about digital photography is that you don’t know what’s real any more, because you can put anyone in any situation any place and time.

QUESTION: How many pictures do you own?

BINGHAM: I have millions of pictures. As a matter of fact, I’m in the process of trying to archive them, which is rough, because I didn’t take my friend’s advice years ago where I took the pictures and he told me to write down all the information. I’m trying to do it from memory.

COMMENT: Please take care of those pictures, Howard. Like you said they are our history.