thedrifter
06-08-08, 06:53 AM
Photo exhibit captures faces of war
By: Richard T. Cullen
June 4, 2008 04:14 PM EST
An American GI sits atop a pile of blankets with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His helmet sits haphazardly at the top of his forehead, like a baseball cap. His detached countenance suggests a longing for home.
The picture is the inspiration for the “American Soldier” exhibition at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The photograph catches the GI in December 1944, on the first day of the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. Cyma Rubin, the exhibit’s curator, first saw the photo on a 1995 cover of The New York Times Magazine.
The exhibit’s 116 photographs from the past 150 years of American military service demonstrate the powerful similarities between American soldiers from century to century.
“You look at these faces,” Rubin said as she points to a WWII photograph. “Look at the faces of the guys in Iraq — it’s the same face. They’re sweet; there’s innocence there.”
Most of the photographs were taken by well-known photographers including Mathew Brady (Civil War), David Douglas Duncan (WWII and the Korean War) and David Leeson (the Iraq war). But some of the most powerful images were taken by the soldiers themselves.
Army Spc. Joseph White has spent the past two years assisting Rubin as an intern for “The American Soldier.” Prior to that, he served for three years in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he developed a passion for photography. Eventually, his camera became just as familiar as his rifle.
“We were working on the Syrian border, and we were doing a compound raid. ... I looked over and I saw two little girls peering out of their doorway, and I immediately dropped to my knee and started shooting [photos]. I was there to do a specific job that caused me to carry a rifle, but my camera was always hanging around my neck.”
One of White’s photographs hangs in the Iraq war section of the exhibit.
The power of a war photograph, he said, is rooted in the photographer’s proximity to the subject. Proximity, he said, connotes not only physical closeness but also the ability of the photographer to earn the trust of the subject and to truly appreciate his or her surroundings.
The exhibit’s images have produced some deeply personal reactions.
At one of the exhibit’s earlier stops in Shreveport, La., for instance, a woman approached Rubin and pointed to a photograph of U.S. marines standing together on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1945.
“The woman came up to me and said, ‘My father had been in WWII,’ and she said, ‘All my life I heard about how he survived D-Day.’ And she said, ‘This is my father.’ I mean, her whole life, she had this imagined idea of what it was like. This took her right there. ... It was amazing closure,” said Rubin.
For the project’s sponsors and supporters, the power of the still photograph — often missing in a media culture increasingly obsessed with streaming videos — is central to the exhibit’s effect.
“The still photograph, once the photograph has been taken, is forever there. The moving image that we’re accustomed to just goes by you,” Rubin said. “Today, it seems homogenized in a way. We keep seeing the same thing.”
Ralph Crosby, CEO of EADS North America, is a Vietnam veteran and a West Point graduate. EADS North America is the co-sponsor of the exhibit, which raised $300,000 for Army Emergency Relief and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.
“It’s a window into the souls of these kids and their leadership, who are every day [risking] their lives for the things we stand for,” Crosby said. “Those 116 photographs — each one gives perception and a depth that goes far beyond the two dimensions of the media.”
Since finishing his tour of duty in 2005, White has enrolled as a film and photo major at the City University of New York. His coursework is partly inspired by his passion for photography, which developed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He hopes the exhibit provides a more personalized glimpse of the American soldier.
“A lot of people see a uniform, but they don’t really see a face. They don’t really understand it. This helps them understand it.”
Ellie
By: Richard T. Cullen
June 4, 2008 04:14 PM EST
An American GI sits atop a pile of blankets with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His helmet sits haphazardly at the top of his forehead, like a baseball cap. His detached countenance suggests a longing for home.
The picture is the inspiration for the “American Soldier” exhibition at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The photograph catches the GI in December 1944, on the first day of the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. Cyma Rubin, the exhibit’s curator, first saw the photo on a 1995 cover of The New York Times Magazine.
The exhibit’s 116 photographs from the past 150 years of American military service demonstrate the powerful similarities between American soldiers from century to century.
“You look at these faces,” Rubin said as she points to a WWII photograph. “Look at the faces of the guys in Iraq — it’s the same face. They’re sweet; there’s innocence there.”
Most of the photographs were taken by well-known photographers including Mathew Brady (Civil War), David Douglas Duncan (WWII and the Korean War) and David Leeson (the Iraq war). But some of the most powerful images were taken by the soldiers themselves.
Army Spc. Joseph White has spent the past two years assisting Rubin as an intern for “The American Soldier.” Prior to that, he served for three years in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he developed a passion for photography. Eventually, his camera became just as familiar as his rifle.
“We were working on the Syrian border, and we were doing a compound raid. ... I looked over and I saw two little girls peering out of their doorway, and I immediately dropped to my knee and started shooting [photos]. I was there to do a specific job that caused me to carry a rifle, but my camera was always hanging around my neck.”
One of White’s photographs hangs in the Iraq war section of the exhibit.
The power of a war photograph, he said, is rooted in the photographer’s proximity to the subject. Proximity, he said, connotes not only physical closeness but also the ability of the photographer to earn the trust of the subject and to truly appreciate his or her surroundings.
The exhibit’s images have produced some deeply personal reactions.
At one of the exhibit’s earlier stops in Shreveport, La., for instance, a woman approached Rubin and pointed to a photograph of U.S. marines standing together on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1945.
“The woman came up to me and said, ‘My father had been in WWII,’ and she said, ‘All my life I heard about how he survived D-Day.’ And she said, ‘This is my father.’ I mean, her whole life, she had this imagined idea of what it was like. This took her right there. ... It was amazing closure,” said Rubin.
For the project’s sponsors and supporters, the power of the still photograph — often missing in a media culture increasingly obsessed with streaming videos — is central to the exhibit’s effect.
“The still photograph, once the photograph has been taken, is forever there. The moving image that we’re accustomed to just goes by you,” Rubin said. “Today, it seems homogenized in a way. We keep seeing the same thing.”
Ralph Crosby, CEO of EADS North America, is a Vietnam veteran and a West Point graduate. EADS North America is the co-sponsor of the exhibit, which raised $300,000 for Army Emergency Relief and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.
“It’s a window into the souls of these kids and their leadership, who are every day [risking] their lives for the things we stand for,” Crosby said. “Those 116 photographs — each one gives perception and a depth that goes far beyond the two dimensions of the media.”
Since finishing his tour of duty in 2005, White has enrolled as a film and photo major at the City University of New York. His coursework is partly inspired by his passion for photography, which developed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He hopes the exhibit provides a more personalized glimpse of the American soldier.
“A lot of people see a uniform, but they don’t really see a face. They don’t really understand it. This helps them understand it.”
Ellie