After teaching photography for 32 years at Cypress college in Southern California, I can tell you that it doesn't take long to spot the students with the drive and creative passion to learn photography. Karen Kuehn was one of those students. From the very beginning, she showed a flare for a bright, new and different approach to each of her assignments. Instructors would pass around her projects amongst themselves, commenting on her rather bold and unorthodox approach to another assignment... and they were always good! In a "studio practices" class that Karen was taking, I gave an assignment to photograph a bright , shiny metal object. Karen signed up for a four-hour block of time. Most students signed up for one or two hours. At one point on the appointed day, I stepped into a studio awash with white background paper everywhere. In the middle of this sea of white paper, Karen stood next to a gleaming chromed wheel from her father's vintage Ferrari. No on had ever done a car wheel before Karen came along. The wheel was elegant, and the resulting photograph just blew everyone away. That's the Karen I know.