Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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Capture life around you

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Street photography makes a comeback

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This barely qualifies as street photography and is not in the same category as Maier or others like her.

If you’ve never heard of Vivian Maier, and you are even remotely interested in photography, do yourself a favor and Google her. No, she isn’t some star photographer or celebrity who takes “selfies” and posts them all over the web. She actually died before she was ever discovered.

Maier was, by all accounts, a very solitary woman. She worked most of her adult life as a nanny in Chicago. In her off time, she walked the streets taking photographs of people and places. She didn’t do it for a publication or fame. She did it for the love of the art. In the process, she captured historic landmarks and events in time that were thought lost.

street photo 2Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun-Times fired its entire photographic staff with plans to teach their reporters the basics of iPhone photography. Many television stations air video footage from accidents taken by bystanders with their phones. The cameras in our smart phones are surprisingly good. And they are everywhere. Most people don’t even notice them anymore.

Adequate resolution does not make for a quality photograph, however. It is about framing, it is about composition and lighting. Photography is about capturing the moment. That takes practice, diligence and patience. One of my favorite quotes is from Henri Cartier-Bresson, a French photographer considered by many to be the father of photojournalism. “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” (I’ve probably shot more than 50,000 photographs and some days I still wonder what I’m doing.)

In some ways, the internet and digital cameras have cheapened the way we look at photography. Images are so ubiquitous they are disregarded. Digital photography also makes it easy to delete images we don’t like, erasing a record of awkward moments. Maier was discovered when collector John Maloof bought a container of negatives at auction after she died. Now that Maloof has reconstructed approximately 90 percent of her work, Maier’s “work is part of a renaissance in interest in the art of street photography.”

Good images and good photography will always have a place. Whatever tool you use, be it a DSLR, a mirrorless digital or a camera phone, street photography is about capturing unposed moments in people’s lives. It isn’t about embarrassing or exploiting, but honoring those lives with photography.

Out in the world, where everyone you meet has character and a story to tell, more street photographers need to be out like Maier. Local celebrities and the politicians get photographed regularly, but the average person on the street is much more interesting. There are street scenes and faces in every little town begging to be photographed. Doing so, you capture a little bit of local history.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to charge my camera battery..

LST 325: A walk through history

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The LST 325 with her massive doors open and ready to off-load tanks and men for battle.

The LST 325 is a living war memorial that spends most of the year in Evansville, Indiana but cruises inland waterways during the summer giving people a chance to explore and gain a tiny grasp on what World War II was all about, including the sacrifices that everyone made in the effort.

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A 40 mm Bofors gun on the upper deck.

There were 1051 LSTs built for the war effort. The ship itself is 230 feet long and 30 feet wide. It was designed to hold 20 Sherman tanks or 16 Marine LVTs weighing 30 tons each. It could then beach itself and offload that equipment in the middle of the war. Halfway jokingly referred to as a Large Slow Target, the military believed that if these ships completed their mission through one battle, they had met their goal. LST 325 served in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, and finally landed troops on Normandy Beach on June 6, 1994—D Day. Her service didn’t end there, though. She served in Korea and Vietnam, before being given to the Greek Navy for their use from 1964 through 1999. In 2001, a group of volunteers banded together and fixed her up enough that she could sail and then brought her home to the United States. Since then, they have continued restoring LST 325 and making her a living memorial.

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Sleeping quarters for soldiers being transported into battle, three high.
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The “Conn” from inside; guiding the ship across the ocean looking through portholes.

As I walked through the ship, I thought about the men and women I interviewed for the West Virginia Voices of War documentary project and the book Common Valor. Several of them landed on the beaches of North Africa, Italy and France along with Iwo Jima, the Philippines and many other small islands in the Pacific. There was nothing comfortable about these ships.

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View of the “Conn” from outside the porthole.

Interestingly (at least for me) is the fact that these ships were designed to beach and offload their equipment. To accommodate that, they were designed with flat bottom hulls and no keel. While that makes practical sense, it makes for a very wobbly ship when crossing the ocean. They were designed to hold up to a 30 degree roll (and could survive a 45 degree roll) and keep moving along with a maximum speed of about 10 knots. That would make for a very, very long trip to cross the ocean.

