Lowcountry Boil

A decorated aerial combat photographer and two-time winner of the Military Photographer of the Year award, retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Stacy Pearsall will share her stunning images and the stories behind them at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010, in Bond Hall Room 165 at The Citadel.

Retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Stacy Pearsall will share her stunning images and the stories behind them.

The first event in the college’s Fulghum Lecture Series, this lecture is a complement to the exhibition, “Shooting the Shadows: The Combat Photography of Stacy Pearsall,” on view in the Capers Hall Lobby through October. Selected by visiting Assistant Professor Tiffany Silverman, 12 of Pearsall’s most distinctive photographs are on display and vividly describe the combat experience.

“Combat is chaos, but the camera kept me separated from reality long enough to do the job at hand,” Pearsall said. “First I’d figure out where the light was coming from and then shift my point of view to the shadow side to convey the emotion and drama of the situation. I was always on the shadow side.”

Including Air Force Veteran of the Year, Pearsall has received wide public exposure for her work, including an interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and publication in “Newsweek,” “The New York Times,” and on CNN. During three tours in Iraq, she earned the Bronze Star Medal and Commendation with Valor for heroic actions under fire. Now medically retired due to combat wounds, Pearsall works worldwide as a freelance photographer and owns and directs the Charleston Center for Photography.

“Shooting the Shadows: The Combat Photography of Stacy Pearsall,” on view in the Capers Hall Lobby through October.

“Shooting the Shadows” is funded by the Charleston Center for Photography, the Fulghum Lecture Series, The Citadel’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and The Citadel Foundation.

The Fulghum Lecture Series was created in 2007 by the Department of History’s Southern Studies Program to promote a better understanding of the American South and to help prepare students to be principled leaders in the region. Leonard C. Fulghum, Jr. of Charleston, Citadel Class of 1951, is member emeritus of The Citadel Board of Visitors and president of Lenwall Enterprises, Inc.

Also coming up this winter as part of the Fulghum Lecture Series will be lectures held in conjunction with the Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie Trust’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Guest speakers James I. Robertson Jr., David Bright and James Lee Conrad will discuss the war commemoration and the role Citadel cadets played in the firing on the Star of the West in 1861 at Morris Island. Details will be released at a later date.