Cliff Lawson’s Colorado Veteran’s Project is a captivating photographic tribute to more than sixty Colorado servicemen and women, whose portraits will feature in a special exhibition in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, during the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, this May.

The decorated Vietnam gunship pilot-turned-professional-photographer, now in his eighties, began his inspirational series in 2017, after attending the funerals of military friends, where photographic records of the departed were often no more than faded polaroid memories. Cliff set about applying his experience as an awarded photographer to provide Colorado veterans and their families with high quality portraiture to truly honor them by. To date, the Parker-based veteran, who was a pilot United Airlines following his military career, has captured more than 60 Colorado veterans, often adorned with service medals or accompanied by memories or military insignia from their time in service.

Like many of his storied subjects, the former gunship pilot remains tight-lipped about his period in the warzone, though he did reveal that he has been photographed as part of the series, on the insistence of family and friends. The Colorado Veterans Project Exhibition will be on display at Gallery 6 in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe from Wednesday May 15th to Saturday May 18th, 2024. Gallery 6 was named Denver’s Best Photography Gallery by Westword Magazine in 2023. A number of Cliff’s portrait subjects, including Mike Silva, veteran pilot of Vietnam and Iraq, as well as a long-serving former news helicopter pilot, will attend a private showing at the gallery on Friday May 17th from 6-8pm.

The Colorado Veterans Project Exhibition is timed to feature during the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, co-presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Legion Auxiliary which will see 120 veterans visit Denver to participate in a week-long series of workshops, artist performances and Art District tours.