"G. Paul Bishop, Sr. & Jr."
Photograph by Abe Aronow, 1984
g & G
As you browse through the
photographs, you may notice that some images are identified as
"Photographed by g. Paul Bishop," with the year the photograph
was taken. Other photographs are identified as "Photographed by
G. Paul Bishop, Jr." again with the year the photograph was
taken. Hence, the difference between "g" and "G".
My father chose the lower case
"g" to signify the change in the style of his work during World
War II, as senior photo officer aboard the USS Hancock, in the
South Pacific (see article "AN
EYE FOR AN I" for details).
It was at this time that his
first marriage failed and his ex-wife took over the portrait
business in Oakland. Upon returning to civilian life he met
Luella, who
was to become his new wife, and began a fresh start by
opening the portrait business in the little red brick studio in
Berkeley. This is when he dropped his first name and chose to go
by his middle name in order to avoid the conflict of business
names. As a symbolic gesture, he chose the lowercase "g" to
signify the insignificance of his earlier photographic work.
Since I was born into this
style of photography along with the same name, I chose to use the more
conventional capital "G" as the initial for my first name.
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