Subjects past and present

 

I’ve often heard of authors that wonder about the well-being of their characters. Similarly, I sometimes wonder about some of the subjects I’ve shot. Where are they? How are they? What has happened since I took their pictures? About a year ago I tried to locate (with no luck) Spc. Russel Alcorn, who I photographed Dec. 2004 kissing his girlfriend as the Indiana National Guard 1438th loaded onto buses for deployment to Iraq. The other day, I thought about this picture again and tried a Google search just for the heck of it. I found that Alcorn was recently awarded a Purple Heart after being injured in an IED explosion. Below is a clipping from The Expeditionary Times detailing the incident.