Bob Kenyon: A Senior Profile Portrait by Brennan Myers (2015)

For my profile project, I chose someone who fought for our country in one of the greatest battles in U.S. history. Bob Kenyon, who is now ninety-two years old, was apart of the 90th Infantry Division who stormed Utah Beach on June 6th, 1944. This day was also known as D-Day, the day that the allied soldiers fought the German Nazi soldiers for the liberation of the French people. D-Day is considered the most pivotal battles for the allied soldiers and without this victory, World War II could have fallen to the enemies of the allies. One of the main reasons I chose Bob Kenyon as my profile subject was because of the fact that D-Day veterans are rare to see in my generation’s era. More and more D-Day veterans die off each day and soon there will not be any around to tell the story of what they experienced on that historical day. As far as Kenyon knows, he is the last surviving member of his 90th Infantry Division.

For this photo, I decided to take it outside at around 6:00 P.M. at night because the lighting seemed to be perfect in my subject’s backyard. I attempted many different angles for this photograph, including a side and a profile type angle. Out of all of the angles that I experimented with, the head on angle with my subject facing forward with an intense look on his face seemed to work perfectly for what I was trying to show. I wanted the viewer to be able to see in Kenyon’s eyes that he had been through some extraordinary circumstances in his life. Regarding what my subject was wearing, I believed that it would look best if Kenyon wore his World War II leather jacket with all of his emblems stitched on it. With his jacket, Kenyon let the viewer know that he was a World War II veteran. Overall, I believe that the picture turned out just the way I wanted it to and I would like to thank Bob Kenyon for his contributions to this project.