On the bustling streets of East carson there is a little gallery that can easily be overlooked. However, The Silver Eye Center of Photography slows down the lively spirit of South Side Works, making it unforgettable with their new exhibition, “HomeFrontLine: Reflections on Ten Years of War Since 9/11”. This photography exhibition is a tribute to the forgotten lives of all the people affected by this tragedy of terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the Iraq War. In this exhibition there were a total of eleven successful international photographers; Clair Beckett, Nina Berman, Kevin Bubriski, Gabriela Bulisova, Ashley Gilbertson, Baptiste Giroudon, Michael Kamber, Benjamin Lowy, Alfonso Moral Freed, Eugene Richards, and Peter van Agtmael. These artists all took a different point of view in this war. The perspectives of Americans, Iraqis, Afghans, veterans, families, refugees, soldiers, and prisoner of wars were arranged as multimedia essays of the people who were affected by the war as individuals instead of labeled rivalry.
The quiet and cold white gallery shoots the viewer with subtly disturbing images, numbing the brain and activating the heart. Walking into the gallery Kevin Bubriski’s “Pilgrimage: Looking at Ground Zero” greets the viewer. Bubriski’s portraits depicts the citizens of New York and their paralyzed reactions to the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The trauma in their eyes mirrors all of the americans that watched the plane smash into our landmark, the twin towers. After reliving the tragedy through Bubriski’s photographs, there is a confrontation of another group of eyes that are all also filled with shock and fear. Claire Beckett’s “In Training” are portraits of the “youngest new enlistees” (SilverEye). They capture the trainees in the verge of transformation from innocent young civilians to mature heavily trained soldiers. The photographs has the viewer internally screeching ‘NO’, begging these naïve minors to stay at home with their loved ones instead of fighting in the savage battles. Walking through the opening into the next room there are the photographs of Benjamin Lowy, “Iraq Perspectives”. He depicts the innocent iraq civilians as prey by taking photos of Iraq citizens through the windows of the military motor vehicles and military night vision goggles. All of these artists show inhumanness of war, and an alliance of terror in the eyes of these so called rivals.
Eugene Richards, ‘War Is Personal: A Chronicle of the Human Consequences of the Iraq War 2010’ portrays “What it means to go to war, to fight, to mourn, to remember, to live on when those that you love are gone.”(Richards). Being one of the most successful pieces, Richard has projections of pictures and testimonials of the affect the war had on the veterans and their families. In “War Is Personal: Tomas Young/ Age 26/ Kansas City, Missouri”, Tomas“explain(ed) that ever since his return from Iraq, it’s been a kind of magic act for him to stay upright when the only parts of his body that will obey him are his shoulders and his arms. Plus, there are the days when his body is totally uncooperative, the days when he starts ‘bawling for no real reason.’” (Richards).
Carlos Arredondo in “War Is Personal: Carlos Arrendondo/ Age 45/ Roslindale, Massachusetts” also was a veteran of the Vietnam War and he admits that he “never understood what they was fighting for.” When his oldest son Alex decides to sign up for the military, he worries tremendously while he watches his son is taken into the military, through training, and into Iraq. After all of this misery Arredondo is awarded on his birthday with the news that his son has past away. Carlos Arredondo could not pretend that this was worth the sacrifice, and ends up exploding the van that brought the news of his son’s death, injuring himself in the act. On Arredondo’s son, Alex’s wake, Arredondo looks at his son, “apologizing to him because I did nothing for him to avoid this moment. Nothing.” (Richards). After reading the horrific testimonials, one more uncomfortable then the one before, the viewer is emotionally drained, and their feet is plastered to the ground. These testimonials gets stabbed right in the heart, making the whole body cringe in sympathy.
The curators Ellen Fleurov and Leo Hsu designed a space to stop us from our busy lives, sit and commemorate the last ten years that were influenced by 9/11 and the war. And to focus on all of the overlooked sacrifices that were made during this decade. Instead of the political reasons or the economic damages to target the consequences of the war on our society and on the individuals that are still tormented today from these events. After all the war is personal.
Bibliography
HomeFrontLine: Reflections on Ten Years of War Since 9/11. September 13- December 10, 2011. Opening Reception September 11, 2011 3-6pm. Silver Eye Center for Photography, 1015 East Carson St., Pittsburgh PA 15203
Lowy, Benjamin. “Iraq | Perspectives.” Benjamin Lowy. Web. 17 Sept. 2011. <http://benlowy.com/>.
Hsu, Leo. “HomeFrontLine at Silver Eye”. September 6, 2011. September 17, 2011.<http://www.foto8.com/new/online/blog/1468-homefrontline-reflections-on-ten-years-of-war-since-911>
Richards, Eugene. “War Is Personal: Tomas Young/Age 26/Kansas City, Missouri.” The Nation, 2006. September 18, 2011. <http://www.thenation.com/article/war-personal-tomas-youngage-26kansas-city-missouri>
“HomeFrontLine”. Silver Eye Gallery. 2007. September 18, 2011.< http://www.silvereye.org/>
Gilbertson, Ashley. Bedrooms Of The Fallen – A Photography Project about the Bedrooms of Men and Women Who Died Serving the US in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Web. 18 Sept. 2011. <http://www.bedroomsofthefallen.com/bedrooms/detail.html>.
Richards, Eugene. “War Is Personal: Carlos Arredondo/Age 45/Roslindale, Massachusetts.” The Nation. 8 May 2006. Web. 18 Sept. 2011. <http://www.thenation.com/article/war-personal-carlos-arredondoage-45roslindale-massachusetts>.
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