F/A-18 'Hornet'

Science & Technology, first prize singles

7/7/1999

A US Navy F/A-18 'Hornet' passing through a water vapor cloud at the speed of sound. The jet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One, at the time deployed with the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. The shot was taken from the 0-10 level weather deck, the highest vantage point on the ship.

Commissioned by: U.S. Navy / Sports Illustrated

Photo Credit: John Gay

John Gay (born Hans Göhler: 1909 in Karlsruhe, Germany – 1999 in Highgate, London) was a photographer

Gay attended art college in his home town. In 1933 he left Germany, following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, moving to England with his friend Walter Stern and Stern's family, including his mother, the photographer Martha Stern.

In 1942, he settled in London and he based his professional photographic practice which covered a varied range of subjects from animals for pet food companies, architecture and country scenes for Country Fair Magazine, to the portraits of literary personalities including Terence Rattigan, Dylan Thomas and Vita Sackville-West for the Strand Magazine.

Gay’s love of architecture, nature and the countryside are reflected in his work.

After his death in 1999 over 40,000 of John Gay's photographs were left to English Heritage and are held in its public archive.

He is buried in a place close to his heart, Highgate Cemetery in north London. The stone lies near a main path but is easily missed being small and partly obscured by planting.