Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

WWII’s ace shooters

Long before the days of digital cameras and thousand-photo-capacity memory cards, the pioneer technicians of photography were at work in a relatively new field during World War II, doing things the old-fashioned way: with bulky cameras and strips of film.

An even newer field, battlefield photography, was also taking shape, thanks to the efforts of one of the profession’s biggest names: Edward Steichen.

Known previously as a fashion and portrait photographer contributing to magazines such as Vanity Fair, Steichen was commissioned into the Navy in 1942 — after a lengthy, contentious and remarkable process that involved a waiver for his old age (he was 62 at the time) — and donned the uniform of combat cameraman, a field he would eventually elevate to high-art status.

Steichen took command of the Navy Aviation Photographic Unit early in America’s involvement in the war and took on the task of putting together a team of a dozen officers, a specialized unit of war photographers with previous civilian specialties and, in most cases, well-established careers.

The work of Steichen and his shooters is chronicled in the new book “Faces of War: The Untold Story of Edward Steichen’s WWII Photographs,” by Navy Times senior writer Mark D. Faram. The book includes several dozen of the best and most famous examples of naval photographs from the era and insights into how those images were captured.

“Before World War II, photography was an enlisted man’s job,” Faram writes. “Naval officers, even the ones commissioned from the ranks of the photographers, just didn’t carry the heavy cameras and tripods the profession required. It was simply not a gentleman’s job.”

Because the photographers in Steichen’s unit were mostly officers — only one was enlisted — and had unfettered access to their subjects and the war zone, their photos document the great battles of World War II from every angle — sailors aboard ships waiting for battle, planes in midair during raids, servicemen training for war — and help paint a picture of the Greatest Generation as courageous fighters, determined patriots and loyal friends.

Each photographer in Steichen’s team enjoyed success and critical acclaim in his own right, but during World War II, they served as the visual documentarians of America’s greatest war, leaving a legacy of some 14,000 photographs. Faram’s book reaches deeply into the National Archives and Navy records to tell the story behind just a few of the most important ones.

Meet the author

Mark D. Faram, Navy Times senior writer and author of “Faces of War,” will discuss and sign copies of his book June 2 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. Smithsonian curator Michelle Delaney will also speak about Steichen’s legacy as a war photographer. Visit The United States Navy Memorial.