John Crosley

My residence -- until a catastrophic airline accident that severely injured me -- was in the Ukrainian small city of BUCHA where I maintained a flat for my part-time Ukrainian residency while I photographed.
I kept that and others for most of a decade and hope to return when possible to continue my interrupted Ukraine photo project.
My career as a student at Columbia Univ., NYC, was cut short in 1968 by a gunshot wound on a train, race riots, assassinations, student takeover of Columbia, then a sweep of the campus by angry NYC cops swinging nightsticks.

Columbia was shuttered for the school year, 1968 -- my scheduled senior year.

Students took over Columbia University,1968 my senior year, first of campus riots that swept the USA.

That summer one weekend, to photograph, I drove to Olympic Nat'l Park, WA state. from my Ore. lumber mill summer job.

Returning Monday to Ore. for swing shift, I looked urgently for a public toilet as I drove back through Seattle.

In AM darkness, all was shuttered except one waterfront building awash with light, filled with men -- a seaman's union hiring hall.

A seaman to sail that afternoon was sick; his ship needed a seaman.

As I sought facilities for relief, a union rep rushed to me, asked if I had a seaman's card (I did) and asked: 'kid, how'd you like to sail across the Pacific?'

I agreed, and after paying union dues, I sailed that afternoon.

On arrival in Da Nang, Vietnam, I was able to leave my ship and stay in Vietnam photographing the war freelance.

That's how I became a war photographer.

AP hired me to photograph but it worked into a news writing job.