I was an Army Captain stationed near Pleiku, Vietnam from September 1970 to September 1971. My budding enthusiasm for photography was muted while there because of long workdays and the “Off Limits” designation of the city. I was able to do some photography during my official business travels but those images were captured mostly from the air and from vehicles transiting busy city streets. Pleiku’s status changed to “On Limits” in the spring of 1972, and coupled with my maintenance battalion’s reduced workload related to US troop withdrawals, I was able to spend a few hours in the city on scattered weekends until I departed for home. I usually parked my jeep on the edge of the marketplace and wandered around, occasionally with another soldier/photography enthusiast. I was received with curiosity and frequent smiles from the people I encountered and was not hindered from raising the camera and pressing the shutter release.
Although all my Vietnam photos lay dormant for decades, I always intended to do a book or a show around the “People of Pleiku.” An exhibit opportunity arose in 2013 at the Northern Virginia Community College Verizon Gallery and I matted and framed 30 images for the show. Now another decade has passed and I’m glad to have this opportunity to display them again for NVPS. I hope you find them interesting.
Bio
Wayne Guenther began his photography avocation in the late 1960s but became increasingly involved with Art Photography in the mid-1990s. Membership in Gallery West and the Art League (both in Alexandria, VA) nudged him to regularly create new work and develop a style. In 2009 he was a charter member and President of the Workhouse Photography Group (Lorton, VA) and remained active there until 2012 when he fully retired. Wayne joined NVPS in 2015. He has been accepted in many regional juried art competitions/shows over the past 25 years, and placed in several NVPS monthly competitions.
In Vietnam Wayne shot with Nikon bodies and three lenses; 35mm, 50mm, and 135mm. He processed most of his black and white film at the nearby Air Force Base photo lab, and sent off the transparency film to the States. He saw the results on returning home. Time was not friendly to Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides, and the storage conditions were hardly archival. Some scans were done in the early 2000s and the others in 2013 and edited with the software of that time.
