New Feature
I have been mulling over a new feature on this site for a while. I wanted to feature a photographer who has inspired me every week. Many names come to mind, and I think that I have not started this yet because of the fact that I had a baby on the way. I knew that my time would be limited. Today is a great time to start though. While looking through my Facebook timeline today I saw this picture come up a lot. I immediately knew that I would start the inspirational series today.
More About The Photo
As the caption says this photo was taken on D-Day by Robert Sargent. You can hear about how chaotic D-Day was, but the pictures from the day really bring the horror of the day home. Imagine sitting in this Higgins Boat knowing that the second that the door opened you would have bullets whizzing past your face. The bravery of these men on that day is something that I could never imagine. You had to get out of the boat, and advance. The invasion occurred at low tide so you had to get to the high ground before you ended up in the ocean.
The photo is called ‘Into the Jaws of Death.’ I think that the title really does describe the picture very well. The photo gets its name from a line in Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ One of the hardest things that I run into on this blog is to come up with a title for a photo everyday. Somedays the titles are easy, and of course sometimes I sit with the post written waiting for a title to come to me. I would bet that after being there, and living to tell about it the title was easy for Robert to come up with.
Photos like this remind us that we don’t really shoot in bad conditions. The next time I think that it is a little too cold or wet I just have to remind myself that one day in 1944 a man stood behind his camera with bullets whizzing by him, and made this wonderful picture.
Dave Wegiel Photography 
We were on Omaha Beach several years ago and it was very sobering. Saw a Higgins boat and can’t imagine what it would have been like. My f-i-l was there and survived. So many did not.
janet
I would love to visit Omaha Beach. That is on my list of places to visit. Thanks for stopping by.
Looking forward to more inspiring photos. Enjoyed your write up for this one!
Thank you very much. I think that this will be a fun exercise.
I used to work with a Robert Sargent in Summit NJ, in a camera store called Eastman’s during the 60’s, and he stated that he had been on Normandy Beach on D-Day as a photographer. Is this the same Robert Sargent referred to here?
I am not sure. That would be something if it was.
Robert – Almost certainly so! Robert F. Sargent was my grandmother’s second husband, and he lived in Summit, NJ, until his death by suicide in 1969. I don’t know very much about him, so thank you for sharing that you knew him and that he worked in a camera store. That makes me smile. Best wishes.