Left Photograph: Railroader's Lunch Break, 1958 ©Don L. Hunter
Right Photograph: Milwaukee Electrification ©Don L. Hunter

Don Hunter, a native of Eugene, has had a fascination with trains since the age of two, when he would hear the night trains whistling and passing his home near Judkins Point.

After serving in the Signal Corps during WWII, Don returned to Eugene. With a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska, he enjoyed a position as an engineer with EWEB, working primarily in communications

Before long, however, he was enticed back to the University of Oregon to establish and direct the new Audiovisual Media Center; a position he held for 30 years, until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1977.

Mr. Hunter has long held an interest in photography and sound recording. He made his first audio (disc) recordings in 1932; but did not become seriously interested in photography until 1937, after natural color slide film, (Kodachrome), became available.

He has found these media to be an excellent vehicle for creative expression of ideas, thoughts, moods, and feelings about our world.

As a result of this lifelong hobby/profession, Mr. Hunter has produced a variety of sound/slide presentations, integrating stereophonic sound, music, and limited narration; utilizing two to six projectors and up to three screens for panoramic vistas. These, he has presented extensively throughout the Northwest, and across the country.

Special interests within this hobby include programs on the preservation of our environment, historical documentaries, scenic Oregon landscapes, and native flora.

For many years, Don has been active in documenting the sounds and scenes, which are disappearing from our lives. This is why, with his interest in railroads, he has followed the last remaining steam locomotives in the Northwest; also in Wyoming, Colorado, Argentina, Paraguay, and China.

Left Photograph: Don Hunter in studio slide presentation theater, 2003 ©Robert Voelker-Morris
Right Photograph: Don Hunter in studio with record player, 2003 ©Robert Voelker-Morris

Influences Leading to My Career in Photography and Sound Recording

While I have been fascinated by the sounds of trains, and bright, harmonizing colors since the age of two, let me begin with the development of my unique sound-slide programs.

In 1938, shortly after the first Kodachrome color film became available, my girlfriend and I began making 35mm slides of interesting subjects. It opened our eyes to the incredibly varied, beautiful and wondrous world around us.

We had attended the University Guild Theater production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." In the play, Emily, who died, is given an opportunity to return to observe her 12th birthday. She says:

"It all goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. So all that was going on and I never noticed....Goodbye to clocks ticking...and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths....Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?"

This passage surely motivated us to organize our slides so we could share with other people this new world of color, textures and scenery which we had discovered through the camera's lens

From the beginning, we were well aware of the symbiotic relationship between music and pictures. Even projection of the first shows in my shop at home on Villard street were manually synchronized with appropriate music and narration.*

Because I felt the mood of a scene or effect I was creating would be interrupted by the dark screen interval between slides, no slides were projected until we could afford two projectors.**

Don L. Hunter

*The first programs began and ended with my narration mixed over music, recorded on my acetate disc recorder. Selected commercial 78 records filled in between.

**I built a three position switch, energizing the left projector in the left position, the right projector in the right position. Then while the left projector was off, the slide would be changed in the left projector, etc. The switch could pause in the center position, creating a montage of two images. On occasion, two slides could be selected which would produce most intriguing effects.