ASP.NET: Conserving member variables of a custom web user control

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ASP.NET

user-controls

ViewState

Hi!
I've got a custom web user control that consists of a panel and 12 imageMaps on it. Now I've added a member variable like this:

ImageMap[] ProfileImages = null;

And in the OnInit method, i do this:

ProfileImages = new ImageMap[12];
 ProfileImages[0] = ImageMap1;
 ProfileImages[1] = ImageMap2;
 ProfileImages[2] = ImageMap3;
...

What I want to do now is to be able to access the image maps using the array in a method like this:

public void DoSomething()
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++)
            {
                ProfileImages[i].ImageUrl = "someUrl";
                ProfileImages[i].DescriptionUrl = "anotherUrl";
            }
        }

The problem now is that the array is null because of the page-lifecycle. So I tried to add the variable to the ViewState, like this (also in the OnInit method):

ViewState.Add("ProfileImages", ProfileImages);

And then retrieve it before I use the array, like this (in the DoSomething() method):

ProfileImages = (ImageMap[])ViewState["ProfileImages"];

This has the effect that sometimes the array is not null, but the imageMaps in it are still null.

So how do I correctly conserve my variable across page requests?