thedrifter
10-16-08, 07:28 AM
New soldiering exhibit moves to Lake County Discovery Museum
By STEPHANIE N. LEHMAN - slehman@nwnewsgroup.com
WAUCONDA - One hundred and sixteen carefully chosen, wall-sized photographs that carry with them the moments - the agony, the ecstasy, the raw emotion - of American soldiers from the Civil War to the Iraq War.
The men and women of the United States military - their faces and life stories, told through the photographs of whose who risked their lives to capture such moments - will cover the walls of the Lake County Discovery Museum from Oct. 4 through Feb. 15.
A national touring exhibition by Emmy and Tony award-winning producer, director, writer and curator, Cyma Rubin, "The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines," will find a resting place at one of its first venues while in Lake County.
"I wanted to tell a story through each war," Rubin said. "The important thing is that when we see a soldier, we see a uniform. I wanted to show them soldiering."
Rubin went through 4,000 photographs, from the oldest black and white prints to the newest digital formats, before she chose the final 116 that compiled her exhibit. She also wrote a panel for each war section, explaining briefly the events of the war as if a soldier were telling his or her own story.
"There is one image that has struck a chord with me," said the museum's director of cultural resources, Katherine Hamilton-Smith. "It's a picture of a soldier hugging his family - three children - as he's getting ready to leave for the Gulf War. As a mother of young children, it just really touches. That's one of the things that's really touching about this exhibit - there are also scenes of the human emotion of families whose lives are affected directly by those who go overseas."
The idea for the exhibit, Rubin said, goes back to 1995. While working on research for her exhibit "The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment," - which also has been featured at the Lake County Discovery Museum - she opened the Sunday New York Times Magazine and saw on the cover a World War II photograph of a soldier rolled up on a huge mountain of baggage.
"It was his first day, and he was supposed to bring back amo," Rubin said. "It had this message of, 'What is it about anyway, Charlie?' When I saw that photograph, it was really amazing. I thought, wouldn't it be great to do an exhibit about the foot soldier? But I put it into my 'one of these days files.'"
Then, three years ago, she decided that "one of these days" had finally arrived. With a clear concept in mind of what she wanted to accomplish, she set to work.
"It's about the humanity, the camaraderie, the humor, the heroism, the sacrifice of these great young Americans who go out there and do a job, along with the photographers who are recording this," Rubin said. "That's how it began and the research was extensive."
Between Rubin's two exhibits, the Pulitzer showcase and now the The American Soldier, Rubin has put in a combined 14 years of work. Her intensity and dedication to her two curated pieces have paid off. The Pulitzer work has been traveling for more than eight years, and though The American Soldier opened just last July, it is already booked until 2011. More than 132,000 visited the exhibit's first venue in Hot Springs, Ark., Rubin said, while its last venue, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C., brought 62,000 viewers. Her most viewed showing, where 500,000 looked at her compiled photographs, was at a Raleigh, N.C., venue.
Part of Rubin's concept was to present the story of the soldier through fresh photographs.
"I tried desperately to find new things," she said. "There will probably be a couple of photographs that might be familiar because they're so brilliant and nobody did them better - there was nothing better or nearly as good that I wanted to capture within the war stories. But not everyone has seen a lot of the photographs. There is no flag raising of Iwo Jima, even though I know [the photographer], and he is brilliant."
The museum was able to bring Rubin's exhibit to Lake County in part because of the close relationship Rubin has with Katherine Hamilton-Smith.
"It's important that Katherine and the others at Lake County are very courageous because they do step outside of the box to bring in exhibitions that normally people wouldn't see, especially in a smaller area," Rubin said. "They will come from all over."
Hamilton-Smith said the museum chose this particular time to showcase Rubin's work because it coincided with one of the most celebrated holidays for war veterans.
"We have a relationship with Cyma, so she let us and a few other museums have kind of a first pick," Hamilton-Smith said. "Mostly we wanted the show to run over Veterans Day. The museum is providing this opportunity to think, to have a more heightened awareness of the American military."
A hardbound, coffee table-sized book of the entire show, edited by Rubin with a forward by David Douglas Dunkin - a 92-year-old photographer whom Rubin credits as "the greatest living war photographer - will be available for purchase while the exhibition is open. The 159-page book, "The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines," is $40.
EADS North America, a leading supplier and industrial partner in defense and homeland security, commercial aviation, helicopters, telecommunications and services, is a half sponsor of the exhibit along with Rubin.
If you go ...
What: The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines
Where: Lake County Discovery Museum, located at the Lakewood Forest Preserve at the corner of Route 176 and Fairfield Road, in Wauconda
When: Oct. 4 to Feb. 15
Hours: 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $6 for adults, $2.50 for youth (ages 4 to 17) and free for youth 3 and under
Phone: 847-968-3400
Buy it
Title: The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines
Author: Edited by Cyma Rubin, with a forward by David Douglas Dunkin
Price: $40
Pages: 159
Ellie
By STEPHANIE N. LEHMAN - slehman@nwnewsgroup.com
WAUCONDA - One hundred and sixteen carefully chosen, wall-sized photographs that carry with them the moments - the agony, the ecstasy, the raw emotion - of American soldiers from the Civil War to the Iraq War.
