Sunset, Sunday, 2 August 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Sunset, Saturday, 1 August 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Today’s the birthday of Washington, D.C., photographer Del Ankers, my uncle, who died in May 2008. Del’s remarkable life and even more remarkable personality are so difficult to convey in a short space, I thought I’d cheat and refer you to the obituary in the Washington Post by Matt Schudel and the appreciation, also in the Post, by Lauren Wilcox. 

If you want to go straight for the entertainment values, Del’s work as a film maker included commercials made with the earliest versions of Jim Henson’s Muppets, and these can be sampled here and here, among other places on the web.

I’ve also posted a few photos and anecdotes related to Del, starting here.

In a nice bit of numerical and family symmetry, since Del was my uncle and would be 93, today is also the birthday of the wonderful Amy Pine of Durham, N.C., who is 39. Friends would drink turpentine for their Amy Pine, that’s how great she is. Happy Birthday.

Del Ankers, Photographer, Part 2

Copyright © Maria Elizabeth Freire

Del Ankers (see sunset post from today as well as the two entries below this one) photographed all the presidents from FDR through Nixon, but I think it’s significant that the one he seems to have gotten on with in a personal way was Harry S. Truman.

According to Del, Truman was supposed to sit in the Oval Office for as long as it took a sculptor to do studies and sketches necessary for his official bust. Truman couldn’t stand the idea of wasting all that time, and had Del take a 360° series of photos for the sculptor to use instead.

At one White House event, the Associated Press photographer was too inebriated to function.

“Ankers,” Mr. Truman reportedly said, “could you take the shot for this fella? I’d hate to see the poor s.o.b. lose his job just because he had too many martinis at lunch.”

Copyright © Maria Elizabeth Freire

It’s very difficult to convey Del’s combination of glamour and complete unselfconsciousness – a unique blend of Bedford, Virginia, country boy and Washington man about town. I believe the actor he’s kidding around with here is Duncan Renaldo, who had played the Cisco Kid for many years – although by this time, the series was history (it ended in 1956) and it appears the actor was doing a commercial for “Pro-tek-tiv Children’s Shoes.” And Del had started his film business, Rodel. This photo isn’t the greatest, but it does convey something of the Del Ankers I knew.

Predawn, Inauguration Day

Laura took this shot as we arrived at the Iwo Jima memorial before 6 a.m. on January 20th, 2009. It’s funny to think tonight of how cold it was then. The memorial was the vantage point for several paintings of the Inauguration Day sunrise, such as the two at the top of the page here, and several more in the gallery.

Del died May 15th, 2008, at his home in Great Falls, and I visited with him for the last time, three days earlier. I know Del would have enjoyed the inauguration sunrise/sunset project, and the way things turned out. May 2008 was near the end of the presidential primaries. The last words I remember from him: “I’m so sick of all this Obama and Clinton crap!”

Del Ankers, Photographer, Part 1

Copyright © Maria Elizabeth Freire

Tonight’s main post (August 1st) refers to my uncle Del Ankers, who was born on this date in 1916. The photos here aren’t meant to even try to do justice to his life, personality and career – which is why I’ve included links to both the obit and a special remembrance in the Washington Post – but rather they’re meant to celebrate a little connection between his experience and mine, something he might have enjoyed.

In Del’s photo above, the sculptor of the Iwo Jima memorial, Felix de Weldon, is showing the work in his studio to a visiting class of students.

(U.S. elementary school students of a certain era, note the ‘safety patrol’ badges on a couple of the kids.)

I believe the Marines in the sculpture here are positioned just the way they are now, in Arlington.

Copyright © Maria Elizabeth Freire

In this shot of de Weldon modeling the head of one of the Marines (and no, I don’t know if this is one of the veterans of Mount Suribachi, although I guess it’s possible), I’ve always thought the face at this stage resembles Paul McCartney a little more than it does the guy sitting there.

The funny thing was, when Laura and I got to the memorial before dawn on Inauguration Day (see next post, above), and looked up into those bronze faces, as finished by de Weldon and as seen from below the likeness was uncanny. We could recognize de Weldon’s, and Del’s, subject immediately.

Sunset, Friday, 31 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Drove today along the Blue Ridge foothills from just below Dyke, Virginia, to a place in the South River basin of Greene County. Had to take a ‘road’ called Turkey Ridge. If two turkeys met there, I believe one would have to take flight to get by. I’m not sure these folks get UPS deliveries.

I started to wonder if I should have carried my chain saw, in case of fallen trees. Grateful to the moonshiners for letting me through their roadblocks. O.K., I’m kidding about the moonshiners. Or at least about them setting up roadblocks. But as I headed down some hairpin turns, I started singing “Thunder Road.”

Not Bruce Springsteen. Robert Mitchum.

G-men on his tail light
Roadblocks up ahead
The mountain boy took roads
That even angels fear to tread