WIX Archives
Emil Strasser
Posted by bdk on Wed Feb 04, 2004 12:34:30 PM
In reply top Re: He scrapped the lot of them posted by Rob Rohr on Tue Feb 03, 2004 10:09:09 PM
: Emil Strasser Who is this person I've never heard on him.
He was a photographer that documented pre-war, wartime, and postwar military and ex-military aircraft as a hobby. He also authored articles in magazines like Air Classics.
http://www.aahs-online.org/BackIssues/V46N4.htm#Article 3
Aircraft Photos by Emil Strasser
From 1932 to the early 1990s, Emil Strasser was a prolific photographer of aircraft. Using box cameras and later a Kodak "Monitor," Emil captured much of the Golden Age of Aviation on his trips to the National Air Races at Cleveland and the airports in Ohio. In later years, when 616 film was no longer available, Emil used 35mm color slides for his aircraft images.
Emil was born in Akron, Ohio in 1911. During World War II, he worked for Goodyear Aerospace in Akron. In 1945, his family moved to California and Emil went to work for Northrop Aircraft in Hawthorne. Emil was a life-long bachelor and spent many hoars at the airports around the Los Angeles area. He went to the Reno Air Races and the Oshkosh EAA show almost every year. When Emil was well into his 80s, his legs started bothering him and he ended his trips to Reno and Oshkosh. Emil still attended the local airshows, but his health declined and he probably suffered with depression. His close friend Gerald Liang was one of his few personal contacts when Emil entered a care facility in 1997. Emil passed away at the care facility on June 7, 1997, at the age of 86.
Emil left a wonderful collection of slides and black-and-white negatives, and over 500 rolls of unprocessed 616 film. After several years of work, Gerry Liang saved an amazing number of negatives from the old film, some of which were exposed in the 1950s! Because of Gerry Liang, the Strasser collection survived, and we all owe Gerry a big thank you.
