“To the War Zone Without a Weapon- An Army Vet’s hopeful trek to Iraq on a peace mission.”

I met Tracey Harmon in the summer of 2009 at the annual FreedomFest convention held in Las Vegas. I was asked to go there to photograph some of the female activists who were selected to be in the Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) calendar. For years, Tracey has been very active with the Iraq Veterans Against the War organization and officially left the army as a conscientious objector. So it made perfect sense that her calendar page had an anti-war theme.

The day of her photo session, we got up at 5am to drive to the Vegas red rocks to catch the morning light. Anyone who knows me knows that without question, I am not a morning person. Tracey was a blast to work with and I was especially thankful for my friends Bekah and Brad who generously volunteered to be my assistants. Despite the early morning, everyone was pretty enthusiastic and I was really excited (and nervous) to be able to stretch my creative muscles with the shoot. Her original goal was to communicate a sense of surrender, and my goal was to do that while also capturing her inner strength, self-determination, and innate femininity.

When I got back to my hotel room to review the shots later that morning, I was seriously blown away. Not only was Tracey gorgeous, but the location and light were absolutely perfect and worth every ounce of effort it took to pull myself out of bed.

Below are some of the previously unreleased shots taken from our session. As you’ll see, Tracey’s eyes truly are the window to her soul. I am now, just as I was then, filled with a deep sense of honor to have been invited to peer into such a sensitive place. Tracey is beautiful, both inside and out. I genuinely admire her carefree spirit, strong sense of self, and heart filled with deep love and compassion. And I’m very proud to call her a friend. :)

Love you Tracey! <3
Rita

PS: Please help send Tracey to Iraq on a peace-keeping mission! Tracey will be documenting human rights violations against civilian populations and meeting with various relief groups and Iraqi civilians. She will also be conducting local radio interviews and blogging with live footage and reports from the ground.

From Tracey: “I will be taking letters from veterans in Iraq Veterans Against the War – letters of remorse, grief, and apology for losses. I will accept personal responsibility for the damage due to my participation, as a former soldier, and work towards alleviating human suffering in any capacity I can.”

To donate to her trip, visit iamlola.org or contact 559-IAMLOLA

And this was her final calendar image… Just stunning!

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It’s funny how we create our lives just by having personal intentions and merely thinking about what we want. Val had been telling me how he really wanted to work with a cinematographer who was young, excited, and most importantly, not jaded by traditional film school techniques and teachings. A few days later, we meet Kasper. He’s this cool guy who we started chatting with at a dinner party who had recently moved to Austin from Florida. Kasper mentions how he was interested in going to school to learn cinematography but really just wanted to get his hands on a camera and do some guerilla filming. I see Val’s ears perk up and a big smile come across his face as he says “No Way!”

Within a week, Kasper and Val were meeting and planing a schedule to work together. And I, of course, noticed immediately the cool “look” Kasper had with his crazy curly hair, amazing blue eyes, and hip fashion sense. I asked him if he’d want to do a photoshoot with me one day and he says that another photographer wanted to do something with him too. I find out that the other photographer was actually my friend Jackie Jackson. So her and I got together and decided to do the shoot together. (btw: I can’t say enough about Jackie. She’s fantastically fun and has been wonderfully supportive of me trying to get my business off the ground. I LOVE her!)

So, Jackie and I headed over with Kasper to the Cedar Park historical trains, and then to downtown Round Rock, to play. I’ve said before how I really want to incorporate a more fashion-like style to my work and Kasper was the perfect model for that. He was super patient and light-hearted as Jackie and I experimented with poses and backgrounds, which we both genuinely appreciated.

And my heart just leapt when he saw the final shots and was so happy with them. He was like a little kid, literally bouncing in his seat as he reviewed them! And I gotta say, seeing him so happy really helped give me the confidence to believe that maybe I can do this… follow my dream.

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