Because of the men and equipment these ships delivered to battlefields, LSTs are referred to as “The ship that won the war.” Obviously, a lot of things went into fighting World War II, but there is also no question that these ships, and the men on board them, did their fair share..

Invading France: June of 1944

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Four of the 46 West Virginia war veterans I interviewed as part of the West Virginia Voices of War project landed on the beaches of France as part of the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1994, commonly referred to as D Day. What follows are excerpts from their oral histories included in the companion book Common Valor. Two of the men were involved in the invasion on June 6 and the other two followed soon after as Allied Forces began the build up to retake France.

John Cavender

We were getting ready for the invasion, stocking up the south of England with war material and everything. There was a lot of stocking up they had to do. Millions of tons of stuff that had to go. They were building hospitals and flying the nurses. You don’t just have to feed them and clothe them. You have to do all these other things. 

We took off at midnight on D-Day with a load of 82ndairborne paratroopers including General James “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, the commander of troops for the 82nd Airborne Division. The weather was real bad, flying through clouds. A formation of 1000 planes. We were supposed to drop our troops off at Sainte-Mère-Église. I went back through the plane and saw a man I went to school with. After the war I asked him if we dropped him right and he said “right on the money” so my troops got dropped right. They were loaded down and the Germans flooded swamps. If the paratroopers hit that they just sunk.

 

They were shooting at us. One in 10 was a tracer. For every one you see there were 10 more after you. And then there were “88” bursts around you. 

Paul Wesley Harris

I woke one morning and the roar was incredible. I didn’t know they could get that many planes in the air. A few days later I was following them. On June 17th, we were on our way to France. We landed on Utah Beach. D Day + 10. It was high tide on the beach so we couldn’t get in. We had to wait there in the open. German airplanes would come over at tree top level spraying bullets everywhere. 

Up on the hill was a little church. Out from it was a graveyard. One day, I went up there. What I saw was military personnel soaked with oil where they had fished them out of the surf. I didn’t stay long. It was heartbreaking. That was the only time I went up there.

 

Jesse Allen Frazier

Went in on Normandy Beach, but two days behind the invasion. It was rough. I was a front-line medic. You didn’t have time to think about yourself. We were busy doctoring people up so they could be evacuated. We weren’t allowed to carry weapons, just your fist. I rode across France with Patton’s army. 

Eugene Lusk

We just had enough to eat, to keep the hunger down. We went to chow one night, they asked “What do you want to eat?” It shocked us. We said “what do you mean?” We knew something was up but we didn’t know what. It lasted one day and then the next night we shipped out. 

We went inland to an old camp and then the next morning they got us up bright and early, there was a catholic chaplain and a protestant chaplain. One of them said, “Where we’re going some of you will make it and some of you won’t.” You heard some groans but that was about it.

 

We were not told until we were on that ship getting ready to land what was going on. We knew something was up, but they kept it that quiet. Went in on D-Day. 

They took us back to Plymouth and we boarded a ship, #226 on June 4. On #2 hold, it was stacked with 5 gallon jerry cans full of gas. And some of them were leaking. The whole company got on that ship. We were on the channel two full days. We were supposed to land on the fifth but a storm came up and we landed on June 6th. The channel was rough and I was sick.

 

On the morning of June 6th, we were in the tail of the convoy. We went up by Omaha Beach, but we were going on to Utah. We anchored at Utah Beach and those big battleships were broadside and firing on the beach. You would see the gun go off, and then hear it and then see the shell way back over yonder go off. 

I don’t know what time, but an LCP pulled up beside our ship and that was our ride to the beach. It bottomed out and we waded in with water clear up under our armpits. We were in a single line. If there had been a machine gun there it could have mowed every one of us down. We were sitting ducks but the beach had done been taken at that time.

Utah Beach was cut into three beaches. We were supposed to land on Tarry Green and I don’t know where we landed. The captain said if you get lost, go to the IP, Initial Point. I don’t know where that initial point is to this day. But none of us got lost. We all stayed together..

