Pringle Bio
My first serious camera was a twin-lens reflex called a “Ciro-flex,” for which I paid $100, big money in 1948. I was 13 years old and had gotten interested in photography earlier at a summer camp. I worked and saved my money for three summers to buy the camera and other equipment. I proceeded to learn about photography, built a darkroom in my parents’ basement, complete with enlarger, and developed my own film and prints.
My photography got interrupted early on by other important matters such as getting educated, military service, getting married, raising a family, and earning a living. I spent most of my professional career as a financial economist on the faculty of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC, and was fortunate eventually to become the C. Knox Massey Professor of Finance. I loved teaching, both the course development part and the classroom experience. I once told the dean that I would teach for free but expected to be paid a lot to grade exams.
During a 35-year career at UNC, in addition to teaching, I did research, wrote articles and books, served on committees and in various administrative positions, and went to lots of meetings, i.e., all the stuff that academics do. At the same time, my wife Betsy and I were bringing up four children, who later blessed us with eight beautiful grandchildren. In 1989-90, Betsy and I and son Charlie, then 12, spent a year in Lausanne, Switzerland, where I taught at an international business school. Before becoming an academic, I spent six years as a banker (then NCNB Corporation, later NationsBank, now Bank of America), two years as an economist with the RAND Corporation, and three years as an officer in the US Air Force. I have a degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, MBA from Harvard, and PhD from Stanford.
My most recent teaching assignment, which is great fun, is volunteer teaching at the Montessori Community School in Durham, where I do special classes with 7th and 8th graders on “headline” issues in finance and economics (e.g., Deficits and Debt, Social Security and Medicare, Interest Rates, Trade, and the like). I did similar sessions at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill during 2010-2013.
My past community service includes various boards and committees of a variety of organizations, including Durham Academy; Chapel of the Cross Vestry; Chapel Hill–Carrboro Public School Foundation; American Board of Pediatrics; NC Supplemental Retirement System; and the Carol Woods Corporation.
After a long hiatus, I got interested in serious photography again around 2005 when really capable digital cameras became widely available, with picture quality that rivaled film. Digital was a game-changer in my view. It was new, different, technical, and interesting, and it permitted multiple shots at essentially zero marginal cost. I gave up trying to learn how to play golf, bought some new camera equipment, learned as much as I could about digital photography, and got serious about learning to take good pictures. The photographs in this Exhibit are the result of that renewed interest.
John Pringle
September 4, 2015
My photography got interrupted early on by other important matters such as getting educated, military service, getting married, raising a family, and earning a living. I spent most of my professional career as a financial economist on the faculty of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC, and was fortunate eventually to become the C. Knox Massey Professor of Finance. I loved teaching, both the course development part and the classroom experience. I once told the dean that I would teach for free but expected to be paid a lot to grade exams.
During a 35-year career at UNC, in addition to teaching, I did research, wrote articles and books, served on committees and in various administrative positions, and went to lots of meetings, i.e., all the stuff that academics do. At the same time, my wife Betsy and I were bringing up four children, who later blessed us with eight beautiful grandchildren. In 1989-90, Betsy and I and son Charlie, then 12, spent a year in Lausanne, Switzerland, where I taught at an international business school. Before becoming an academic, I spent six years as a banker (then NCNB Corporation, later NationsBank, now Bank of America), two years as an economist with the RAND Corporation, and three years as an officer in the US Air Force. I have a degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, MBA from Harvard, and PhD from Stanford.
My most recent teaching assignment, which is great fun, is volunteer teaching at the Montessori Community School in Durham, where I do special classes with 7th and 8th graders on “headline” issues in finance and economics (e.g., Deficits and Debt, Social Security and Medicare, Interest Rates, Trade, and the like). I did similar sessions at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill during 2010-2013.
My past community service includes various boards and committees of a variety of organizations, including Durham Academy; Chapel of the Cross Vestry; Chapel Hill–Carrboro Public School Foundation; American Board of Pediatrics; NC Supplemental Retirement System; and the Carol Woods Corporation.
After a long hiatus, I got interested in serious photography again around 2005 when really capable digital cameras became widely available, with picture quality that rivaled film. Digital was a game-changer in my view. It was new, different, technical, and interesting, and it permitted multiple shots at essentially zero marginal cost. I gave up trying to learn how to play golf, bought some new camera equipment, learned as much as I could about digital photography, and got serious about learning to take good pictures. The photographs in this Exhibit are the result of that renewed interest.
John Pringle
September 4, 2015