emailing the war [vince said].

Monday, July 18, 2005

emailing the war [vince said].

http://superbadass.net/blog/2005/07/emailing-war-vince-said.html

emailing the war [vince said].

i have seen the tower of babel and the home of abraham.

i have walked through a 5800 year old sacrificial altar/tower that

isn't missing a brick in a country that's plagued by war and

condemned by god himself.

i've seen sheets of glass that were once a vast desert.

i have walked through the city that is thought to be the cradle of

civilization after it was destroyed by greed and power lust.

i have watched boys in mens bodies do things that no super hero could

think of doing.

i've witnessed men die and didn't shed a tear.

i've wiped red from my face and stood there in disbelief.

i have loved and lost and lived through the horrors of war.

i have turned to a few and been turned away by some.

i've looked for help from those i've helped and they didn't even

bother to reply to my cry.

i've walked down crowded streets and dark alleys.

i'm proud of some of my acts and disgraced by others.

[seen ghosts and been saved by angels.]

been hit and hit back a few times.

my mind's infected with the way things could have been and the way

things are.

dreams: glass houses and explosions.

yet, i find it easier to be here than at home facing the daily

monotony of life.

i find it easier to get shot at and shoot back than to drive to an

office and sit in a cubical or drive to a construction site.

i find my mind wandering to far off places where life is simple and

easy.

i remember that life here is easy and simple.

there are no bills that i have to keep up with, no cell phones, no

dates, no car, no insurance and no responsibility other than to stay

alive, destroy this or that and try to help my friends stay alive

when i can.

i find myself wishing for the end and dreaming of the beginning.

the end of this and the beginning of that.

the start of what's next terrifies me and the daily grind is still so

boring that i can barely make it to the end of the day to start the

next 24 hours of boredom.

-------------

send my boy an email.

vincentseli@yahoo.com

Kissing The Dead...

http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/07/kissing-dead-catherine-leroy-passes-on.html

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Kissing The Dead. Catherine Leroy passes on

Most people won't be able to connect Catherine Leroy with anything significant. That's typical of newspaper readers. We rarely connect the photographer with the photograph. Fame comes from within the community of photo-journalists.

from thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/07/kissing-dead-catherine-leroy-passes-on.html

I met Catherine Leroy on some piece of African dirt where people with opposing ideologies had taken to slaughtering each other to make their point. I was surprized at her diminutive size. At 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds, she did not present the image one would expect of one the world's most renown and fearless combat photo-journalists.

Leroy was not a professional photographer when she arrived in Viet Nam. Two years later she would be credited with having captured the essence of the horror of ground warfare. And, she did it by getting in there with the troops and being where the bullets were flying.

Her photographs were unique. She was accused of photographing the war from a woman's perspective - different than what the corps of male photographers were doing at the time. I have never believed that.

Catherine Leroy presented a side of war that is usually only reserved for frontline grunts. There was nothing feminine about her work. As opposed to the heroism and the moments of memorial symbolism which combat photographers often captured, Leroy went for the troops themselves and produced a pictorial representation of the torment and suffering on the ground. In time, the US military command in Viet Nam would come to detest her work. Some called her a "ghoul" while others would praise her for telling the real story of intense close combat.

Perhaps her most famous photograph from the Viet Nam war was her 1967 Corpsman In Anguish, a shot that captured the frustration of navy medic Vernon Wike, serving with the 3rd Marines, unable to save his mortally wounded buddy. In fact, it is a series of three photos and taken together they tell a story most of us would not want to know. To a rifleman on the ground it constitutes something known as "kissing the dead" - the last act of a medic who realizes that his patient will die, no matter what he does.

Leroy paid heavily for her photographs. She was seriously wounded, more than once. She was the only accredited Viet Nam photo-journalist to para-jump into action, having made a combat jump with the 173rd Airborne in 1967. During the Tet offensive she was captured by the North Vietnamese in the battle for Hue. Her captors eventually released her when they realized she was a French journalist, but not before she photographed them in action.

Her Tet photo-essay made the cover of Life magazine.

