Silent Partners

This installation of In Their Boots focuses on the gay and lesbian partners of deployed military workers and how their relationships and lives must remain secret thanks to Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

You meet three people: two gay civilian partners of deployed military workers and one non-deployed lesbian soldier dating a deployed one. Their stories are heart-wrenching, and captivating. If your eyes do not widen in shock when the second storyteller reveals his deployed partner was misinformed about his death but could not call to invalidate the information, then the whole piece will be lost on you. Besides the actual dishonorable discharge, that is DADT at its worst, which is brutal.

While the subjects and access blow typical documentary expectations out the water, the footage leaves me wanting more, especially the blurred scenes. The anonymity of these participants should be and were obviously the first concerns of the project workers, but there are various ways to approach subjects without giving away their identity.

In this case, certain shots are rendered useless because the attempt at protecting identities destroys the purpose of the scenes altogether (plus they even left the blur strips on footage that didn't require them). The tight face shot of the "Gay Solider's Husband" could not reveal the intended concentration, so why even include it? The final blurred result revealed nothing.

Varying the compositions, playing with body language and using silhouettes could have provided more visually dynamic shots while maintaining anonymity of those involved and the approachability of this work.

One of the best examples of such an approach to an unidentifiable subject I have seen was done by Eileen Mignoni, a graduated masters student from UNC. She forced her compositions to both hide and tell the story of an illegal immigrant currently living in the US and fearing to be deported, which would leave her American citizen daughter behind. To see this piece, go here:

http://facingdeportation.org/?page_id=6

A possible chance to merge these two types of works has appeared. I stumbled upon a deployed queer solider dating an undeployed one, and asked him about his story. I, as a queer and interested photojournalist, wanted to know more than anything why dealing with DADT was worth it.

"As far as the lies are considered, if that is what it takes, then yeah. I love my country and him. He feels the same way, so we do what we do. Serving is a sacrifice... each person has there own sacrifice. This is ours," he responded.

His calm, yet firm assurance in his duty instantly drew a desire to document he and his partner's lives. They live not far from my hometown, and I could spend time there while working on this project. I asked him about the possibility but he has not responded yet. It is a lot to ask of hidden people but I hope he realizes how important his story could be especially with so much recent contention over dissolving DADT.

I know I have posted a lot of possibilities on this blog but this one I want more than anything.