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Young Men With Cameras: Memorial Day 2011

I concluded a wonderfully restful Memorial Day at Deep Creek Lake by seeing beautiful people Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattison in Water for Elephants. Got home just in time to catch the end of Special Report, which ended with an excellent piece by my favorite Fox reporter, Jennifer Griffin, whose comeback from a brutal battle with cancer is so encouraging. In her report, Griffin referred to “the young man with the camera,” who has taken on the job of photographing the graves of all those who died in the line of duty since September 11, 2001 and who are buried in Arllington National Cemetery, just outside of Washington, D.C.. In doing so, 17-year-old Ricky Gilleland has accomplished the job that the historic cemetery has not been able to do itself.

Through his website, preserveandhonor.com, Gilleland has cataloged the thousands who are laid to rest in Section 60 of Arlington. With a camera in hand, Gilleland shoots a photo of both the front and back of the headstone, "to provide a virtual place for loved ones and friends to both locate the graves of the fallen and reflect on the memory of their sacrifice."
I went online to learn more about this young man’s efforts, and I found this interesting video:



Later in the evening, I saw a news report about 14-year-old Brook Peters, who was attending his second day of kindergarten in Manhattan when the World Trade Center towers were attacked on September 11, 2001. Although he was only 4-years old, the image of the buildings falling as his mother carried him away to safety has remained with him over the years.

Because those memories were so vivid, Brook decided to interview others like himself and his teachers . . . ordinary people who share memories of that day, many of whom have never talked about the events. These interviews resulted in his remarkable film,
The Second Day, which debuted at the recent Tribeca Film Festival, only a few blocks away from Ground Zero. Here’s a video in which Brook talks about his project. Sorry I could get rid of the commercial.



It was wonderful to see the media given credit to the work of these two fine young image makers who have contributed such outstanding legacies of remembrance.
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