thedrifter
03-24-07, 07:46 PM
Medal of Honor Day debuts
Photographer tells his tale of capturing heroes on film
By Seamus O’Connor - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 24, 2007 18:11:35 EDT
On March 1, the House and Senate agreed on a resolution to make March 25 the first ever Medal of Honor Day.
The date marks the first awarding of the nation’s highest honor, when Secretary of War Edwin Stanton bestowed it on six men in 1863. While legal complications make it unclear whether the holiday will be repeated annually, the nation will have at least this chance to celebrate as a whole the thousands of recipients of Medal of Honor recipients.
A total of 3,440 military members and civilians have been granted the medal, the only award that commands a salute from the president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Only 111 recipients are alive today. And it’s unlikely that anyone knows more of them than Nick Del Calzo.
Del Calzo is the photographer behind “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty,” a 2006 book of portraits of Medal of Honor recipients. Many of those 116 portraits now hang in the halls of the Pentagon, and Del Calzo was in Washington on March 21 at the Russell Senate Building, where 30 of his black-and-white images were on display in celebration of Medal of Honor Day.
Del Calzo, a member of the National Guard “a million years ago” as he put it, spent over 20 years working in public relations before he decided to follow his dream of being a photographer.
“I wanted to do something that if it failed I couldn’t blame anybody, but if it went well, it was because of my vision,” he said.
His first published book of photos, “The Triumphant Spirit: Portraits & Stories of Holocaust Survivors,” came out in 1997 to wide acclaim. Before that project, Del Calzo had worked on shooting portraits of aging veterans in VA hospitals, but he didn’t find what he was looking for.
Del Calzo “wanted to honor all veterans,” including his three WWII veteran brothers. But the hospital portraits “didn’t represent the spirit and vitality of those who came back and served our country and rebuilt their lives and built businesses,” he said.
It was only after his Holocaust survivor project ended that he gathered friends together to answer the question, “What’s a hero?” Though they found no consensus, it set Del Calzo on the path to his Medal of Honor project.
Through the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he contacted and photographed all the living recipients who agreed to take part. He also photographed the final resting place of some seldom-recognized honorees: those interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Each of Del Calzo’s portraits in his book and in the Pentagon is accompanied by a quote from the recipient depicted.
“After I photographed them, I said, ‘If you had the opportunity to speak to the youth of our country, and all Americans, what one sentence would you like to convey to them?’ ” Del Calzo said.
However, “I chose not to ask them about the action [for which they earned the medal]. If they started talking about it, and I sensed they wanted to, I did. But invariably when they start talking about it, it brings up very deep feelings, and they become tearful, and I didn’t want to do that.”
Beyond spreading the wisdom of an older generation, Del Calzo said his mission was about teaching today’s youth about the selflessness and heroism of their forbears.
“Americans need to understand what that medal represents, and why it’s so significant,” he said. “These men are truly our American eagles. They come from all walks of life, all ethnic backgrounds; they represent the fabric and spirit of our society.”
And though Del Calzo works only in black-and-white photography, he said he still thinks that by looking at the portraits, people will be able to see the people depicted and their stories are full of “so much color.”
Ellie
Photographer tells his tale of capturing heroes on film
By Seamus O’Connor - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 24, 2007 18:11:35 EDT
On March 1, the House and Senate agreed on a resolution to make March 25 the first ever Medal of Honor Day.
The date marks the first awarding of the nation’s highest honor, when Secretary of War Edwin Stanton bestowed it on six men in 1863. While legal complications make it unclear whether the holiday will be repeated annually, the nation will have at least this chance to celebrate as a whole the thousands of recipients of Medal of Honor recipients.
A total of 3,440 military members and civilians have been granted the medal, the only award that commands a salute from the president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Only 111 recipients are alive today. And it’s unlikely that anyone knows more of them than Nick Del Calzo.
Del Calzo is the photographer behind “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty,” a 2006 book of portraits of Medal of Honor recipients. Many of those 116 portraits now hang in the halls of the Pentagon, and Del Calzo was in Washington on March 21 at the Russell Senate Building, where 30 of his black-and-white images were on display in celebration of Medal of Honor Day.
Del Calzo, a member of the National Guard “a million years ago” as he put it, spent over 20 years working in public relations before he decided to follow his dream of being a photographer.
“I wanted to do something that if it failed I couldn’t blame anybody, but if it went well, it was because of my vision,” he said.
His first published book of photos, “The Triumphant Spirit: Portraits & Stories of Holocaust Survivors,” came out in 1997 to wide acclaim. Before that project, Del Calzo had worked on shooting portraits of aging veterans in VA hospitals, but he didn’t find what he was looking for.
Del Calzo “wanted to honor all veterans,” including his three WWII veteran brothers. But the hospital portraits “didn’t represent the spirit and vitality of those who came back and served our country and rebuilt their lives and built businesses,” he said.
It was only after his Holocaust survivor project ended that he gathered friends together to answer the question, “What’s a hero?” Though they found no consensus, it set Del Calzo on the path to his Medal of Honor project.
Through the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he contacted and photographed all the living recipients who agreed to take part. He also photographed the final resting place of some seldom-recognized honorees: those interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Each of Del Calzo’s portraits in his book and in the Pentagon is accompanied by a quote from the recipient depicted.
“After I photographed them, I said, ‘If you had the opportunity to speak to the youth of our country, and all Americans, what one sentence would you like to convey to them?’ ” Del Calzo said.
However, “I chose not to ask them about the action [for which they earned the medal]. If they started talking about it, and I sensed they wanted to, I did. But invariably when they start talking about it, it brings up very deep feelings, and they become tearful, and I didn’t want to do that.”
Beyond spreading the wisdom of an older generation, Del Calzo said his mission was about teaching today’s youth about the selflessness and heroism of their forbears.
“Americans need to understand what that medal represents, and why it’s so significant,” he said. “These men are truly our American eagles. They come from all walks of life, all ethnic backgrounds; they represent the fabric and spirit of our society.”
And though Del Calzo works only in black-and-white photography, he said he still thinks that by looking at the portraits, people will be able to see the people depicted and their stories are full of “so much color.”
Ellie