The official newsletter of Street Photography Magazine
Friday, 24 May 2024
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Memorial Day
Larry Racioppo
When I decided to write about Memorial Day for this month’s column, I intended to focus on the pleasures and challenges of photographing parades, a favorite subject for street photographers.
Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day was first commemorated in 1866 to honor all the fallen military members from Waterloo, New York, during the Civil War. Decoration Day was started by a group of women who wanted to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, flags and ribbons. In 1868, Gen. John Logan called for a national Decoration Day. Through the years, Memorial Day has been expanded to include fallen military from all conflicts. In 1968, Congress included Memorial Day as one of the federal Monday holidays and in 1971, the first “last Monday in May” Memorial Day was commemorated.
I photographed my first Memorial Day Parade in 1976, a few blocks from my South Brooklyn home.
Brooklyn, 1976
For the last twenty-five years, I have been photographing Rockaway’s Memorial Day Parade, which starts one block from my home.
Rockaway Park, 2004
But lately I’ve been thinking less about the parade and more about its purpose, in relation to the meaning of all memorials and their connection to the past and our mortality. Looking at my photographs spanning 50 years of Memorial Day parades, I see the passing of generations. In my recent photographs, there are fewer and fewer WWII veterans, just as WWI veterans gradually disappeared from my 1980’s and 1990’s photographs.
As this year’s Memorial Day approaches, I have been thinking of my father, my uncles and my father-in-law who all served during WWII. None of them are alive. Only their photographs remain, in family albums and on bedroom dressers.
My mother and my father in his uniform, circa 1944.
A photo of my mother’s cousin on a family dresser, Brooklyn,1975.
Based on statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the WorId War II Museum in New Orleans estimates that less than 1 percent of the 16.4 million Americans who served in WWII were alive in 2023.
Throughout New York City, there are civic and religious memorials of steel and stone honoring veterans of both World Wars. A familiar sight in many neighborhoods is the “Dough Boy” statue honoring WWI veterans. For a deeper look into this subject, please see Jennifer Wingate’s work.
Manhattan, 2010
This statue quotes the last two lines of John McCrae’s powerful poem, “In Flanders Field.”
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row. That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
According to the American Legion, red poppies bloomed in France and Belgium during WWI, something scientists attributed to the soil enriched with lime from rubble left over from the battles. The sight of bright red flowers sprouting amid rows of white crosses of fallen soldiers in Flanders prompted Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada’s First Brigade Artillery who had just buried his friend and fellow soldier, to write a poem to speak for the fallen and issue a call to action for the living.
The poem was printed in the British magazine “Punch” in 1915 and captured the attention of the British Commonwealth. It “became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and was read at memorial ceremonies. The red poppy became known as the “Flower of Remembrance” in the allied countries America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and became a symbol of the “war to end all wars” and its human cost.
An illustrated poster of the complete poem is available to download for free from the American Legion.
On September 27, 1920, the poppy became the official flower of The American Legion family to memorialize the soldiers who fought and died during the war. In 1924, the distribution of poppies became a national program of The American Legion, and continues to the present. Other veteran organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) also participate. Volunteers distribute poppies with a request that the person receiving the flower make a donation to support the future of veterans, active-duty military personnel and their families with medical and financial needs. Wearing a red poppy on Memorial Day honors the fallen and supports the living who have worn our nation’s uniform.
VFW volunteer, Hewlett, 2005
In many local parishes, Catholic churches honor their World War II veterans by engraving their names on metal plaques or scrolls attached to religious statues near, and sometimes inside, the church.
Our Lady of Loreto, Brooklyn, 2008
In the 1970’s, Brooklyn’s George Washington VFW Post (now defunct) and the 13th Street Block Association created a simple memorial: THE ARROW CLUB. Members of this “club” were veterans of both World Wars and also Vietnam. Their names were listed on a sheet of metal attached to the side of a building at the corner of 13th Street and 8th Avenue. Although I lived only a few blocks away, I had not noticed the large sign until I photographed a masked boy in front of it one Halloween afternoon.
Skull mask and Arrow Club sign, Brooklyn, 1978.
I’m looking forward to photographing this year’s Memorial Day Parade. Teenage U.S. Naval Sea Cadets will march along with Korean, Vietnam, Gulf War and a few WWII veterans. Sometimes the parade includes a small marching band. As I photograph while weaving between the participants and my neighbors waving American flags and wearing paper red poppies, I will keep in mind the parade’s origin, and an admonition that dates back to Rudyard Kipling and the Old Testament – “Lest we forget.”
About the Columnist
Larry’s portrait by Anna Delaney
When I returned to South Brooklyn in 1970 after two years in California as a VISTA Volunteer, I was 22 years old with no plans and a $30 camera I barely knew how to use. I took a course at the School of Visual Arts, a job with the telephone company and began to photograph my family and friends. Things worked out better than I could have expected. I’ve been making photographs for over 50 years, and have some things I’d like to share.
Readers can respond directly to me – larryracioppo@gmail.com.
