My name is Tony, and I am a disabled veteran and photographer.

For years, I have been working on Vestiges of Service; a portrait project that aims to reveal the invisible weight carried by combat veterans long after their service ends.

When someone hears "support the troops," they envision a camouflage clad 19 year old with a rifle standing in front of a flag waving agains a perfectly blue sky. They don't think about what that kid is going to have to do, nor do they understand that that kid, if he survives, will live out his days unable to NOT think about what he had to do. People see the uniforms, the happy homecomings, and the hometown victory parades, but rarely do they witness the lasting impact war has on a person’s sleep, ability to trust & love, and their very sense of self. These portraits are not just faces, they are evidence of what wartime service leaves behind, and a testament to the resilience and struggles that often go unseen.

Vestiges of Service is about the years that follow.

It is an ongoing editorial portrait project that sheds light on the invisible weight carried by combat veterans long after the rifles fall silent. War marks a man like nothing else can, and it does not do it gently. It changes the way he sees the world and his place in it. Sometimes it changes whether he believes tomorrow is worth seeing, or whether he is worthy of seeing it.

Photography has a peculiar power. It asks people to stop. To remain with an image long enough that they begin to see what isn't immediately visible. A portrait can reveal what words often fail to explain. It can make the invisible impossible to ignore.

One of the photographs at the heart of this project shows a veteran seated alone. Beside him is the ghostly image of a Marine. Is it the man he used to be? Is it a brother he failed to bring home? The photograph doesn't answer. A pistol rests on the floor in front of him. He sits at the precipice of the quiet moment before a decision that countless families pray is never made—and one that is made, somewhere in this country, over and over again.

That is the reality this project refuses to hide.

I served as a Marine infantryman in Somalia and Iraq. Like many veterans, I came home carrying things that I'll never be able to put down. My struggles with PTSD, and my determination to survive it, are part of why I make this work, but this campaign is not about me. It is about creating photographs that speak for the generations of men and women whose hardest battles often begin after they come home.

These are not portraits of victims. They are portraits of endurance, grief, loyalty, love, guilt, resilience, and the lifelong burden of memory. They are also portraits of dignity. Every veteran who stands in front of my camera chooses to be seen, often in ways they have never allowed themselves to be seen before. That trust is a gift, and I believe it deserves to be honored with photographs that are as carefully crafted as the lives they represent.

I've been working on this project for years, but I need help getting it over the finish line. I am a disabled veteran living on a fixed income. My bills are paid, and my children are warm and fed, but every mile traveled, every piece of equipment maintained or replaced, every print produced, and every exhibition prepared comes from our family's limited budget.

If you believe this work matters, your support will help create a permanent body of work that can travel into galleries, museums, veterans organizations, schools, and public spaces where we can push conversations about military service beyond slogans and bumper stickers.

Your contribution helps fund travel throughout Michigan so I can reach more combat veterans to photograph, the maintenance and acquisition of studio equipment (this is actually the smallest part of the budget - I have most of what I need, but there are a couple of items I would like to have for specific planned portraits), the production of large museum-quality prints, professional archival framing, and the exhibition and publicity costs necessary to place these stories before the public.

My goal is to continue photographing veterans across the state and present the first exhibition in time for Veterans Day 2027.

These stories deserve to be seen. They deserve to outlive the headlines, the speeches, and the anniversaries. More than anything, they deserve to remind us that the true cost of war is not measured only on the battlefield, but in the lives that continue long after the shooting stops.

I sincerely hope you'll help me tell them.