Nicholas LaClair Photographer and Director for Print and Film

only the strong survive

... reads the tattoo on Eric's right forearm.

He enlisted in the army at 17 and was the tip of the spear in Iraq. His job was to find roadside bombs, and while doing so he's been blown up three times. He'd wake up afterward not remembering the event, and return to the battlefield as soon as he could stand because his men wouldn't be as safe without him in charge. Years later now, he's still finding shrapnel in his body - small metal pieces that sting in the shower and resemble bb's. To save himself the headache of going through the bureaucracy of the military medical system, he's removed the last five himself with household tools.

However, for Eric the real challenge of war wasn't being put between improvised explosives and the rest of his men, but between being a soldier and a police officer in a country we shouldn't occupy in the first place. The hard part was having local friends become enemies, and having to make split-second, black-and-white decisions of engagement and the use of deadly force in a situation that's made of nothing but shades of gray.

Linhof 4x5 camera - Voigtlander Heliar 24cm f/4.5 lens - Tmax 100 film.

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