B-24 bomber...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 12:28PM 
The season is changing.
I was in Walmart, when suddenly I saw this B-24 jacket in front of me. The 451'st! The bomb group that took the war to Hitler and helped to make life hell for those members of his war machine who fell beneath their bombsites. The 451'st... my dad's bomb group.
From this vantage point, with that cap, it almost looked it was my dad, walking through Walmart in front of me.
Coincidentally enough, I am supposed to make a brief slide show of about 20 images to take to New York that says something about where I am as a photographer.
I had decided to begin that image with a picture of my dad on his deathbed, looking at a picture of a B-24 in flames, its wings peeling back, that was taken from the B-24 he was flying in. Then I was going to sum up my history as a photographer, with the majority of the images coming from my work in Alaska.
When I found that picture, it put me right in the midst of a bunch of other pictures involving my dad and family and so I just wound up making the slide show centered on him, but incorporating us all.
That doesn't say anything about my career, what I have done, and there is not single image of Alaska in that show.
But it does show where I come from, and gives a hint of something that I must do that seems impossible, yet must be done before I die.
Lou Hoffman, who flew in the same bomb group as my dad.
It is a good day today. The future looks bright.
Reader Comments (8)
Baby?! Baby?! Your RSS feed showed this post as modified "interrupted by a baby on its way". But then that post vanished! Here's hoping all is well and baby is, indeed, on its way!
glad it was a good day
Wow what a coincidence! Love stories like that.
OmegaMom - I apologize for not approving your comment more quickly. There will be a full explanation on Thursday's blog.
Twain - it actually turned into a pretty frustrating day, but today was good.
dahli - Yes, it was, and I must try to find him again sometime and learn more.
bill, i love all these old WW2 vets and try to talk to them when i can. we've got a museum here in suburban philly of WW2 aircraft. an artist like yourself has to go w/your gut about presenting an art show. clearly, yours will be a winner. i also took photos of my dad on his death bed, 58 yrs old and dying of a brain tumor. he did not look good. but i remember him the way he used to look. in my living room curio cabinet i have his prescription sunglasses.
My dad was a bombardier and navigator on the B24 Liberator. Never went overseas. I wonder if he was in the same group as your Dad? Truly is a small world. Is the baby here?
Ruth - thank you for the encouragment. It isn't an art show I was referring to, but a short slideshow presentation I have to make to a few fellow photographers who I will join next week in New York for a workshop.
I might now replace it with a show on Lynxton Dishinn'd Hess - but I might lead into that with the original b-24 deathbed shot.
Mocha - You will find the answer on Thursday's blog post, which I just posted half-an-hour or so ago!
My Dad also flew a 24 in the Fightin' 451st. His name was Lloyd Boots, his plane was 'Boots and His Buddies'. He is 90 years old and living in Vancouver, Washington.