Long Home

For the last several years, I’ve sought out Vietnam War veterans from across the country, seeking to learn their personal story, one centered on a complex war the US departed a long half century ago. During my travels, I was welcomed into a veteran groups’ annual crawfish feed in Louisiana, sat curbside at Veteran Day parades in small towns across Washington state, and watched as aging veterans in Butte, Montana approached The Wall That Heals to honor buddies lost in war. Along the way, I sat in living rooms and kitchens, on porches, in noisy bars, taking in complex, often conflicted personal stories, frequently told with more reluctance than bravado.

At the end of each conversation, I would turn off a small voice recorder and pull out my camera to take some photographs. I never quite knew how the portrait taking would be received, knowing these pictures were taken just moments after the telling of a poignant, often difficult story. To my surprise, not one veteran interviewed rejected having their picture taken. Early on, I decided to keep the experience brief and unstaged, taking each each photograph handheld, without the introduction of props or lighting equipment, including flash. My hope is the pictures in this series reflect the rawness and vulnerability of the moment, and quite often, a tinge of pride shared by many of these veterans.

The pictures, of course, are only half the story, so I’m sharing a selection here with reservation. My intention for this project is to pair portraits with personal reflections, whether a couple powerful sentences or many culled from our conversation. A book is being preparing for this purpose to include fifty of my most memorable visits. I will share more once the book is ready for publication.

For more on this project, see Long Home Introduction.