As a documentary photographer and filmmaker, I strongly believe that our stories and those of others play a vital role in this world.
The majority of my work focuses on historical narratives that are not within the realm of common knowledge. In choosing to work with unexplored stories, such as my recent works on World War II parachute wedding gowns, I directly engage with the subject matter in order to collect information and insight. This process of primary research results in an unparalleled understanding of a subject’s story and a heightened sense of responsibility and urgency to disseminate the experience.
The mediums of photography and film enable me to observe, listen, capture, and disperse. By presenting my work in conjunction with archival material, it is my hope that viewers will be captivated by the story and the process of firsthand research.
This is why I create art: to share the untold story. The accounts of ordinary people doing extraordinary things are worth hearing, and I intend to share them with all who are willing to listen.
- Neil Gaiman -
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WORLD WAR II PARACHUTE WEDDING DRESSES
When flames engulfed World War II soldier Temple Leslie Bourland’s plane 590 feet in the air, the threads of his white silk parachute literally became his lifeline, enabling him to land safely on cold Axis ground. Now sporting bullet holes, the parachute provided warmth and protection for Bourland who lay in a foxhole for several days until discovered by his Allied comrades. One year after the war, the same parachute material that saved Bourland’s life was transformed into the white silk dress that his fiancée, Rosalie Hierholzer, would wear as she walked down the aisle.
After the Second World War there are several accounts of brides and grooms repurposing parachute silk to make a wedding dress. This series collects, records, and examines case studies of this sporadic practice, focusing primarily on parachute wedding gowns designed and worn in the United States between the post-war years of 1945 and 1949. By exploring the materiality of the fabric and the physical transformation involved in fashioning a dress from a parachute, these wedding dresses are seen as the result of creative resourcefulness. This practice also embodies the synthesis of the post-war transitions occurring within the personal and social spheres. In contrast to today’s disposable culture, the parachute dresses of the Second World War emphasize singularity and historicity. Drawing from current scholarship on material culture and the complex relationships between people and their possessions, this body of work examines how parachute gowns bridge world-historical events and the lives of ordinary people. The dresses are vibrant material creations with lives and histories that are worth recording and remarking.
THE THINGS THEY KEPT
Of the more than sixteen million Americans who served during the Second World War, fewer than one million of these heroic men and women are still with us today. Now more than ever, there is a heightened sense of responsibility and urgency to collect, circulate, and learn from the accounts of our treasured veterans and their loved ones. In "The Things They Kept," these stories are preserved in objects — the things that have seen war. Every tear, every blemish, every mark forms an individual and collective narrative of the Second World War. By taking notice of material items that are saturated with human history, we widen our understanding of how others managed, sacrificed, and survived in the world we share.
SOMETHING BORROWED
This short documentary illustrates the narrative of a singular World War II parachute wedding dress created and worn by Ruth Hensinger. Years later, her daughter and daughter-in-law walked down the aisle in the same material that saved their father’s life.