Stunning photos of the heroes who have lost their limbs in war: Photographer's images of nude amputee veterans are published in a new book after public raises $400,000 in support

Photographer Michael Stokes, 52, is finally releasing Always Loyal, his much-anticipated hardcover book on November 15, featuring both male and female amputee veterans posing in sexy, confident shoots rather than in the more-prevalent solemn-style of photos. The book will contain plenty of new images from the series he began more than three years ago....See more pic after the cut.

And, thanks to the huge success of his crowdfunding venture, the photographer will be donating $20,000 to the Semper FI Fund, a charity that benefits wounded warriors.

 

The photographer's previous book, Bare Strength, had a chapter on male veterans and another book released on the same day, called Exhibition, will feature five vets scattered throughout.

Michael started the project unintentionally in 2012 when he photographed 26-year-old U.S. Marine Alex Minsky, a Purple Heart recipient who lost part of his leg when his truck ran over a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

The book will also feature images of a female Gulf War amputee veteran Mary Dague

 Alex had sustained multiple injuries in the incident - including a broken jaw and traumatic brain injury - and suffered from depression and alcoholism when he came home. But after pulling himself out of those dark times, he started bulking up again at the gym - and eventually earned the attention of Michael, who asked to photograph him.

Instead of looking grim or sad in a wheelchair, Alex posed confidently for Michael, showing off his bulging muscles and colorful tattoos in shirtless photos. 

 

 

'I wanted to approach it carefully,' Michael told Daily Mail Online. 'I was a fitness photographer who had an erotic edge to his images, and I wanted to shoot Alex the same way. But I didn't want him to be in the position where he could be embarrassed. 

'But he was strong, he was solid,' Michael continued. 'So I thought, I'm gonna basically shoot him as if he's not an amputee.'

 While the photos initially earned some attention, a year went by with no further progress. Then, Michael said, Daily Mail Online wrote an article about Alex and the unique photos - and everything changed.

'If it wasn't for Daily Mail, it would have been another year [before the project progressed],' he explained. 'Within a few hours of the piece being posted, I got calls from Good Morning America, the Today show. Big media. And all of a sudden they all wanted him.' 

Now, when Michael contacts members of the veteran community with a request to shoot them, 'chances are that veteran already knows me'.

He then meets with them beforehand, getting to know them and giving them an opportunity to get comfortable before getting in front of the camera: 'Usually I spend quite a bit of time with them first, so I've never really sensed a lot of nervousness.'

BT (pictured before his injury), like all the vets Michael photographed, fought in the Middle East with the US military

 The vets pose for Michael with and without their prosthetic arms and legs, sometimes holding guns or wearing their dog tags. A few shed all of their clothes, while others left more to the imagination. But what they all have in common is that they look strong, self-assured - and hot.

'Some people will say to me "Oh, this is really helpful to their self-esteem," or, "You’re making them feel like men again,"' he told MTV News. '[But] these guys have come to me very healed and ready to take the world on. I’m not giving them back their confidence. They already have it.'

Michael said that while most of the men he shoots are excited to see the pictures, there are occasionally some who are reluctant to publish them.

'I had one vet who was very severely injured and he had to take some time to sit on them before publishing them. He said he just wasn't used to seeing himself like that,' he told Daily Mail Online. But after two weeks, the vet gave Michael the OK - and was glad that he did. 

'He was shocked by the response - people telling him how sexy he was, how beautiful he was, that he's a hero. He was genuinely shocked and surprised,' he said. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Source-Daily Mail Online