Carlos Elmer
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Carlos Hall Elmer (22 July 1920 – 22 May 1993) was an American writer and a photographer based out of
Kingman, Arizona Kingman is a city in and the county seat of Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is named after Lewis Kingman, an engineer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The population was 32,693 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hi ...
. He sought to capture "the wide look of Arizona" in his images.


Early life and education

Elmer was born in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, on 22 July 1920. He relocated to Kingman, Arizona, as a child in 1926. He earned a degree from
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
in 1947.


Career

Elmer went on to become an Air Force photographer in the
Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
of
WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He served with the
Seventh Air Force The Seventh Air Force (Air Forces Korea) (7 AF) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, South Korea. The command's mission is to plan and direct air component operations in ...
from 1942 to 1945. After his discharge from the military in 1946, he worked as a civilian at the United States Naval Ordnance Test Station from 1947 to 1957. Elmer was employed as a salesman until 1972. He continued to build his photography collections and began to publish his images. Over his career, he published nine books containing his work. He collaborated often with the magazine ''
Arizona Highways ''Arizona Highways'' is a magazine that contains travelogues and artistic photographs related to the U.S. state of Arizona. It is published monthly in Phoenix by a unit of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Background The ...
''. In 1989, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Kingman Area Chamber of Commerce.


Personal life

Elmer had two children with his wife Wilma.


Legacy

Carlos Elmer's Joshua View is a named slope in
Mohave County, Arizona Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 List of counties in Arizona, counties in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman ...
, west of
Grapevine Mesa ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...
. It eponymizes Elmer's legacy of photographing
Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus '' Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tre ...
s in Mohave County. Carlos Elmer's Joshua View is unique in that it is one of few American place names with a
possessive apostrophe The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...
. It was successfully argued by the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names that having three given names in a row (Carlos, Elmer, and Joshua) would lead to confusion without the punctuation mark. In 1998, the city of Kingman began hosting the Carlos Elmer Photography Contest. Elmer has a permanent exhibit of his work in Kingman.


Notes


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elmer, Carlos 1920 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American photographers University of California, Los Angeles alumni Photographers from Washington, D.C. Photographers from Arizona People from Kingman, Arizona United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II