It was total shock and awe.
After armor school, I was sent to Ger-
many. That was an adventure I could
have lived without. We were always in
the field. We were supposed to stop the
Russians if they came over the horizon.
I was in a very obscure base in Baum-
holder where [Erwin] Rommel trained
his Afrika Korps.
A funny coincidence...I was pho-
tographing Michael Richards, who
played Kramer [on “Seinfeld”], and
we were talking about our time
in the service. He told me he had
also been stationed in Baumholder.
There’s a strange comradery about
people that have been in the service
that’s hard to describe.And that comradery lasts
a lifetime.
I’m 87. You never consider [yourself ]
being old.
I guess I’m having what I call my
“existential crisis.” I’ve been making a lot
of movies now, and I’m doing one justabout having become old.
When you get old, you’re all past with
very little future. When you’re young,
you’re all future and very little past.
I’ve always been introspective. The
second book I did was The Journey of
the Spirit after Death, based on The
Tibetan Book of the Dead. I’ve always
been interested in this subject, not
so much the history of being but the
actual nature of being. And now it’s
sort of, I won’t say “overwhelming,”
but it’s kind of daunting because“Things Are Queer,” by Duane Michals, 197324 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com