Born in 1972: The Analog Pioneer
Growing Up Analog. Coming of Age Digital.
Born in 1972? Then you remember the flashcube, the Fotomat hut in the parking lot, and waiting four days to see your own pictures.
The story
According to Danny Kaminski's father, he was born the night the last men left the moon. It is a story told at Christmas Eve dinners to anyone who has not heard it, and it sets the tone for a life seen through a lens.
Born in 1972: The Analog Pioneer is a first-person life story of an ordinary boy born in Parma, a Polish-Catholic suburb of Cleveland. His father is a letter carrier and a Vietnam veteran. His mother runs a beauty shop in the basement, where every dryer goes quiet when the news comes on. Danny grows up with a camera in his hands, and the book follows him frame by frame.
There is a black-and-silver Instamatic with flashcubes, a neighbor's Atari 2600 that nobody may touch, and a folded note passed in religion class that asks, check yes, no, or maybe. There is a closet under the basement stairs where he first watches a picture rise in the developer tray. A man in a Buick who was looking at a bird rear-ends a Corolla, which leads to the woman who becomes his wife.
The years carry him from film to pixels. His father retires from the Postal Service and keeps walking the route. A friendship with the boy next door is tested and burned in a driveway with a Cavaliers jersey. And a daughter's wedding asks the question the whole book has been circling: what do you keep when you stop taking pictures?
Many chapter titles come from photography, from Exposure to Contact Sheet to Develop. A timeline of 1972, a list of famous people born that year, and a look at what the year means in other cultures are included at the back.
It makes a thoughtful birthday present for a husband, brother, dad, or friend who grew up on film.
A few things that happened in 1972
- 1972-02-21 — President Nixon arrives in Beijing, the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China
- 1972-03-24 — The Godfather opens across the country
- 1972-06-17 — Five men are arrested breaking into Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington
- 1972-06-23 — Title IX, banning sex discrimination in federally funded education, is signed into law
- 1972-09-05 — Eleven Israeli team members are killed in the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics, where…
Also born in 1972
- Gwyneth Paltrow — Won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love in March 1999, at 26 Starred in Emma (1996) and Se7en (1995), played Pepper Potts in the Iron Man and Avengers films, and founded the lifestyle company Goop in 2008
- Eminem — Joseph, Missouri Raised in and around Detroit. The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) sold about 1.76 million copies in its first week, a record for a solo artist at the time Starred in 8 Mile (2002); its song "Lose Yourself" became the first rap song to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song
- Zinedine Zidane — Scored twice in the 1998 World Cup final as France won its first World Cup; Ballon d'Or winner that year As coach of Real Madrid, won three straight Champions League titles (2016–2018)
- Ben Affleck — Won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting (1997) with Matt Damon, then starred in Armageddon and Pearl Harbor Directed Argo, which won Best Picture in 2013, and later played Batman
- Cameron Diaz — The Mask (1994), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Charlie's Angels (2000), and the voice of Princess Fiona in the Shrek films