Photography
Learn more about the book "Marcel's Letters" and the font P22 Marcel Script, which is based on the handwriting of conscripted WWII laborer Marcel Heuzé
Carolyn Porter, Marcel Heuzé, Marcel's Letters, Handwritten Letters, World War II, P22 Marcel, Typography, Love Story, Reunion, Daimler, Berlin, Marienfelde, STO, Forced Labor, Service du Travail Obligatoire, WWII
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OTD August 6, 1944: The Daimler-Marienfelde factory was bombed

Library of Congress image USZ62-59134
Upper left: Before; Center: During. Lower right: After.

On this day seventy-three years ago, eighty-three Army Air Force B-17 bombers targeted Daimler’s Marienfelde factory. “The bombing is very effective,” the mission record stated, “and ten major [targets] are severely damaged during one of the best days that the Eighth [Air Force] experiences.”

If you’ve read “Marcel’s Letters,” you’ll know I scoured military mission records to find out how and when the factory where Marcel worked had been bombed. If you have the book, you can read the passage about the search—and this specific bombing raid—on pages 109–112. The photo above is first referenced at the bottom of page 110.

Interesting Copyright Issue

eiffel-tower-night-mini

Here’s an interesting legal issue. I just learned it’s illegal to take and show photos of the Eiffel Tower at night (yes, like the image above, which I snapped in 2012). Why? Photos taken during the day aren’t an issue; the tower is considered to be in the public domain. However, the design of the tower’s light show is protected by copyright. Read the details here.

As they say at the end of the article, good luck enforcing that.

So long, locks of love

Starting tomorrow, officials are going to begin the process of cutting the “locks of love” off the bridges in Paris. The first locks began appearing in 2006 or so, and the practice got into full swing in 2012 (which is the year I took the photos, above). There are now so many locks on these bridges the sheer weight has become a safety hazard. Apparently the combined weight of the locks on one of the pedestrian bridges is the equivalent of 20 elephants — a weight the bridge was not built to hold.

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