Dear Mr Picasso

Fred Baldwin's life took a turn in the direction of the extraordinary when he decided to interview and photograph Pablo Picasso. In his last year of college, he delivered a letter with own drawings to the artist. This made Picasso laugh and open the door. Baldwin's life changed. He followed his dream, used his imagination, overcame fear, and acted - now he could accomplish anything. What followed were picture stories about reindeer migrations, a day and a night with the Ku Klux Klan, Nobel Prize coverage, cod fishing in Arctic Norway, polar bear expeditions. Then underwater images of the fight of hooked Marlin in Mexico - an homage to Hemingway. In 1963, Baldwin joined the Civil Rights Movement, photographing Martin Luther King. A two-year stint as Peace Corps director in Borneo was followed by more photojournalism in India and Afghanistan. This account takes the reader to high adventure worldwide, but also to disaster and failure. This illustrated love affair with freedom shows how a camera became a passport to the world.0Fred Baldwin was born in 1928 in Switzerland. After earning his B.A. degree from Columbia College, New York in 1956, he began a freelance photography career which continued until 1987. Baldwin worked for LIFE, National Geographic, GEO, STERN, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times and others.