Hard Earned: The Military Photographs of Stacy Pearsall

Stacy Pearsall: An Iraq War veteran whose weapon was a camera (Review)
Syracuse.com
By Katherine Rushworth
Contributing writer
October 28, 2015

In the image titled, "New Dawn, June 22, 2003," one of the most powerful and sensitively composed images in the exhibition, Pearsall positions herself beneath the wing of a transport plane; a silent observer cloaked in the veil of night as she captures the solemn movements of US Air Force personnel transferring a soldier from an ambulance to the plane. The dark figures in the middle ground are deeply silhouetted against an orange and yellow sky in the background; her composition a study of lights and darks, angles and lines, figures and forms.

This photo by soldier/photographer Stacy Pearsall, is titled, "Breaking Dawn, June 22, 2003." It portrays the transfer of a wounded soldier from an ambulance to an Air Force transport plane. Pearsall took the photo during one of her three tours of duty in Iraq. An exhibition of Pearsall's photos remains on view at the SUArt Galleries through January 24, 2016.
(Stacy L. Pearsall)

Stacy Pearsall served three tours in Iraq, but the shots she took were with a camera.

"I carry a gun," Pearsall has stated, "but my real weapon is my camera."

Through January 24 visitors to the Syracuse University Art Galleries in the Shaffer Art Building can take in an impressive array of about two dozen photographs taken by Pearsall during her tours in Iraq and a series of portraits comprising her more recent "Veterans Portrait Project," which she began following her retirement from service.

The show, titled "Hard Earned: The Military Photographs of Stacy Pearsall," was curated by Theresa Moir, a dual degree candidate in Museum Studies and Art History at Syracuse University.
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