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| #13 1941: Harvey Lynn is the name of the farmer on the left. I went to school in a one-room school house in Farmington, Missouri with his son. I came back ten years later to take this photograph; they knew me well and were completely at ease even though I was holding a camera the size of a Speedgraphic. I consider this a classic of my work, and I wouldn’t take it any differently today. |
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| #14 1942: Wally Simmons and I used to go out on Sunday mornings looking for things to photograph. I shot this one from the railroad trestle on the levy in St. Louis. I thought this man walking on the cobblestones with the cross-lighting made a nice pattern. Now I think it’s a clichéd subject, but it’s hard to dislike — it’s like a motherhood picture. This and the picture of the three black boys were my first pictures to hang in a salon. |
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| #18 1944: Although I had no formal training in portraiture until after the war, my primary assignment in the Navy was to do portraits of celebrities, officers and war heroes. One of the most famous was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who arrived back from active duty looking very gaunt and preoccupied. I set up the lights and got him arranged, but he must have realized I was a little worried because he said, "What’s wrong, young man?" And I responded, "You don’t look like the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I know from the movies," with which he broke into this wonderful smile and I snapped the shutter. It’s the only time I shot an officer grinning from ear to ear. |
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| #19 1945: I was part of a crew sent out to Bethesda Naval Hospital to do a story on WAVES who were hospital corpsmen. We didn’t have any light meters, so we had to calculate the flash exposures in our heads. I like the way this one came out strongly backlighted, and the way only half of her eye is showing. It adds to the intensity of the action. I used the same principle years later when I made a series of portraits of scientists at Westinghouse. |
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| #21 November 8, 1945: As we left New York harbor, the Europa was returning from a test run. My camera for the trip was a Rolliflex with an 80mm lens, so I just barely was able to fit the whole ship in the picture. I was on the admiral’s bridge when I took this, which was easily accomplished since there was no admiral on board. The purpose of the trip was to photograph troops as they were being loaded on ships to return home after the war. |
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| #23 November 1945: We were in Paris on Thanksgiving and the day after. It was foggy the whole time, so I made very few photographs. I wanted to get a shot of the Eiffel Tower but it was hopeless, so I got this view instead. I like the way the receding planes in the fog create a mood that makes it work. The people give a sense of scale so that you get an idea of the whole without really seeing it. |
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