Born in Los Angeles in 1945, his father gave him a Brownie camera and a little kit to develop his own film for his 12th birthday, and from that early age he was hooked on photography.After graduating high school in 1962, he attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. Motivated to participate in the Civil Rights movement, he left Brooks in 1964. Over the next several years, he worked with the Congress of Racial Equality and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.