Camera Man's Likeness Created, Ironically, With Paint

"He was all about doing for others."

That's the highest compliment artist Erich Preis could think of and he said it about Len Totora, owner for many years of L & L Camera and Video in Huntington Village before his death February 22.

To honor his altruistic friend, Preis decided to memorialize Totora in a life-sized, double-paneled mural on a building at one of the busiest corners in Huntington, Park Avenue and East Main Street.

Preis said Totora inspired him as the pair worked together to provide support to homeless veterans. Preis often donated his paintings to raise money for homeless veterans as well as drawing or painting commemorative images of fallen soldiers for their families.

"There are thousands of homeless veterans right here on Long Island," Preis said last week on one rainy, slightly chilly day while adding details to the mural after mixing up custom shades on his palette from his Benjamin Moore cans of paint. 

The mural  depicts Totora in parade garb waving to an unseen member of the crowd on one panel and him as part of a parade color guard in the other.

Totora joined the United States Army as a teenager to get his education and travel the world over. Trained as a corps photographer during the Korean War, Totora was an honorably decorated combat photographer who traveled with some of our bravest men and women in the armed forces.

He was a charter member of the Huntington Veteran's Committee and participated in the Town of Huntington's Veteran's Oral History Project and his Korean War experience was recorded and reprinted below.

Preis became impassioned about supporting veterans after he lost a close friend in the Pentagon on 9/11.

Preis said the owner of the building Dominic Mavellia was as enthusiastic in his support of the mural as the artist. Mavellia also owns a large building in Copiague, which Preis hopes will eventually be developed to house homeless veterans.  If it happens, it will be named in honor of Totora, Preis said.