Renowned photographer Micheal Stokes has published moving yet sexy and powerful images of wounded veteran soldiers ..
All the other photos I’ve seen of wounded vets have been very downer,” Stokes told BuzzFeed News. “I wanted to produce photos that would really show him, let him decide how he wanted to be portrayed.”
Michael meets with them beforehand, getting to know them and giving them an opportunity to get comfortable before getting in front of the camera:
'Usually I spend quite a bit of time with them first, so I've never really sensed a lot of nervousness.'
The vets pose for Michael with and without their prosthetic arms and legs, sometimes holding guns or wearing their dog tags. A few shed all of their clothes, while others left more to the imagination.
He told MTV News'
Some people will say to me "Oh, this is really helpful to their self-esteem," or, "You’re making them feel like men again..[But] these guys have come to me very healed and ready to take the world on. I’m not giving them back their confidence. They already have it.'
Michael said that while most of the men he shoots are excited to see the pictures, there are occasionally some who are reluctant to publish them.He told Dailymail online
'I had one vet who was very severely injured and he had to take some time to sit on them before publishing them. He said he just wasn't used to seeing himself like that,'But after two weeks, the vet gave Michael the OK - and was glad that he did. 'He was shocked by the response - people telling him how sexy he was, how beautiful he was, that he's a hero. He was genuinely shocked and surprised,' he said.
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