The story behind the crop duster photograph

Kevin Fleming said people often ask him how he shot the photograph of Allen Chorman spraying sunflowers near Milton more than 25 years ago. Many assume it was taken from another aircraft or from a barn or silo, but Fleming said the reality was far different.

After discovering the sunflower field, Fleming said he envisioned Chorman flying his yellow crop duster above it. Chorman initially hesitated, as he was busy with the height of spraying season, but eventually he agreed. To gain enough elevation, Fleming borrowed a bucket truck from Delaware Electric Cooperative, which lifted him about 45 feet in the air. At sunrise, Chorman flew directly over the bucket truck, passing within about three feet. Moments later, the plane’s wake turbulence caused the bucket to sway violently, though Fleming quickly recovered – and he even asked Chorman to make another pass.

The image became Fleming’s most well-known work, appearing on book and calendar covers, and in newspapers and magazines. As a tribute to his father, Jeff Chorman had a 20-by-60-foot mural made of the photograph. The larger-than-life mural is across the back of Jeff's helicopter hanger near Greenwood. More than two decades later, the photograph continues to be published, and Chorman now considers it the best thing he ever did. As the image appears again today, it is likely to prompt new questions, especially as it turns up in wedding photos taken at the hangar Jeff now rents out as a wedding reception venue.