The passing of a old and dear friend is always met with sadness. The family and friends of Benjamen Chinn phoned to let me know that he had died the evening of April 26. I was unable to linger very long in the sadness because it was replaced with a flood of warm memories from the many years of association with Bennie. It was in 1953 that I was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the Sixth Army Headquarters, Presidio, San Francisco. It was there are at the post photo-lab that I first met Benjamen Chinn. I was a private first class working in the lab and Bennie was a civil servant worker employed by the government. A friendship was struck immediately because of our mutual interest in photography as a fine art.

Bennie informed me that he'd received a degree in photography at the California School of Fine Arts, which was the first school to teach and offer degrees in art photography. Founded by Ansel Adams in 1946, the department was directed by Minor White and staffed by such luminaries as Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Lisette Model, and Edward Weston.

I had no formal training in photography, but aspired to making pictures in the New England landscape. During my high school days, I would read a photo manual now and again but more often visited the local portrait studios serving as a gofer in exchange for being present to learn what I could. On seeing my efforts with photography, Bennie commented that I had a natural talent for seeing and composition, but that I lacked the technical ability to manifest my ideas effectively in a final print.

Bennie took me under his wing and suggested that I accept him as a teacher when I was not on duty for the military. I was elated it with this generous offer and devoted most of my free time to learning the Zone System. Typical of this generous spirit, Bennie's densitometer and spare 4x5 view camera were put at my disposal throughout the balance of my tour of duty in San Francisco. Benny took me in as a friend and introduced me to his fellow students and teachers from his years at the California School of Fine Arts. Often I would be invited on field trips with such talented photographers as Al Richter, Stan Zrnich, John Bertalino, and others from the school. Oliver Gagliani would often appear on the scene.

My training with Bennie ended when I got my orders to ship out to a post in Yuma, Arizona, but our friendship was to last until his death. Before departing from San Francisco, he invited me to attend a going away party for Minor White, who himself was shipping out to teach and work at the George Eastman House Museum of  photography and the Rochester Institute. During that party, which took place at Ansel Adams studio, I was excited and honored to be in the presence of so many students and professionals associated with what is commonly known as the West Coast School of photography.

I will be ever grateful to Bennie for the humanitarianism and generosity that he so freely extended, not only to me, but to many more who came after me seeking communion and expression through the art of photography. After establishing myself as a landscape photographer, I always gave credit to Bennie in articles and interviews about my work. Bennie once quipped that he was becoming quite famous through such interviews.

Photographs of and by Benjamen Chinn can be seen in a recent publication entitled The Moment of Seeing -- Minor White at the California School of Fine Arts by Stephanie Comer and Deborah Klochko, Chronicle Books, LLC, 85 2nd St., San Francisco, California 94105.