Artist Ellen Susan's "Solder Portraits Project,"
"consists of portrait photographs of soldiers of the United States Army, primarily of the 3rd Infantry Division. The goal of the project is to look at a person in military uniform and to see that person as a unique individual... Each soldier who participates is asked to complete a brief questionnaire and to make any comments he or she wishes on any topic. They can also choose not to comment. The photographs are made using the 150 year old collodion wet plate process - the same process that was used to document much of the period (and many of the soldiers) of the Civil War."
Her method of making the images is particularly haunting to me as a viewer since it's a look that I associate with historical documents, and to be quite honest, it's not clear that most of these people-- deployed to Iraq one, two, three or more times-- are coming back. Susan is exhibiting her work as part of Photo NOLA, and it can also be viewed online.
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