Paul Martin Lester is the author of On Floods and Photo-Ops: How Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush Exploited Catastrophes.
Lester is a professor of communications at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of Visual Communication: Images with Messages and Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach and coeditor of Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media.
- What was your first job?
When I was 14 I had a paper route. I delivered for the afternoon paper, now defunct. The best part of the job was I inherited from the previous paperboy a big, black bicycle with an attached silver sidecar. Besides being handy to carry the papers around the neighborhood, in the summer I would ride a friend in it to the local swimming pool.
- How do you like to relax?
Actually, editing what I’ve written, usually at a noisy café or bar can be relaxing. I also try to run three times a week, play guitar and mandolin, work the crossword puzzle, read, usually a non-fiction book, and I just started a new hobby—cheese making. I’ve made 2-pound bricks of parmesan and romano that will be ready in about 10 months.
- What is the most satisfying thing about finishing a book or having a book published?
Holding the object in my hand knowing that it wouldn’t have existed without my time, energy, imagination, and expertise.
On Floods and Photo-Ops is now available from UPM.
Comments