And, then she left Viet Nam. She described herself as seriously shell-shocked. Her penchant for being amid the fighting had scarred her permanently. But, she had changed combat photo-journalism forever. No longer would the horror of actual combat be hidden from the public. Others would follow her lead and emulate her style, but none would match the fearless determination to show war through the eye's of a soldier using a lens which worked from the firing line.

Yesterday the world lost Catherine Leroy. She died at age 60.

Goodbye, Catherine. You gave more than you took. Those who knew you, even briefly, will miss the heavily accented English peppered with idioms which came from learning a language while living in the field with US marines.

And, we will always have the story you told in pictures.








(Click on images to enlarge)

Photographs copyright © Catherine Leroy

posted by Dave at 10:20 Go here to see more about Catherine and some more of her photos:

http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/07/kissing-dead-catherine-leroy-passes-on.html

"They Were Soldiers Once" Photos by Catherine Leroy

"They Were Soldiers Once" Photos by Catherine Leroy
3 messages

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Catherine Todd	Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 4:03 AM
To: DrJohnWM
Uncle Johnny, here's an article about a war photographer, Catherine Leroy, who covered the Vietnam War, and follow up with some of the soldiers. She died in 2006 at age 60. This is as powerful as "emailing the war (vince says)" http://superbadass.net/blog/2005/07/emailing-war-vince-said.html Send it out to whoever you think might be interested. I know too many people that are still haunted by war (current or previous). Quoting from the article below: "In these sustaining images, it is the suffering of the combatants alone that speaks with authority." I have no idea how to live in a world without war, but I would surely love to try. In fact, I am trying but it's not as "easy as it looks." I guess if some can do it perhaps more will follow? http://web9.popphoto.com/americanphotofeatures/2604/they-were-soldiers-once.html They Were Soldiers Once Legendary Photographer Catherine Leroy went searching for the men captured in two of the Vietnam War's most famous images. She found how history, and pictures, change even heroes. By Jeffrey Elbies September/October 2005 They Were Soldiers Once © Catherine Leroy Vernon Wike, photographed by Catherine Leroy in 2005. Though the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, its distant thunder continues to echo. It was perhaps the most intimately photographed war in history, and in those still images the fighting has never ceased. The most powerful of the pictures are the ones that captured the perceived truth of the morally contentious conflict. In these sustaining images, it is the suffering of the combatants alone that speaks with authority. (more on website) Read about the photographer, Catherine Leroy: http://stateoftheart.popphoto.com/blog/2007/03/a_tribute_to_ca.html March 22, 2007 A Tribute to Catherine Leroy One of the most fascinating photographers I have ever met, Catherine Leroy, will be the topic of discussion at lecture on March 28 at the New School's Tisch Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street in Manhattan. Organized by the Aperture Foundation. ... Leroy was 21 and, as she once told me, "about 90 pounds, with blonde pigtails" when she took it upon herself to cover the Vietnam War in 1966. She became something of a legend, not only for the images she made but for the danger she repeatedly put herself in. She was captured by the North Vietnamese Army during the Tet Offensive in 1968 and nearly killed while covering another battle. In a sense, the war haunted her for the rest of her life. (more on website)

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Catherine Todd	Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 4:07 AM
To: Terry Baldwin Mill Rose Inn
Terry, the iTunes "m4p" of With God on Our Side" of course wouldn't open, but I listened to a ton of versions on Amazon.com! Thanks for sending it... here's some other articles and photos I came across. You may be interested. Yours, Katie [Quoted text hidden] -- Catherine Todd 3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565 H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727, GUA cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.5013.6300 For 2008: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." — R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path* Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner

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Catherine Todd	Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 4:20 AM
To: "Catherine S. Todd"
See also: War Photographer Catherine Leroy Dies By CHRISTOPHER WEBER The Associated Press Sunday, July 9, 2006; 10:06 PM SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Catherine Leroy, the French-born photojournalist whose stark images of battle helped tell the story of the Vietnam War in the pages of Life magazine and other publications, has died. She was 60. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/09/AR2006070900899.html [Quoted text hidden] [Quoted text hidden]