Story of the Month…

I’m excited to share with you some changes I’m made to my website. I think it’s important to share the stories I’ve received from veterans, care takers and more. I’ve been traveling around the world interviewing some amazing and special individuals. Please visit my website www.jodichampagne.com

I am no one special.. I’m just someone who believes it’s important to not only remember our countries past and the individuals that lived it. You can learn so much from so little if you just take the time. So I will do my part in sharing with you in my own way these amazing stories.

My first project Diminishing Generations is powerful, emotional and very personal as veterans from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam talk about life in war-time as well as their return home. They have never had the opportunity or have never chosen to take the opportunity to share their stories and perspectives until now. I started this project because I feel we need to hear the stories from these veterans, whom we are losing more and more of everyday.

So here is a video I did right before I released the books. I felt it was needed because you don’t know what was happening behind the scenes. How emotional and impactful it was not only for me but for the veterans… So this is just a quick insight before the stories are told…

 

More to come with some amazing stories, as I continue to travel and see some amazing history to share..

Till next time 🙂

Jodi

Silent Heroes Of Our Past

This year has been a lot of traveling… Hence the reason why I haven’t posted… I wish I could say it was all vacation time… Well technically when you love what you do then it’s all a vacation… I love it all..

As I get more involved in my next project Allegiance: Our Heroes Not Forgotten. I feel like every time I turn around there is something more intriguing and amazing.. Well… I really don’t want to say amazing as that sounds more of a positive tone, but maybe dumfounded as that seems more subdued when it comes to war..

For me the interest isn’t in the act of war but the individuals that had to endure war. I seemed to have branched out as I learn more not only about the soldiers that fought but the individuals who had saved the civilians from becoming prisoners, tortured and even death not counting the unspeakable things that occurred… like Schindler’s List…

What I’ve seen so far and to some extent I am guilty, but I speak about the masses… Being Americans we have become so far removed from our history… Specially since it is gradually being removed from our schools… or just selective things being talked about.

What bothers me the most are the veterans being forgotten. Past, present and the future. If we don’t remember and appreciate the past veterans, take care of our present veterans there won’t be a future. Who would want to fight for a country who cherishes and looks up to the Kardashian’s than look up to and appreciate our veterans that continues to fight for their freedom.

My first project called Diminishing Generations was about capturing the real unfiltered stories of our veterans before it was too late. There are veterans that most of you know their stories, because they are famous like John McCain.  But you don’t know the story of David Rehmann whom was captured a year before McCain. So when McCain was captured he was put into David’s cell. You don’t know about him… All veterans stories are incredible and that’s why I capture them no matter what they did during war…

With my new project Allegiance: Our Heroes Not Forgotten is a little different… These are the stories of our soldiers that were killed and or missing in action during WWI and WWII in Belgium and the Netherlands.. How they are appreciated by the civilians “adopters” of those countries even today, 100 years later.. Those soldiers ARE not forgotten for their sacrifices.. and how their education is on the wars the American’s were involved with. It’s amazing what they do for our soldiers but yet embarrassing…

I will start blogging about my trip on the important locations of WWI and WWII in Belgium and Netherlands… The stories and images are amazing… You will defiantly learn more from being there than you will from any class…

The following video is a story of a veteran most would not know….. Just like a story I will tell later about Charles Lindbergh.

Till next time…

Jodi

 

 

New Site, New Project and Good News

I am very excited after several years I finally been able to get my new site up and running. I’m very proud to be able to show my work the way it’s supposed to be… Check out one of my favorites (Although, they are all my favorite) “Waiting on a Friend” a typology project.

I am proud to say I had received amazing news this week. My project/Books Diminishing Generations have been accepted as a permanent collection into The Library of Congress. So these veterans stories will now be available for all future generations to learn what war was really like. So happy I was able to do this for the veterans… I am continuing this mission…

For those who have read my books or know me personally understand I am an emotional person. I am not an author in a sense I don’t write novels (But who knows)… I actually call myself or shall I say my books “Hybrids”… They are much more than a photographic book but yet not a novel. You will always get a story told in a way as if you were with me on that journey. Because the stories I tell are real… I don’t elaborate I just tell it as I see, feel it or what I’m told. Which brings more of a humanistic approach to what I do. The projects I do are on everyday individuals that have done or gone through some amazing things. I am not politically correct as I am not a perfect writer but you certainly will feel what I have to say…

My new project “Allegiance: Our Heroes Not Forgotten” is completely different from all of my other work. This project is about WWI and WWII soldiers that were killed in the line of duty that has not been returned home. I started this journey not really understanding what I was going to learn, but I actually felt like I have been going through a time machine. I had learned first hand what our soldiers had done to save their country through the semblance of the landscape while in Belgium. I’ve seen what was left of cannons, shells from ammo, containers of the chemical bombs, and the damage that was done and still shows. I’ve stood on the grounds where some of the major battles took place in both WWI & WWII. Absolutely amazing and humbling… some areas a little eerie…

So each week I will talk about my first trip to Belgium, Holland and France while documenting for this project. I will share with you some amazing things I have learned or seen. But… also sharing with you information on the Volume 2 of the Diminishing Generations project.

So excited about these amazing stories that will be told…

Until next time…

Jodi

 

Finally Done!!

It’s finally done… I really don’t know how to feel. It’s like having a child the grows up and leaves home… What they call the empty nest syndrome. That’s how I feel… This has been my baby for almost a couple of years and now you will finally see it…

I’ve been going about 150 mph the last several months… From sun up until I would dropped asleep on the computer… (Thank heavens no pictures were taken of me doing that lol) Almost every waking moment not only writing and editing the books but also editing the videos.

Along the way I’ve shared with you all the trials and tribulations that I’ve gone through or felt. The excitement, the emotions and frustrations. The loss of our veterans I’ve interviewed, while some others I was scheduled to interview but unfortunately they had passed before I had the chance.  That’s why I decided to call it Diminishing Generations, because we are losing these veterans more and more every day and we lose their stories alone with them.

These books are the first of its kind. Using Augmented Reality to bring these images and stories to reality right from the books. As Jim Dailey of Digital Delta Design explains, “The Diminishing Generations project is utilizing Augmented Reality technology, which place is digital content between the user and the physical world. In this case, the AR-enabled apps allow the user to “scan” the images of the veterans in the books and provide a direct link to additional content such as videos and photo galleries, sharing more of each veterans story”.

It’s always hard to explain how these books work in just typing about it, because most individuals are not familiar with this technology. And for that matter who could imagine, videos coming right off the pages of a book. But that’s how these books are. You will have the ability to hear and see the veterans tell their personal stories of war directly from the veterans themselves.

So November 14, 2015 the book launch will be held free on the USS Iowa from 10a.m. to 4p.m. From 12-2 will be the meet and great of the veterans in the book. So come and meet the veterans and have them sign their part of the book. Learn some real history from the ones who’ve lived it.

Keep a watch out as there are more exciting things coming your way.

I hope to see you on the USS Iowa on the 14th and if not you can still order the books at http://www.jodichampagne.com under “Books”. Shortly thereafter they will be available elsewhere.

Thanks Jodi

 

 

 

 

Hero Of Yesterday, Forgotten Today