Lou Hodges, Jr., a second-generation photographer who has captured horse racing images at the Fair Grounds since 1976, has announced his retirement. Hodges, Jr., who took over the family business in 1978, will now hand the reins over to his daughter, Amanda Hodges Weir.
“Fair Grounds has been lucky to have Lou Hodges,” Senior Director of Racing Jason Boulet said. “Our racetrack, our horses, and our horsemen have come to life through the fantastic photos he has taken. We are very grateful for everything he and his family has given us, and we are fortunate to have his highly-respected daughter Amanda take over. Although Lou is retiring, his photos will always be here to tell Fair Grounds' story.”
Hodges, Jr. spent plenty of his childhood at the racetrack with his father.
“He would go out early in the mornings to deliver pictures to the trainers,” Hodges, Jr. said. “So I would go with him through the barn area and that's where I learned a lot about his relationship to the horsemen. He would walk into the barn to deliver pictures and everybody would always get excited. It was really something. He had a lot of friends on the racetrack. People really respected him.”
Hodges, Jr. also worked as the track photographer at Rockingham Pak, Washington Park, Arlington Park and Louisiana Downs, and remarked on how the photography business has evolved down the years.
“The technology changes always came along at the right time for me,” Hodges Jr. said. “More than anything that's what kept me really interested. It allowed me to always try to think of a new way to do a picture, some new angles, something different to shoot.”
With so many years on the job, Hodges, Jr. has a sufficient number of stories to tell.
“Washington Park, that was my first racetrack fire,” Hodges, Jr said. “They had not run Thoroughbred racing there for a number of years, but they decided to bring it back, and on Jan. 1 as we rode into town, the temperature dropped below freezing, then below zero. On Feb. 5, we had left to go back to our apartment and the track caught fire. All the fire hoses had frozen up and they just watched it burn down–there was nothing they could do.”
“Then eight years later there was Arlington,” Hodges, Jr. said. “Eight years after that Fair Grounds burned down. So I've seen enough racetrack fires. When we got back to racing at Fair Grounds and were using tents, Pat Day was in the post parade and he saw me standing there and said 'Just being around you I feel like I should have a fire extinguisher.'”
Hodges, Jr.'s daughter joined the operation in 2015.
“Amanda's undergraduate degree from Ole Miss is in Art Education,” Lou said. “She came along with different ways of looking at things. Her computer skills with photoshop are outstanding. I was very fortunate that she decided to come into the business, it made life a lot easier.”
“My father is still going to come out for the big race days,” Amanda said. “We joke that he is like the Rolling Stones. Will he ever really officially retire? Who knows.”
This past Sunday, Fair Grounds celebrated Lou Hodges Jr.'s retirement, and the fourth race was run in his honor.
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