This edition of Rainshadow Journal is sampled from “Leonard Miner’s War,” photos and writings collected and edited by Miner’s son and Port Townsend resident, Matt Miner. Here is his introduction to the book:
The photographs in this book are the work of my father, Leonard Miner, who lived from 1911 to 1996. They are a sampling of hundreds he took during his two and-a-half year tour of duty in the U.S. Army in Europe toward the end of World War Two. There is no battlefield footage, no shots of the process or aftermath of carnage. My Dad was a desk jockey, part of the Quartermaster Corps whose job was feeding and supplying the frontline troops. To the best of my knowledge he only carried a weapon for self defense.
All I ever really understood about his interest in photography was a fascination with the process of getting images from life to film and paper. He was a bit of a photo geek, but I could not describe him as an artist. I grew up with a darkroom and spent many silent hours watching him enlarge and print photos. But I honestly cannot remember him ever printing an original photo, framing it and mounting it on the wall to share. And other than the little book of contact prints that inspired this version, I know of no effort made to share these images with anyone. We never really talked about his wartime experiences, so your guess is as good as mine about his motivation or lack thereof.
But in these particular images he intentionally or inadvertently captured something special about himself, the men with whom he shared this perilous adventure and their environment. There is a mixture of fear, sadness, joy and inevitability in their faces. They were all young then, and as far as I know, none remain to give us any insight into the emotions captured here. I leave it to you to find your own story in this sampling.
The bit of insight we do have is the five-page letter my Dad wrote to his brother-in-law, George London, in May 1945, less than a year before he returned home. In his words you can read some of the fear, sadness, joy and inevitability I mentioned before. One other note about the letter: On page four he writes, “After my court-martial…” Since I only found the letter recently I have no information about the nature of his offense or punishment. A cousin who knew him in those years suggested that perhaps he pointed his camera somewhere he shouldn’t have. We’ll probably never know.
Copies of the book are available from mattminermusic@gmail.com
I wish our WW-II survivors told us more stories about their experiences. I had 3 Uncles who fought in Europe and one who was in the Pacific. They seldom talked about the war. My uncle Al was a flyer in Pattons army he was born in Germany and spoke German. He stayed in Europe for 2 years after the war helping French and German farmers rebuild their wine industry. He was also on a team that was evaluating German aircraft for the US air corps. He took lots of photos with a German made 3 D camera that I still have.