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Vietnam veteran captures images of visitors to memorial
  
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By STEFANIE THOMAS
The secret behind Tom Morrisey’s photography project is detachment from his own past and experience in the Vietnam War, and a strict focus on the faces of survivors and loved ones who come to pay their respect at the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“One of the reasons I was able to visit the memorial so readily and frequently is because I went as a photographer, not as a veteran,” the former U.S. Army helicopter pilot said.
By concentrating on shutter speed and lighting, Morrisey managed to temporarily look beyond the names he recognized among the 58,256 soldiers commemorated on the Veterans Memorial Wall and captured instead the emotions of thousands of visitors to the once controversial memorial site honoring fallen Vietnam soldiers on film.
He had no interest in photographing politicians, celebrities or other famous visitors, Morrissey explained. Instead, his attention was dedicated to those who were most deeply affected by the Vietnam War through the loss of a loved one.
“There was a lot of pain, grief, tears, people kneeling and crying, hugging and asking themselves any number of questions, often, ‘Why did I survive and he did not?’” Morrissey said. “But there were also people running into old friends and being very celebratory, laughing. And at night in hotels there were parties and dancing.”
Morrissey visited the memorial for the first time during a flight layover in Washington, D.C. more than 25 years ago.
“I had my camera with me and started taking pictures at the memorial that day,” he said. “It ended up becoming a project.”
Between 1983 and 2000, Morrissey took the red-eye train from his home in Rhode Island to the nation’s capital at least once, often twice, a year to eternalize the reactions of friends, family members and comrades of the fallen.
“I went on Veterans Day and Memorial Day and usually stayed for about two days,” Morrisey remembered. “I’d shoot between 10 and 15 rolls of black-and-white film a day during the first 15 years or so before I switched to digital photography toward the end.”
Morrisey said that the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a tool to promote the nation’s healing process after the war, and his photographs are a documentation of that process.
“They say the Vietnam War tore the country apart. Unlike World War I and World War II, where the nation was joined together in the fight, the Vietnam War left the country very bitter,” he said. “It took years and years and years for those wounds to heal, and the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial served as a tool in this healing process, as a focal point for people to come and exorcise their ghosts, to pray, to meet with friends, whatever helped.”
Whenever Morrissey, who was based in Long Binh with the 117th Assault Helicopter Company from 1970 to 1971, did allow himself a moment to set aside his camera and reflect on those names on the Veterans Memorial Wall familiar to him, memories came flooding back.
“It’s like looking at an album and digging through old photographs,” he said. “When one of our helicopters went down, we lost three or four people at a time. The names on the wall are arranged in chronological order, and to see their names grouped together like that really brings those moments back. It’s very powerful.”
After his discharge from the Army, Morrissey tried to pursue a career as an airline pilot but jobs in the field were scarce. He went back to college as a political science major but soon switched to art, with his primary interest in photography. He currently teaches art and photography at a community college in Rhode Island.
Morrissey is the author of “Between the Lines: Photographs from the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial.”
About 60 of Morrisey’s photographs will be exhibited at Lone Star College-Kingwood’s art gallery between Oct. 14 and Nov. 14.
Pictures speak a thousand words
WHEN: Oct. 14-Nov. 14; Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
WHAT: “Between the Lines” photo exhibit
WHERE: Lone Star College-Kingwood Art Gallery
INFO: 281-312-1534
BOOK: Tom Morrisey’s book “Between the Lines: Photographs from the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial” can be purchased at the exhibit or by sending an e-mail to tmorrissey@ccri.edu.
“One of the reasons I was able to visit the memorial so readily and frequently is because I went as a photographer, not as a veteran,” the former U.S. Army helicopter pilot said.
By concentrating on shutter speed and lighting, Morrisey managed to temporarily look beyond the names he recognized among the 58,256 soldiers commemorated on the Veterans Memorial Wall and captured instead the emotions of thousands of visitors to the once controversial memorial site honoring fallen Vietnam soldiers on film.
He had no interest in photographing politicians, celebrities or other famous visitors, Morrissey explained. Instead, his attention was dedicated to those who were most deeply affected by the Vietnam War through the loss of a loved one.
“There was a lot of pain, grief, tears, people kneeling and crying, hugging and asking themselves any number of questions, often, ‘Why did I survive and he did not?’” Morrissey said. “But there were also people running into old friends and being very celebratory, laughing. And at night in hotels there were parties and dancing.”
Morrissey visited the memorial for the first time during a flight layover in Washington, D.C. more than 25 years ago.
“I had my camera with me and started taking pictures at the memorial that day,” he said. “It ended up becoming a project.”
Between 1983 and 2000, Morrissey took the red-eye train from his home in Rhode Island to the nation’s capital at least once, often twice, a year to eternalize the reactions of friends, family members and comrades of the fallen.
“I went on Veterans Day and Memorial Day and usually stayed for about two days,” Morrisey remembered. “I’d shoot between 10 and 15 rolls of black-and-white film a day during the first 15 years or so before I switched to digital photography toward the end.”
Morrisey said that the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a tool to promote the nation’s healing process after the war, and his photographs are a documentation of that process.
“They say the Vietnam War tore the country apart. Unlike World War I and World War II, where the nation was joined together in the fight, the Vietnam War left the country very bitter,” he said. “It took years and years and years for those wounds to heal, and the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial served as a tool in this healing process, as a focal point for people to come and exorcise their ghosts, to pray, to meet with friends, whatever helped.”
Whenever Morrissey, who was based in Long Binh with the 117th Assault Helicopter Company from 1970 to 1971, did allow himself a moment to set aside his camera and reflect on those names on the Veterans Memorial Wall familiar to him, memories came flooding back.
“It’s like looking at an album and digging through old photographs,” he said. “When one of our helicopters went down, we lost three or four people at a time. The names on the wall are arranged in chronological order, and to see their names grouped together like that really brings those moments back. It’s very powerful.”
After his discharge from the Army, Morrissey tried to pursue a career as an airline pilot but jobs in the field were scarce. He went back to college as a political science major but soon switched to art, with his primary interest in photography. He currently teaches art and photography at a community college in Rhode Island.
Morrissey is the author of “Between the Lines: Photographs from the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial.”
About 60 of Morrisey’s photographs will be exhibited at Lone Star College-Kingwood’s art gallery between Oct. 14 and Nov. 14.
Pictures speak a thousand words
WHEN: Oct. 14-Nov. 14; Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
WHAT: “Between the Lines” photo exhibit
WHERE: Lone Star College-Kingwood Art Gallery
INFO: 281-312-1534
BOOK: Tom Morrisey’s book “Between the Lines: Photographs from the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial” can be purchased at the exhibit or by sending an e-mail to tmorrissey@ccri.edu.
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