Watching people watch my work

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As a writer, I don’t often get a chance to be with people as they experience my creative work. It’s hard to quietly sit and watch people read. They generally don’t tolerate it. Even as a photographer, I’ve only been present when two or three people at a time have seen my photographs. Last night, watching 140 people experience the premiere of the documentary West Virginia Voices of War was nerve-wracking. I didn’t sit down the entire time. I stood in the back of the room and paced, holding my breath when an emotional high point was coming up, hoping it affected everyone in the room the way I expected.

I was fortunate that about 30 of the veterans I interviewed were present. A couple people told me that one of the most interesting parts of the presentation was watching the reactions of the veterans themselves. They told me about tears and difficult expressions on faces. While I certainly didn’t set out to make anyone upset, it was rewarding to know that it touched them on a personal level. After listening to the audio portion of the documentary a friend and veteran commented that it “neither demonized nor deified the veterans. It just told the story.” My goal all along was to have veterans, the ones I interviewed and others, look at me afterward and say “You got it right.” I hope I got it right.

The idea of putting together a project like West Virginia Voices of War grew from a number of different sources, but it was definitely a step out of “what I have done before”. That said, it was far from a solitary project. I owe a great deal of thanks to my family and friends for helping out, especially when it came time to roll it out: getting refreshments for the reception, distributing books, putting out more chairs when it became readily apparent about 15 minutes before we were ready to start that there weren’t enough—that’s a great problem to have.

Thanks also to the sponsors who made the event possible: Emmanuel Baptist Church for providing the venue and Industrial Bolting Technologies; Ray Winton and Kelley PLLC; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sinclair; JD and Becky Pauley and; Danny Blairfor their donations. Their contributions allowed me to give copies of the book Common Valorand a DVD of the documentary to each of the veterans I interviewed, along with a recording of their interview. They also paid for the refreshments, flyers, letters and publicity postcards. Without their help, the premiere would not have been nearly as successful.

A big thank you goes out to Jeff Ellis as well for allowing me to use his song The Line in both the opening and closing of the documentary. Listen to it and see why it was so perfect for this project.

You can watch the entire documentary, West Virginia Voices of War on my website for a limited time.

Veterans groups interested in showing the documentary as a fundraiser should contact me and we will set up a time.

Finally, thank you to all veterans, those I interviewed and all the rest, for your service..

Monday is Memorial Day

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Memorial Day signals the start of summer. It’s a chance to spend time with family and friends. There are cookouts, parties and festivals. It is a long weekend of celebration, a federal holiday since 1971.

The roots of Memorial Day are somewhat different, though. It was originally called Decoration Day and was intended as a day to decorate the graves of soldiers who died in the Civil War, for both the North and the South, at Arlington National Cemetery. After World War I it morphed into a day to remember those who lost their lives fighting in any war for the United States. More recently, it has become a day for some to remember and decorate the graves of anyone who has died, whether it was in service to the country or not.

I have no issue with people taking the day to remember everyone who has died on Memorial Day. I’m fortunate in that no one in my family died in service to this country; no aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents. That said, I still think it’s important to remember what Memorial Day is all about and take a moment to say remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The saying goes that “Freedom isn’t Free” and many men and women over the years have given themselves completely so that we might enjoy the freedoms we have.

Next Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day, I’m premiering my documentary West Virginia Voices of War. I wanted to have the premiere close to Memorial Day, but I didn’t want it to interfere with the holiday. I wanted people to have time with their families. On Memorial Day, I’ll be on the Dave Weekley radio show Hotline from 4 to 5 pm talking about the documentary and airing some portions of it. I’m not a veteran, but I have tremendous respect for those who have served. The West Virginia Voices of War project is my way to remember and say Thank you.

Happy Memorial Day! Enjoy your weekend. I plan to be out taking in live music all weekend at Live on the Levee tonight and at the Vandalia Festival on the Capitol Grounds over the weekend. In the midst of that celebration and family gathering, take a moment to think about what the holiday is all about and say Thanks.

If you get a chance, come out and join me at the premiere on Tuesday!.

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