PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARA BYNUM/WESTERLY, RI
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because, “more than 58,000 Americans were killed
in Vietnam,” he says. “I wish I’d had Hearts Apart
back then to help the Vietnam Vets, they were
treated terribly when they came back home.”
While the proposition of going to war was raising
Harris’s consciousness, images coming back from
Vietnam were raising the consciousness of America
as a whole. But the photos Harris creates with
Hearts Apart turn the war photography genre
around. Instead of bringing the war home, they
capture a moment at home with loved ones to
keep the warrior solid and grounded while away.
After eight hours of the shoot, Brownie Harris
and the Hearts Apart crew have sent out for dinner.
Little did Harris know the shoot would go on
for another two hours. His friend brought back
the broom with the bristles painted red and blue,
and the handle blue, leaving the base white. The
wife put on the white apron over a red dress with
pearls. Next to her stood her soldier in cammo
gear, with face painted, a helmet under his arm
and a rifle on his back. She held the broom upside
down and suddenly, it looked like a pitchfork.
“Then in an instant it happened,” Harris says.
He snapped the photo, and in his viewfinder was a
new version of Grant Wood’s painting, “American
Gothic.” Only in this one, the woman holds the
symbolic pitchfork, standing strong, while her hus-band
serves his country, with a photo in his pocket
to remind him of why all this is worth it.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARA BYNUM/WESTERLY, RI
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