The Journal

Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: Lanz Christian Banes Tom Graves, a visiting photographer from San Francisco, discusses his May Gallery exhibition "Heroes All!" with retired Marines Troy Lewis, president of the St. Loius chapter of the 1st Marine Division Association, and Henry Coleman, also a member of the St. Louis Chapter.

Walking through the May Gallery, faces stare out from the walls at those passing by. These faces are old and weathered, like many men and women, but these faces share one significant commonality: they are all veterans. The exhibit is a tribute to the war heroes of the first half of the last century called "Heroes All!" by Tom Graves.

During the past five years, Graves, a San Francisco-based photographer, has been capturing the stories of more than 100 veterans of World War II and the Korean War through photographs. Graves began the project in 2001 and continues to interview and photograph veterans with hopes of someday publishing a book of their stories.

The exhibit on the second floor of Sverdrup building displays 33 photos, but the entire collection has more than 100 photos. At the March 3 lecture, Graves shared his collection of photographs and stories with a group of about 30 students and faculty in the Emerson Library Conference Room.

Graves has been a professional photographer for about 30 years, but his interest in the medium began at age 10. While showing his commercial work to the audience, Graves described what it meant to be a photographer.

"When I do my photography of this nature, I hope that my lighting is invisible; that you really don't see it," Graves said. "I try to encourage the mood that was in the room already. If you can look at a picture and you see the technical part of it, I think the picture is a failure."

Graves walked the audience through the project, sharing bits and pieces of the lives of the veterans he photographed as they flashed on the overhead screen every few seconds. One veteran, a barber named Carl, "gave me a very bad haircut," Graves joked as he showed a picture of Carl standing in his barbershop.

Continued...

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