THE BACKSTORY
A PHOTOGRAPHER TRACES HIS 45-YEAR FASCINATION
WITH THE BEACHES WHERE THE WORLD CHANGED.PROOF
JUNE 1944 Robert Capa’s well-known photograph shows Omaha Beach on D-Day. The invasion of
Allied forces into German-controlled France shifted the balance of military power in World War II.I FIRST WENT TO NORMANDY in 1974.
I was a 27-year-old news photographer
shooting the French presidential elec-
tion, and my visit happened to coincide
with the 30th anniversary of the D-Day
landings. I was amazed that the French
still welcomed American veterans as
their liberators—a warm feeling between
the countries that still exists today.
Since that trip, I’ve returned to
the beaches nearly a dozen times in
the past half century, with each visit
observing those hallowed sands and
bearing witness to how the past refuses
to be erased. I’ve met countless veter-
ans who at first seem perfectly ordi-
nary, like the guys I grew up with who
ran the hardware store or pharmacy.
I’ve had to pull their extraordinary sto-
ries out of them—each one a remark-
able memory of a pivotal moment.
I see my responsibility as bridging the
gap with photography to help people,particularly young people, understand
the importance of what happened
there—not just the soldiers who died,
but also how the Allied invasion of
German-occupied France changed the
world. I’ve always been a fan of Edward
R. Murrow, the American radio corre-
spondent who delivered nightly radio
reports from London during World War
II. I like to play his reports on my cell
phone when I’m walking on Omaha
Beach and take in the accounts of what
happened there in June 1944.
History has a way of receding. Our
recollections become secondhand,
then thirdhand, and eventually just
words in a history book. But I’m not
sure the same fate awaits Normandy.
I’ve never met anybody, young or old,
who walked on Omaha Beach and
didn’t feel the history of that place.
There’s something very powerful about
putting your feet on the sand.DAVID BURNETT PHOTOGRAPHS VIA CONTACT PRESS IMAGES