The men and women of the United States military - their faces and life stories, told through the photographs of whose who risked their lives to capture such moments - will cover the walls of the Lake County Discovery Museum from Oct. 4 through Feb. 15.
A national touring exhibition by Emmy and Tony award-winning producer, director, writer and curator, Cyma Rubin, "The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines," will find a resting place at one of its first venues while in Lake County.
"I wanted to tell a story through each war," Rubin said. "The important thing is that when we see a soldier, we see a uniform. I wanted to show them soldiering."
Rubin went through 4,000 photographs, from the oldest black and white prints to the newest digital formats, before she chose the final 116 that compiled her exhibit. She also wrote a panel for each war section, explaining briefly the events of the war as if a soldier were telling his or her own story.
"There is one image that has struck a chord with me," said the museum's director of cultural resources, Katherine Hamilton-Smith. "It's a picture of a soldier hugging his family - three children - as he's getting ready to leave for the Gulf War. As a mother of young children, it just really touches. That's one of the things that's really touching about this exhibit - there are also scenes of the human emotion of families whose lives are affected directly by those who go overseas."
The idea for the exhibit, Rubin said, goes back to 1995. While working on research for her exhibit "The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment," - which also has been featured at the Lake County Discovery Museum - she opened the Sunday New York Times Magazine and saw on the cover a World War II photograph of a soldier rolled up on a huge mountain of baggage.
"It was his first day, and he was supposed to bring back amo," Rubin said. "It had this message of, 'What is it about anyway, Charlie?' When I saw that photograph, it was really amazing. I thought, wouldn't it be great to do an exhibit about the foot soldier? But I put it into my 'one of these days files.'"
Then, three years ago, she decided that "one of these days" had finally arrived. With a clear concept in mind of what she wanted to accomplish, she set to work.
"It's about the humanity, the camaraderie, the humor, the heroism, the sacrifice of these great young Americans who go out there and do a job, along with the photographers who are recording this," Rubin said. "That's how it began and the research was extensive."
Between Rubin's two exhibits, the Pulitzer showcase and now the The American Soldier, Rubin has put in a combined 14 years of work. Her intensity and dedication to her two curated pieces have paid off. The Pulitzer work has been traveling for more than eight years, and though The American Soldier opened just last July, it is already booked until 2011. More than 132,000 visited the exhibit's first venue in Hot Springs, Ark., Rubin said, while its last venue, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C., brought 62,000 viewers. Her most viewed showing, where 500,000 looked at her compiled photographs, was at a Raleigh, N.C., venue.
Part of Rubin's concept was to present the story of the soldier through fresh photographs.
"I tried desperately to find new things," she said. "There will probably be a couple of photographs that might be familiar because they're so brilliant and nobody did them better - there was nothing better or nearly as good that I wanted to capture within the war stories. But not everyone has seen a lot of the photographs. There is no flag raising of Iwo Jima, even though I know [the photographer], and he is brilliant."
The museum was able to bring Rubin's exhibit to Lake County in part because of the close relationship Rubin has with Katherine Hamilton-Smith.
"It's important that Katherine and the others at Lake County are very courageous because they do step outside of the box to bring in exhibitions that normally people wouldn't see, especially in a smaller area," Rubin said. "They will come from all over."
Hamilton-Smith said the museum chose this particular time to showcase Rubin's work because it coincided with one of the most celebrated holidays for war veterans.
"We have a relationship with Cyma, so she let us and a few other museums have kind of a first pick," Hamilton-Smith said. "Mostly we wanted the show to run over Veterans Day. The museum is providing this opportunity to think, to have a more heightened awareness of the American military."
A hardbound, coffee table-sized book of the entire show, edited by Rubin with a forward by David Douglas Dunkin - a 92-year-old photographer whom Rubin credits as "the greatest living war photographer - will be available for purchase while the exhibition is open. The 159-page book, "The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines," is $40.
EADS North America, a leading supplier and industrial partner in defense and homeland security, commercial aviation, helicopters, telecommunications and services, is a half sponsor of the exhibit along with Rubin.
If you go ...
What: The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines
Where: Lake County Discovery Museum, located at the Lakewood Forest Preserve at the corner of Route 176 and Fairfield Road, in Wauconda
When: Oct. 4 to Feb. 15
Hours: 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $6 for adults, $2.50 for youth (ages 4 to 17) and free for youth 3 and under
Phone: 847-968-3400
Buy it
Title: The American Soldier: A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines
Author: Edited by Cyma Rubin, with a forward by David Douglas Dunkin
Price: $40
Pages: 159
Ellie