max s. gerber(the latest shot)

this was a shoot for TIME i did last month. it was one of those things where they said, “well, it may run or it may not.” so far it has not. i don’t think the writer has written the piece yet, but thanks to alice gabriner and martha bardach, anyway, for allowing me to post it here while they figure it all out.

ben nelson was a marine who had a nasty encounter with an IED in iraq. he told me that he heard the explosion and the next thing he knew he was in a military hospital in germany. he was lucky. he was alive, and he had all his limbs. but he had a shard of metal going through his jaw and out his neck, i believe. he says he has pain that will likely never go away. the best he can do is go to acupuncture every week. ben is now a sheriff’s dispatcher in sacramento.

the picture of ben’s wife, emily, was just a test shot. she was sitting in for him while i set up a shot in their dining room. i ended up liking it, though, when i got home and looked more closely. there’s just something sort of faraway in her expression. i didn’t catch the dog’s name.