SAN DIEGO -- After retiring from a long career as a military photographer, Spring Valley, California, resident Mickey Strand began looking for some personal photo projects he could do to expand his portraiture skills. One of the subjects he landed on was an easy choice: photographing other local veterans who had served in World War II.
"Obviously, this was something close to my heart," said the 54-year-old Strand, who spent 24 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring as the Leading Chief of Navy Combat Camera Group Pacific in 2009.
Since July 2017, Strand has photographed more than 100 World War II vets, taking their pictures as well as recording audio interviews of their war experiences that he turns into a brief written biography on the project's website, veteransportrait.com. Strand said he is honored to hear these war stories and spend time photographing these heroic men and women. But the reality is that Strand is in a race against time.
