My dream was what the nature photographers are doing today.

Adolph Altman was born in Berlin in 1902. He was graduated from photography school in New York City in 1930 , but never realized a career in photography. When he retired, Altman found in nature photography the satisfaction he had been looking for. He now lives at the Motion Picture Retirement Home in Woodland Hills.

In 1937 I got a job doing publicity photos of composers for ASCAP. I photographed Rachmaninoff, Kriesler, George M. Cohan, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, Efrem Zimbalist. They were all members. I worked there for two years and then I got laid off because they had enough photos.

People were telling me, ‘With the photographs you have, you’d have no trouble opening up a studio on Fifth Avenue.’ But I couldn’t see it. I wasn’t interested in becoming a portrait photographer.

A friend of mine was working for Fox and he told me he could get me a job there working as a photographer. So I grabbed the chance and came out here in 1939 and hit another Depression. The studios were hardly working and you couldn’t get into the photographers’ union.

When the war broke out, MGM was short of help and I got a job there. I got stuck for 23 years at MGM helping build scenery.

I couldn’t wait to retire and get back into photography, because that was my dream.

I joined a photography center downtown. I started taking black and white 35mm pictures and working in their darkroom once or twice a week.

One day in 1968, I discovered the foam in the fountains in front of the county museum. They put detergent in the water and the wind was making formations in the foam.

I had no camera. I was desperate. The next time I went I had the camera with me.

Then I saw “the mermaid” in the foam. It was the first picture I took. That hooked me. I went there once or twice a week for about five years.

When the Photographic Society of America was looking for prints for a permanent collection, they picked one of my foam pictures. They called it the Mermaid and the name stuck. I have one that looks like a swan, and another one that looks like a caricature of De Gaulle. But I never gave them names. They are abstracts.

I would stand there for two or three hours. When I saw something, I just pushed the button. The main thing is that you have to have patience.

After I retired in ‘67, I met a member of the photography center who was anxious to take pictures of landscapes too. We travelled together for 15 years, all over the United States. We would take three weeks in the fall and go to Jasper National Park or Yellowstone. I love working outdoors. It’s just exciting. Nature is always beautiful. I love black and white for the landscape. I used an old Leica.

We went to Death Valley for three days every winter for 12 years. He’s taking me next week to Death Valley for a last time. I can’t use a Leica anymore because I can’t focus, so I have to use the auto-focus Minolta.

In ’83 I went for an eye examination and the doctor told me I had macular deterioration and there is no cure for it. I have a hard time focusing. My eyes get tired changing from dark to light. Sometimes I want some prints and I force myself to go into the darkroom but it is very frustrating. I can’t judge the prints in the developer.

Since I came here to the motion picture home, my main relaxation is to paint my black and white photographs with oil colors. They’re accumulating fast and furious. I’ve found a way to overcome my handicap.

My dream was what the nature photographers are doing today. I wanted to do that 50 years ago, but I didn’t have the money. So you wait and you hope that something will happen. It finally happened, not actually too late, but too late for making a career out of it.

So that’s it. ‘All is well that ends well.’