A Photojournalist’s Field Guide: In the trenches with combat photographer Stacy Pearsall

Occupational Hazards

As a combat photographer, I lived, ate, slept, and battled alongside my subjects, the American soldiers. Civilian photojournalists would come through for a week or two and then would leave to cover another story somewhere else in the world, or report home to their respective news agencies. I stayed. It was a luxury and a curse. I knew just about every soldier I was assigned to document and, in most cases, the names of their spouses and children. I was familiar with their quirks and habits; I knew their preferred brands of cigarettes and favorite comfort foods. They knew mine, too. My understanding of them as human beings, and not just soldiers, gave me better insight as a photojournalist. I realized early on that if they ...