War.

Katy Wettengel holds a portrait of her late son, Steven "Scott" Helvenston in her living room in Leesburg, Fla., on Friday, March 17, 2006. Helvenston, along side Wesley J.K. Batalona, Michael R. Teague and Jerko "Jerry" Zovko were working as security contractors for Blackwater Security Consulting when they were ambushed and brutally murdered on March 31, 2004. Helvenston, a 12 year Navy veteran who served his entire career with the SEALS, contracted with Blackwater to provide security for then U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, L. Paul Bremmer, for two months. Wettengel along with other surviving family members have filed suit a wrongful death suit in North Carolina against Blackwater Security Consulting.

The most difficult assignments about my job are usually the more emotional ones. Somehow, its more fufilling at the end of the day. The woman above i photographed on my last job. It took an entire hour to get her to agree to a picture.

Yesterday, i had to do a similar shot. Another grieving mother over her son, taken away from her too soon. There's nothing i can really say to these people about their loss. No amount of meaningless chit chat can express my personal anger with why they've died. Usually i just shut up and take the picture.