Jack Dykinga

Natural History, Dec, 2000

Fresh out of school and working for a Chicago newspaper, I specialized in gritty black-and-white shots of human tragedy and despair. In 1971 my images of institutionalized people with mental retardation landed me a Pulitzer Prize at age twenty-seven. But when I climbed Mount Rainier in pursuit of a photoessay about a middle-aged man's attempt to fulfill his dream, a new way of seeing opened up to me. The combination of severity and beauty, the experience of empty places with no need of people and their baggage, caused me to look inward.

My family and I soon moved to Tucson, Arizona, where I worked for another five years as a newspaperman --but finally allowed myself to fall in love with the beauty of the nearby Sonoran Desert. I have embraced it with my heart and my photography. Now I'm working on a book to promote the creation of a Sonoran Desert national park. I can only hope that if I can capture the spirit of the place on film, other hearts will sing, too.