Philip Storey, a native of Gloucester, has spent ten years collecting the work of Louis Blend, an amateur photographer who shot thousands of tourists with Gloucester’s Man at the Wheel statue between the years of 1923 and 1973. Blend, born Levi Blinder, was a shoemaker’s apprentice in Russia before emigrating to the US in 1914. He acquired a camera kit and was able to earn a living taking photos of tourists. He eventually settled the base of his operation at Gloucester’s Man at the Wheel statue where he spent the next five decades shooting local visitors. Storey will present a "snapshot" of this unique and underexposed facet of Gloucester lore.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Where? Cape Ann Museum? Phil has an amazing collection of memorabilia relating to the professional photographer Louis Blend. I remember talking to him, but don’t think I took any photos. What he did was called “Minute Photography.” I have a family portrait or two to share that he made in the 60’s.
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I lived on Mansfield. St. Across from the Man at the Wheel till I got married. As a kid in the late 50’s we would dive off the wall for change thrown into the water in front of the statute and where Louis had his camera set up for the tourist who drove or came by bus to visit Gloucester. I use to talk to Louis and watch as he developed the pictures under the black cloth used as his portable dark room; trimmed and placed in a paper frame in a couple of minutes. As kids from this area we used the grass areas as our playground till chased off by the cops.
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