Employer
- Personal Project
Date
- May 2019 - November 2019
Reasoning behind the project
When I was a child, I had come across a photo of my father, from Vietnam, I noticed in the shot that he had his hand on his gun on his right hip and I asked him, “Dad, did you kill anyone when you were in Vietnam?” At the time I was probably 10 or 11 and he told me, “Nah, I didn’t kill anyone, that was just for show.” Fast forward about 25 years and the photo had resurfaced. This time I said to him, “Dad, remember when you told me you didn’t kill…” He cut me off, this time holding the picture in both hands, he just stared at it and said, “Mikey, I killed so many people, I couldn’t even give you a number.” My father was a helicopter gunman, he said he just prayed and sprayed.
The idea struck me then, that I’d love to do something for him and those that served, whether they wanted to or not. But I wasn’t confident enough yet to embark on the project just yet. In 2019, my father told me he had cancer, this was an absolutely devastating blow and without knowing how much time he had, I knew I needed to do my project immediately.
And so it began.
Editing and Requests
As you can probably tell, my portrait style for these images is more stylized than typical portraits. I wanted my images to be a gateway into the souls of the men and women who served in a war that many of them didn’t agree with or had no choice in whether they want to go or not.
The main focus was always the eyes, but I also wanted to give these pictures a sort of “painterly” effect, but without losing clarity and detail. Each photo took about 3 hours of editing time, as the method I used was entirely unique and nothing I had seen or learned anywhere else. This way, these images were mine, a reflection of my passion for the craft, but also my dedication to the subjects.
After a few of the Veterans had seen the images of my father (the first person in the gallery above), two other gentlemen asked if I could “recreate” a picture each of them still had from Vietnam. You can also view those in the gallery above. This was an unexpected treat, as I thoroughly enjoyed bringing two different moments in time, together as one.
How the Project Started
After I felt confident enough in my abilities to shoot portraits at a level that felt professional enough (to me), I told my father of my idea, which was to photograph him, in his fatigues, and create a series of them. After which, I would go to my local VFW and show the veterans there and ask them if they’d like to be in my project. While only 3 politely declined, the rest were all so excited they couldn’t wait to join in on the project.
This was the deal I made them, I wanted to photograph them, also in fatigues, after which I would have them professionally printed at 16×20 and would have a gallery opening, featuring all of their photos. I would charge a $10 fee to enter the show and 100% of the profit would then be donated to their VFW location.
The show was such a success, that the gallery decided to keep the show up for two weeks, and in the end, $4,000 was raised and donated. The local news reached out for an interview and the Vietnam Veterans Association of the State of Florida asked me to attend their annual meeting in Orlando, where I was able to speak and offered everyone in attendance FREE photos of themselves.
Love your parents, call them every day, say hi, and say thank you. Because you may never know when the last time you’ll have that chance.