MY LIFE IN PICTURES
My father was an avid photographer, so my childhood was reasonably well
documented in photographs, but I only have a few of them myself. Then,
in my adult life, I was usually behind the camera rather than in front
of it, so I only have a few photos taken by someone else. I shall
include in this album some of the places I have lived. Travel pictures are mostly on the TRAVEL page. Friends often
say that I should write the story of my life, so maybe some of these
pictures will illustrate it. I had to dig out and scan these pictures
to illustrate a magazine interview, which is why I started here; some day I shall find the time to
do a full family album.
See also my FAMILY photo page, my CHALET in the forest, and my ACTIVITIES there.
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA 1942-1954
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Me with my mother, 1942. As a baby, I had carrot red hair.
1944 - I usually got on well with my older brother Keith. My interest in marine biology obviously started very early.
We often went to my Grandmother's summer house near Inverness on
Tomales Bay, north of San Francisco, where there were indian middens,
trails through the forest with an indian chief's stone throne, a
boathouse and dock, and a private beach with a stream running down it
that we could dam up and divert (until the next high tide). The bay
water was cold in April 1947.
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Christmas 1950, age 8, and riding horseback at Wawona, Yosemite
National Park, where we stayed in the big old hotel every summer while
my father played golf and we hunted for golfballs in the river, or
walked through the Sequoias.
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Building sand castles at the beach, 1951. Discovering snow for the first time, 1952
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1952 - I broke a toe and had to ride a donkey in the mountains. My hairstyle has come back in fashion.
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1953 - On Carmel Beach, and riding at Wawona, Yosemite National Park
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1953 - We drove up the coast to Oregon and went fishing
In
1953 we went on our first cross-country trip, by train to Chicago for
the dedication of the Baha'i House of Worship and launching of the Ten
Year Crusade, then on to New York where I discovered modern art at the
Museum of Modern Art. ----->
In 1954, I graduated from the sixth grade at the Ford Country Day
School in Los Altos, California, where I had gone for all but two years
of my primary schooling. The picture above with my mother and younger
brothers shows the ornate mansion which the school occupied in my last
years there, with 13th century brocades on the walls and a ballroom
with a gilt ceiling from the Doge's Palace in Venice.
1955 - Inverness on Tomales Bay, where I was all ready for boating on the bay.
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA 1955-1964
ca. 1956
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1958 - The Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, where I
attended 7th through 12th grades, held a carnival every year. My best
friend Bobby Ricklefs admires my award-winning entry in the hat contest
combining a seagull skin and a pith helmet. I was in charge of a booth
where the Principal, Robert U. Ricklefs, tried to win a goldfish.
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1958 - My high school biology teacher was completing his Ph.D. at the
Hopkins Marine Station, so we learned a lot about marine biology and I
was often down in the tide pools not far from our house. In the
summer as usual the whole family went backpacking in the High Sierras
of Yosemite, where one of our favorite climbs was to the top of Mt.
Hoffman.
1960 - The whole family went on Baha'i Pilgrimage to Haifa, Israel, in
April, and we spent 3 months traveling around Europe. My father gave me
his old Leica, so I began my activity as a photographer. I still have
to dig out those pictures, but here I am on Lake Como, Italy.
Various portraits in high school and college ca. 1958-1969
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GOLETA, CALIFORNIA (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA) 1964-1969
In 1966 I made my first long scientific/travel-teaching trip, first to
Japan to give a paper at the Pacific Science Congress, then visiting
Baha'i communities in Japan (Hokkaido above), Korea and Taiwan, before
flying over the pole to Germany to give another papar at the First
European Symposium on Marine Biology on Heligoland, Germany, and on for
a seminar at the University of Paris.
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I studied for my doctorate in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with Prof. Michael
Neushul. Here we are with fellow graduate student Larry Liddle collecting algae at Carmel Point in 1967.
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At home in Goleta, California, with my mother on a visit, 1968
WASHINGTON, D.C. AND ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA 1969-1974
Visiting home in Pebble Beach with my parents and brother Roger
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In 1972, I was one of two representatives of the Baha'i International
Community to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in
Stockholm, Sweden.
With the help of the local community, I set up a Baha'i booth in the non-governmental forum in Stockholm.
NOUMEA, NEW CALEDONIA 1974-1985
Much of my time in the Pacific was spent in boats, diving on
coral reefs or traveling between islands, as on this trip in 1975 honeymooning with my new bride Martine (who took the picture).
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With my father in the redwoods at Big Sur on the California coast in 1977
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In 1984, we all went to the dedication of the Baha'i Temple in Samoa,
and I spoke at the public meeting while Martine made a film of the event.
PLOMODIERN, ST. PIERRE D'ALBIGNY, ST. JEAN DE LA PORT, FRANCE 1985-1989
NAIROBI, KENYA 1989-1991
From 1989 to 1991, I was Deputy Director of Oceans and Coastal Areas,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND 1992-PRESENT
(see also my TRAVEL page and my CHALET and ACTIVITIES pages since 2000)
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I try to give Baha'i talks wherever I can when I travel, as here in American Samoa in 1994 and 1996.
Speaking at an International Environment Forum seminar at the UN World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.
On a panel with Augusto Lopez-Claros at the European Baha'i Business
Forum (EBBF) Annual Conference, de Poort, the Netherlands, 2003
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Speaking at the Baha'i Centre in Taipei, Taiwan in 2005 while preparing a report for the World Economic Forum on the economic success of Taiwan.
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Walking in the hills behind Acuto, Italy, with George Starcher in 2006
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I was one of the teachers at the first Baha'i Summer Gathering in Macedonia in 2006. (more pictures on the Travel page)
At the International Environment Forum conference in Ottawa in 2007. (More pictures on the IEF web site)
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At the 2008 Conference on Peace and Development in Montenegro, I spoke on the environment as a force for peace.
At the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
in 2008, I met two other members of the International Environment
Forum, Elizabeth McLean from Puerto Rico and my old friend Austin
Bowden-Kirby from Fiji.
Photographs © copyright Arthur Lyon Dahl 2009
Last updated 29 January 2009