Abstract
This article provides a review of the Veterans Portrait Project (VPP). The author provides an overview of the VPP website and discusses the use of the portraits as a means of narrating individual veterans' experience.
Highlights
In 2007, after suffering an Improvised Explosive Device attack in Iraq while serving in the First Combat Camera Squadron, Stacy Pearsall spent countless hours in VA hospitals and waiting rooms on temporary retirement with multiple generations of veterans whose service included deployment in every branch of the armed services, from World War II up through Operation Iraqi Freedom
In a short video about the VPP, Pearsall (2016) offers a more precise purpose for the portraits: It was an opportunity for me to give back to my fellow veteran community while thanking them for their service, and I think that it is essential that we highlight their individual service because more often than not veterans are lumped into this one big great community when each and every one of them have an extraordinary individual story. (“Veterans Portrait Project,” 2016, 2:38-2:55) Bringing together the idea of service and individual narratives, as Pearsall suggests, the VPP has a pedagogical purpose in trying to disrupt the popular representation of veterans as a homogenous group and to provide a forum for veterans to break the silence around their experience
In collaboration with Pearsall, veterans narrate their own story through portraiture, video, speaking engagements, and traveling exhibitions
Summary
In 2007, after suffering an Improvised Explosive Device attack in Iraq while serving in the First Combat Camera Squadron, Stacy Pearsall spent countless hours in VA hospitals and waiting rooms on temporary retirement with multiple generations of veterans whose service included deployment in every branch of the armed services, from World War II up through Operation Iraqi Freedom. The website’s homepage offers an introduction to the project and 237 of Pearsall’s veteran portraits selected from across the range of cities and states where she has photographed veterans.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callSimilar Papers
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
