Generally, I don’t care for photographed portraiture as art. I know it takes a lot of work and skill. I know the photographer makes heart-wrenchingly difficult decisions regarding the composition of the photograph. I know lighting and other effects are far too difficult for me to master. But still, when I see a portrait hanging in an art museum, I tend to get bored.
Wednesday’s New York Times reviewed a solo show at the Jen Bekman Gallery in New York that has challenged my ideas about photography-portraiture as art. Purple Hearts, the show’s title, contains Nina Berman’s portraits of Iraq War Veterans (the images are also available in Berman’s book of the same name). Read the review:
Not living anywhere near New York, I have not attended the gallery. I have seen reproductions of the photographs in the New York Times, on the Times’ website and on Berman’s website. The images are breathtaking. They are startling. They are disturbing. And they are beautiful, in that way that art transforms the horrific into beauty.
All I wanted to do was sit and read the New York Times while my students were writing diagnostic essays. I opened the arts section and was confronted by “Marine Wedding,” one of the more difficult of Berman’s photographs to view. I want to describe it, but I won’t do it any justice. Click on the link. See for yourself.
Thankfully, I was able to control my emotions — the last thing I need to do is start crying in front of my students on the second day of class. But it was difficult. The photographs are moving. The accompanying article includes reactions from the soldiers who were photographed. Much of what they say is heart-wrenching.
3,725 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, as of today. Officially, 27,506 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in Iraq. The numbers are high and hard to fathom.
“Marine Wedding“ is not hard to fathom. You need only look in the bride’s eyes to see the cost of this war.
