Camera Man: Zooming in on a World at War

This is an inspiring, up-close, and personal story of a Signal Corps photography unit during World War II in Europe. Camera Man tells the story from the perspective of combat photographers--those who documented what really happened during the war and how it impacted the people and places involved. This book is written in an unconventional style, combining photographs from multiple sources, including Signal Corps unit members Marion Beck and J. Malan Heslop, and the children of soldiers who will be mentioned throughout this publication. The story is told with humor added, when appropriate, to convey what a sense of humor means to a soldier during war and its importance as a coping mechanism when dealing with death and destruction. It is told chronologically, beginning with the photographers' prewar training in Hollywood. Camera Man then follows members of the 167th from their activation at Camp Crowder, Missouri, in 1943 to their maneuvers in Tennessee and as they embarked for combat in Europe in 1944. The book documents the travels of the 167th through England, then on to Normandy and Verdun, and through the liberation of Paris. You, the reader, will get to know the individuals who served within the photography unit from the motor pool mechanics to the actual photographers. While some of the side stories are likely fictional, they are designed to give the reader a sense of what each soldier's individual personality was like. Factual postwar updates on many of the soldiers are provided at the end of the publication. This never-before-told story is designed to make you appreciate the important contributions of these men in documenting the human side of war through a cameraman's lens.

The war is over now. Every man who did his part toward this end has a right to consider this his victory. The combat cameraman knows how much pictures have meant in this war. But the men of the Academy and A.S.C. who trained him, also have a right to rejoice in the knowledge of a job well done, for it was they who were, in effect, the men behind the combat cameraman.

-- Sgt. Herb Lightman

American Society of Cinematographers