'I wanted to collect evidence against the war, the futility, the destruction ... I said to myself, don't worry about how good the photo is. When the eye sees it, do it.'Tony Vaccaro
In 1943 a young 22 year old Italian-Amercian called Tony Vaccaro was drafted into the US army, he would spend the following year traveling across Europe with his regiment. Vaccaro's passion for photography came with him to war. With a rifle on one arm and a camera around his neck he was always ready for any kind of action.
Official war photographers at the time, like Robert Capa, sometimes sensationalized the conflict almost romanticizing the drama. After all they were intended to sell newspapers. However, Vaccaro was a soldier first and a photographer second. He couldn't leave the conflict whenever he chose and return home. On one occasion when he came across the ruins of a camera shop in Germany, he took some chemicals and processed a roll of film on a moonless night in his helmet, hanging it to dry on a nearby tree.
His position in the front line, meant that he was exposed to the most brutal reality. He saw no romance in war rather he witnessed the futility of young men following orders that would eventually lead many of them to their death. His documentation of the Second World War finally led him to Berlin where he stayed to record post-war life. His images were published in 'Weekend' the Sunday supplement of the U.S Army magazine 'Stars and Stripes'. A few years later he returned to America where he became a renowned fashion and lifestyle photographer.
I wonder if the act of recording an experience like the Second World War from your very own eyes would help to the heal the trauma of such exposure, enabling you to stand back and see the whole picture, or photograph as the case may be.
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