Stacy Pearsall
Stacy L. Pearsall | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 (age 43–44) Corpus Christi, Texas |
Service | United States Air Force |
Years of service | 1997–2008 |
Rank | Staff Sergeant |
Unit | 1st Combat Camera Squadron |
Battles / wars | Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom |
Awards | Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with Valor |
Stacy L. Pearsall is an American photographer.[1] Pearsall served as a military photographer in the United States Air Force until her wounds lead to her medical retirement. Since leaving the Air Force, Pearsall has worked as a professional photographer.
Biography
Pearsall enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 17.[2] She traveled to more than 41 countries and joined the Military Photojournalism program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University but never earned a degree there while still in the U.S. Air Force.
Pearsall first entered combat as a photographer in Iraq in 2003. She spent 280 days covering humanitarian relief missions and covering Special Forces operations. Her images were used by the President, Secretary of Defense, and Joint Chiefs of Staff to make informed decisions in the battle space.[3][4][5][6][7][8] She went on to earn the Bronze Star Medal and Air Force Commendation with Valor for her actions in Iraq during three combat tours. While Pearseall was under rehabilitation for the combat injuries that she sustained in Iraq, she spent a long time in waiting rooms surrounded by veterans whom she wished to honor and thank through photography. She has photographed and documented about 8,500 veterans in all 50 states and held many exhibitions showing the work of veterans in their hometowns.
Pearsall earned a National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) at Military Photographer of the Year competition; becoming one of only two women to do so. She has also served as a nomination juror for the Pulitzer Prize and held a position in the advisory board of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at The Citadel. Pearsall has also been awarded the Carolinas Freedom Foundation Freedom Award, lauded by the White House as a Champion Change, given the Daughters of the American Revolution Mergaret Cochran Corbin Award, and holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Citadel. Pearsall has completed two books of photography Shooter: Combat from Behind the Camera and A Photojournalist's Field Guide She is the founder or the Veterans Portrait Project.[9][2][10][11][12]
Pearsall, and her husband Andy Dunaway, also a retired combat photographer, live in Charleston, South Carolina.[9] In 2009, Pearsall assumed the ownership and direction of the Charleston Center for Photography.[13]
References
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Tom Bearden (October 27, 2011). "Military Photographer: 'The Medic Could Not Get There Fast Enough'". PBS Newshour. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
She is a decorated combat veteran who, as a woman, was never supposed to see combat. However, she experienced military life at its most difficult, living in the ruins of Iraqi towns, dodging sniper fire.
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"Hello my name is Stacy L. Pearsall". Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Stacy Pearsall (December 19, 2013). "A Photojournalist's Field Guide" (PDF). Peachpit Press. p. XI. Retrieved February 24, 2015. mirror
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"Combat Veteran Captures Impact of War One Picture at a Time". PBS Newshour. October 27, 2011. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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"Military Photographer: 'The Medic Could Not Get There Fast Enough'". PBS Newshour. October 27, 2011. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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"A Life Under Fire: Combat Photographer Captures, Carries Wounds of War". PBS Newshour. October 27, 2011. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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"Combat photographers to talk about experiences on Monday". Maui News. August 22, 2010. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
Pearsall is one of only two women to win the NPPA Military Photographer of the Year competition, and the only woman to have won it twice. During her three tours in Iraq, she earned the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart and Commendation with Valor for heroic actions under fire, according to an article on the U.S. Air Force website.
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"סמינר אינטרנטי בתחום ניהול הצבע ללא תשלום". July 12, 2010. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b Prentiss Findlay (December 19, 2008). "Combat photographer attacked on jog". Charleston Post and Courier. p. 11. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
- ^ "IDP Radio – Pro Profile: Stacy Pearsall Combat Photographer". Inside Digital Photography. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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"Combat Camera Photographer: U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Stacy Pearsall, Military Photographer of the Year 2003". United States Department of Defense. 2003. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
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Warren Wise (March 24, 2008). "Staff sgt. earns military photographer honor". Charleston Post and Courier. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
In 2003, she was named Military Photographer of the Year. She was just awarded the honor again for 2007.
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Molly Parker (September 25, 2009). "Owner says Charleston Center for Photography on the brink of closure". Charleston Post and Courier. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
"It's awful really seeing all the doors close on King Street, so I'm trying very hard to reach out to anybody who's ever been a patron of the center to get us through this rough part," said Pearsall, who spent 12 years as a combat photographer for the Air Force.
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