In 1992, during my year as a Guggenheim Fellow, I began two series of photographs: portraits of Holocaust survivors and portraits of Vietnam War veterans. Both series employed the same basic technique combining my contemporary portraits with text about the individualÕs war experiences derived from a videotape interview. At the time I decided to place the Vietnam portrait series on hold and concentrate instead on the Holocaust survivors, since as a group they were aging and dying.
The Holocaust series was published by Chronicle Books as Written in Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust in 1997, concurrent with a solo exhibition that opened at the International Center of Photography in New York City. The show traveled to numerous museums in the US and Europe including the Art Institute of Chicago; Chrysler Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; and Haus Bill, Zurich. Individual portraits from this series have been widely shown at such museums as the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, DC and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. Several of the portraits were included in MŽmoire des Camps, which opened at the Hotel de Sully in Paris and traveled to several museums in Europe including Fotomuseum Winterthur and Museo Nacional dÕArte de Catalonia in Barcelona with an accompanying book by Editions Marval.
In early 2003, I resumed where I had left off with the Vietnam veteran project. The war in Iraq likely influenced my decision to resume this work, which focuses on the effects of war on individuals with the passage of time. I began by re-contacting the veterans I had photographed in 1992. Some had died or moved away over the preceding decade. I re-photographed others and began to rebuild my network of contacts among veterans groups and individuals.
The war in Vietnam was a painful and divisive issue for my generation. President Nixon did away with college deferments and every male over 18 was eligible for the draft. I was luckier than many of my friends and drew a high enough number in the draft lottery that I did not have to ponder the difficult moral question of whether or not to serve in Vietnam. Anti-war protests began to turn violent in places like Kent State University as the country was being torn apart at the seams. One can find parallels with the situation in Iraq today and it is not coincidental that many of the veterans I work with bring up Iraq with sadness and dread. A look at the recent presidential campaign quickly reveals that the profound issues raised by Vietnam in our culture are in need of further exploration and discussion.
From the Iliad onward, war has been a major theme in art and literature. With my Holocaust portraits and now with the portraits of Vietnam Veterans, my photograph/text pieces add to our understanding of how the trauma of war affects both combatants and civilians caught in the crossfire. Many important issues of war and peace emerge in the war stories and in the portraits themselves. Many veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some still wear their Vietnam War medals. Some fight for veteransÕ medical issues or make art or write books about their experiences. Others have found ways to put their experiences behind them. All were deeply and permanently affected by the war.
The finished exhibition has a total of 50 portraits representing a broad range of war experiences. I include a snapshot of each individual from the war with my contemporary portrait and war story linking past and present. The show is hung in an installation-style containing these three components. There is also a one-hour DVD compilation of interviews.
My photographic technique has changed in the years since Written in Memory, when all the prints were toned gelatin silver with text handwritten directly on the photographs. For this project I am photographing in color and scanning the negatives. I prepare the digital files using Photoshop to remove dust, control print size, adjust color and contrast. Then I use Epson digital printers with archival ink to make prints which range from 17x22Ó to 40x50Ó. In addition, the text for the Vietnam Veteran project is not handwritten on the prints but is typeset in separate framed panels with white text on a black background to suggest carved stone inscriptions found on memorials.
The show, Inconvenient Stories, curated by Rod Slemmons, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, opened at the museum on October 13 and runs to December 17. MoCP will be traveling the show to museums in the US and Europe.