In America...
Newly arrived "for good" or a long haul for many years in Mattoon Il from San Salvador. 1954 Below, neighbor Novita Kemper on Wabash Avenue and my Hopalong Cassidy outfit.
Ah, Illinois heat & humidity, Davey Crockett magazine on my lap. Neighbor Mr. Kemper was
an editor at the Mattoon Journal Gazette.
Lowell Grade School: Second Grade, bottom row-2nd from left
Mattoon, Illinois 1957
Lowell Grade School:
Fifth Grade, bottom row,
fifth from left or right!
Mattoon, Illinois 1960
1959? 1960?
New Schwinn Hornet
My father, Armando Zelada with Richard Nixon before he (RN) received eggs & rocks thrown at him in Venezuela. My father was director of Tropical Medicines in El Salvador.
Singular defining moment which changed my life completely. It is an understatement to simply say this why I am who I am.
I learned simply : make photographs every day otherwise no one will do that for you, there is no self awareness without work, and there is nothing accomplished without work.
1975 first long distance bicycle trip from NYC to Illinois.
I surprised my grandparents.
My grandfather said, when asked how did you get here: "Why, Jerry -are you crazy?"
Above: Clyde Norvell Owings and Mary Henley Owings, my grandparents, Mattoon, Illinois
Map (left) of 1982 Bicycle trip across USA; dear old Motobecane bicycle in Northern Utah; two portraits in the Rockies; arrival at George Washington Bridge with greetings by Jayne.
One of the first Vanity Bicycle Racks in Portland. I designed this using pipe cleaners with a 1950's cat eye pair of glasses.
