I first met John in the spring of 98 when I was conducting interviews for prospective project team members. John had a long interest in the subject matter of the project and was keen to get on board. When the hoped for funding failed to materialise, John stayed in touch. One day around Christmas of 98, he suggested and requested to represent the project, at his own expense, on a trip to photograph as many of the Canadian war graves as possible in Italy. After many email discussions back and forth, he finally made the trip to Italy in the summer of 99 and visited some 24 cemeteries and photographed almost 3000 graves. It was on this trip, while shooting at Cassino War cemetery, that he met Matt Smith and Matt’s girlfriend, Jackie. Matt’s interest was piqued at why this guy was photographing all of the graves. Once John explained the project, Matt was hooked on the idea and, within a few months, had contacted me and launched the Australian version of the project in January 2000.