Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Tamara Belinc

When Norris Carden of Tullahoma picked up a camera after a 10 year break from photography, he wanted to create images that matter to people, not editors, as he had in his past career as a photographer.  Now, he is doing just that by volunteering his time to Operation: Love ReUnited, a non-profit group of photographers who lend their creative energies to raising the morale of men and women serving in the military.  He heard about the group on a forum on the Internet.

“I wanted to join to give back to the military,” he said. “I was in the military, also, but because of an injury at my civilian job, I wasn’t able to serve in Desert Storm as a combat photographer.”  Norris was also a member of the Tennessee National Guard with the 278th out of Knoxville.  His other work included video production out of Nashville for other states and the Pentagon. He was working in Shreveport, La., as a news photographer when he was in a helicopter crash resulting in shattered vertebrae.  “Within a few weeks of the accident, they wanted me to carry a camera in the desert, and I couldn’t,” he said.  “I want to give back to the people who served in my place.” 

Norris feels Operation: Love ReUnited is his chance to give support to the family and service members being deployed.  “It’s a big strain on the family,” he said.  “The deployed soldier misses events in their families’ lives.  We can help them not miss as much.”

The photography session is done before the soldier deploys, while they are deployed of family members and special events such as a birth or birthday party, or when they come back home and are reunited with family members.  He has done four sessions, but his most memorable was for an Army soldier who was granted leave from Iraq for the birth of his son. This soldier was home for only 10 days.

Norris photographed the family when the baby was just four days old.  The soldier returned to Iraq with dozens of images of his wife and son.  He wrote to Norris saying, “I really want to thank you for the pictures you did today. I’m still teared up from the slide show you put together. In the field, all I have is my iPod and I sleep with my picture slide showing playing.”

“What you did today, with your picture magic, keeps me close to my family that I’m going to miss dearly. I never knew how much a picture could steal your breath, but seeing the two loves of my life together in those pictures…it’s worth a million words. I live, breath and fight for them…they are the only reason I still go on strong day to day. And I thank you extremely for doing this and keeping them close to me so far away.”

Families are provided with a free session, a small album and prints to be sent to the deployed service member at no charge. Norris can also provide digital images for them and provide pictures for an iPod as he did for the service member who wrote to thank him.  He also tries to provide patriotic backdrops and other military memorabilia for the photographs as well.  

Norris is not just limiting his volunteer photography work to Operation: Love ReUnited.  He is also planning to join the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization, which goes to hospitals when a baby is stillborn to take photographs for parents as a tangible way to remember their baby.  His own daughter Mackenzie, who is now three, was born at 32 weeks, weighing three pounds and eight ounces.  Norris and his wife, Cheri, had to wait 10 days to bring her home.

Norris’ work has been featured at ABC and CNN and in national news publications and international magazines.  His favorite subjects to shoot are people.  “I love capturing the real person,” he said.  “I like bringing out their personalities.  Capturing the real person is the challenge.  God gave me an eye for photography, and it’s hard not to use it.”

“The moon gives you light, And the bugles and the drums give you music, And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, My heart gives you love.”
-Walt Whitman

“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
-Henri Cartier-Bresson

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