WWII

I’ve been familiar with reenactments for a long time before I started this series. Every Memorial Day weekend, there’s a Revolutionary War reenactment I can walk to from my house. Years ago, I talked with a colleague who was about to retire. He was thinking about becoming a Civil War reenactor and had gone out to Gettysburg to see a reenactment there. He said he didn’t know what he was doing, so the first day did not go well. On the following day, he said, he found a better spot and, for a while, was in a position where he could see no other people, and no sign at all of the 20th century. When Union soldiers marched into sight, he said it felt like he’d been transported back in time. And I’d read Confederates in the Attic, an excellent book about Civil War reenactors. 

For some reason, Revolutionary and Civil War reenactments did not interest me very much as a subject for pictures. Perhaps it was because of my strong interest in the 1930s and 40s American history. I went to a small World War II reenactment at the local military museum and talked with some of the reenactors. Without exception, all of the reenactors I have met have been incredibly knowledgeable, knowing more about their subject than most historians, very friendly, and enjoying what they are doing: bringing history to life.

There’s also something a little incongruous about it all. There's still a sense of playing war despite the care taken in creating exact replica uniforms, equipment, and weapons. And while our modern wars have mostly been fought by the young, that’s not the case with the people who make up the reenactment armies. 

Living in the Midwest, I was lucky to find this region is a hotbed of WWII reenactments. At the first reenactment I attended, the reenactors I talked to all said that if I was interested in photographing WWII events, I needed to go to the one in Rockford, IL. That was easy enough since that’s where I grew up. I also attended a Battle of the Bulge reenactment in Peoria, IL, and a D-Day reenactment in Conneaut, OH.