Since 1976, second-generation track photographer Lou Hodges
Jr. has captured horse racing at Fair Grounds. At age 76 he has decided to
retire.

On Sunday the track will celebrate his career, and the
fourth race will be run in his honor. 

Beginning in 1948 when Lou Hodges Sr. became the assistant
to Jack Blythe, a member of the Hodges family has served as Fair Grounds’
in-house photographer for 76 years. Lou Hodges Jr. joined his father in 1976
and took over the business in 1978. That tradition will continue as the baton
is passed to his daughter Amanda Hodges Weir.

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“Fair Grounds has been lucky to have Lou Hodges,” racing
director 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.”

A New Orleans native, Lou Hodges Jr. grew up coming to Fair
Grounds with his father. 

“He would go out early in the mornings to deliver pictures
to the trainers,” he 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.”

Named to the Fair Grounds press-box hall of fame in 2014,
Hodges joined his father in becoming the first father-son inductees.

“My father felt that it was very important to treat
everybody with respect,” he said. “He’d say, ‘You’re going to do business with
people who are Vanderbilts. And you’re going to do business with people who are
grooms and hot walkers. But when they come into the office, you treat everybody
like they’re a Vanderbilt.’ ”

Throughout his career Hodges served as a track photographer
at Rockingham Park, Washington Park, Arlington Park and Louisiana Downs. In
that time he has seen major shifts in technology as photography shifted from
black and white to color, from film to digital images.

“The technology changes always came along at the right time
for me,” Hodges 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.”

Working at racetracks across the country, Hodges has
gathered his share of stories. 

“Washington Park. That was my first racetrack fire,” he
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. 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’s grandfather Samuel Hodges emigrated from Ireland to
New Orleans, bringing with him a love of horse racing.

“He wanted one of his sons to become a jockey,” Lou said.
“My father had no interest. He was studious and would bring his book. My uncle
Sammy Hodges became the jockey. I’ve always felt that the jockeys are the real
heroes of our industry. They put it on the line. We’ve had some great ones at
the Fair Grounds. Pat Day, Randy Romero, Eddie Delahoussaye.”

The love of horse racing has passed down through the family
as Hodges added his daughter to his operation in 2015. 

“Amanda’s undergraduate degree from Ole Miss is in art education,”
he 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.”

In addition to continuing as the official photographer at
Fair Grounds, Hodges Photography also has the contracts at Delta Downs and
Evangeline Downs.

“I learned from my father to always be creative,” Amanda said.
“Never stop learning. Never stop trying to find a different way to do things.
Even still, he’ll say, ‘I want to walk the infield. I have some ideas for a new
shot.’ And he’ll come up with a new angle we haven’t done.”

From photos of the dressed-up crowds on Thanksgiving day to
beautiful shots of the boisterous track mid-race as the Thoroughbreds round the
first turn, Lou always has found a unique way of capturing life and racing at
Fair Grounds. With his daughter at the helm, there are still more shots they
have in mind.

“Well, there’s this picture that we call the church picture,”
Amanda said. “Basically, if you look down the stretch, but you’re standing
pretty far into the infield, you can get it where the horses line up with the
big church that has a dome (Our Lady of the Rosary). We’ve tried at different
times, but haven’t quite achieved (our vision).”

In retirement Hodges and his wife Leslie have plans to
travel. But Fair Grounds patrons and horsemen shouldn’t be surprised if they
spy a familiar, bearded figure walking the infield, wearing an Irish cap and
sunglasses and draping a camera around his neck.

“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?”