AmericanGothic By D.J. Bernard
Photographer Brownie Harris was having a moment. It was 2010, the early days of
Hearts Apart, a Wilmington-based national nonprofit that photographs military families
before deployment. Harris was shooting photographs of an Army special operations soldier
along with his wife and their two children.
The images aren’t just ordinary “say cheese” photos. Harris likes to get families involved
in the creative process, and asks them to bring changes of clothing to shoot compelling
military shots as well as casual family photos with the aim of capturing what it means to
go to war and leave your loved ones behind.
“Many families have never experienced a photography shoot like what we do,” says
Harris, whose prominent photography career started in New York in the 1970s. There he
established the photo department for the city’s flagship PBS station, and shot celebrities
for shows by Bill Moyers and Dick Cavett. “It’s easy to take a likeness, but it’s harder to
capture the spirit and character of a person,” Harris says.
Before the shoot in the Hearts Apart studio on Oleander Drive, Harris asked if the couple
needed any additional props.
“Just a white apron,” the wife
said. “We’ll bring the rest.”
What the family brought
were enough props to outfit a
“Zero Dark Thirty” unit: bags
filled with camouflage gear, plastic
training rifles, and even Shemagh
Afghani headdress scarves.
“When they came in,
I thought, ‘This is a huge pile of
stuff,’” Harris says. “But there
were so many possibilities.” The
couple had also brought a white
broom to match the white apron
the wife asked for. Then it struck
Harris: “Let’s paint the broom
red, white and blue.”
{ Hearts Apart provides soon-to-be deployed
servicemen and women with meaningful
pictures of their spouses and children, at no cost.
Brownie Harris started Hearts Apart in
Wilmington, North Carolina, with Brett Martin,
CEO of Wilmington-based data services company
Castle Branch. Now the organization has award-winning
}
photographers volunteering nationwide.
Service members receive a DVD of the photo
session along with a vinyl bifold card they
can take in the field with them, which helps
to fight off loneliness and gives them strength
during the darker hours of service. 40
WBM july 2013