Hey guys, im looking for a ww2 miltary photographer (like the kind found on airfields) Or even a soldier that can be midified to be a photographer.
Ive never done figures before, i always try to avoid them. But i need them for this dio. so any and all advice would be hugely appreciated.
Where’s the best place to go?
Please bear in mind im in New Zealand and not all websites will post out this way.
Thanks heaps in advance.
Mike.
This, Royal Air Force WWII (Revell)?
or USAAF Ground Crew WWII (Verlinden)?
or RAF Fighter Crew 1940 (Eduard)?
or WWII US Field Maintenance Yard (Tamiya)?
Or Margaret Bourke-White In Her High Altitude Flight Suit (holding aerial camera, standing in front of B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber), 1943. (c.Time Inc.)?
I guess i could potentially modify the U.S ground crew or maintenance yard figures. Its just frustrating because i can see in my head what i want, but i know nothing about figures.
I don’t know what you have planned but I have often thought about doing a diorama from a WWII photo and actually putting the photographer in the picture (he is always there just not in the picture). For WWII you would need a figure, probably in the uniform of a ground crewman, standing erect, holding an old fashioned Brownie camera up to his face. I thought I would try to get a figure looking through binoculars and modify the binoculars to look like a camera.
Does this help:
Casual photographers might have used a Brownie. But, war corespondents and combat cameramen would have better equipment. Like a medium format camera. You look down into the reflex mirror to focus and aim those, so they are held low on the body.
a bellows-focus camera (like the one on the right side of the Brit War Corepondnets box) would be used with a tripod to get the best still shots.
Probably need to remember that there were a lot of Leica cameras all throughout the photography word. Some of those were view finder, some were SLR.
Here is arguably one of the most famous US photographers of WWII, Life Magazine’s Robert Capa. This was taken shortly before he jumped with the 507 PIR, 17th Airborne Division into Germany in Operation Vartsity. Notice his camera type. Possibly the same one that used making his famous Omaha Beach photos.
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Most US photographers wore standard combat uniforms and equipment. Only their cameras and lack of weapons set them apart from the troops around them. Obviously those at an airfield will be wearing uniforms and headgear appropriate for that setting as opposed to those parachuting into enemy territory.
That’s probably his (semi famous) 50mm Contax camera. (It;s certainly not a 35mm Leica.)
There are photos of Margaret Bourke White with a similar type camera.
Wow…I read a book about war photographers and he was the main focus of the book. There were a lot of his photos in that book, and the photos were amazing.