Rolling The Film Backward

ROLLING THE FILM BACKWARD

It was a cool fall day in Biloxi, Mississippi and I had some time off from my USAF Air Traffic Controller School. I decided to take a stroll down to the ocean and see if I could get a few pictures. I had my 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera with me when I saw a huge white lighthouse located between a highway and the ocean, the Biloxi Lighthouse. I fell in love with it right away and wondered about it’s history. I decided to take a picture and framed it with a huge oak tree in the foreground in order to show it’s proximity to the ocean.

The 48-foot lighthouse was constructed in 1848 at the cost of $12,000.  It has survived the Civil War and several hurricanes. It still stands today.  With it’s fourth order fresnel lens, it remains an aide to navigation.  It has the distinction of having the most female keepers of any other lighthouse.

In 1973 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.  In 1987 was declared a Mississippi Landmark. It’s history has given rise to a number myths. In days gone by, one of the popular legends about the Biloxi lighthouse was that it was painted black following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. What actually happened was that the lighthouse was originally painted black and then repainted white so as to make it stand out more against the background of live oak trees. This occurred in 1867 -- two years after the president's death. The Biloxi lighthouse is also the only lighthouse in the world situated on a highway median.

This experience taught me not only to be aware of the image I was photographing, but to also contemplate it’s historical background. I find lighthouses go far back in time and share so much of our early history of exploration and navigation.

A year later, I was transferred to Otis USAF Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

*Next will be Lighthouses of Cape Cod.