The superbly done photo essay, montage now showing at the New American Art Union in Portland, Exit Wounds: Combat Trauma and the trials of homecoming, is earning rave reviews. Jim Lommasson’s photographic work surrounded by photos taken from the veterans themselves tells a story that we will not see in mainstream media. Dahr Jamail who has reported from Iraq and is author of ‘Beyond the Green Zone’, writes for IPS News.
PORTLAND, Oregon, Nov 4 (IPS) – Artist Jim Lommasson hates war. His exhibit of 1,500 photographs, taken by soldiers who served in Iraq, brings the war home to the United States, in a way he hopes will help bring it to an end.
“It’s all about the soldier’s lives upon their return home,” Lommasson, a soft-spoken man with kind, yet piercing eyes, told IPS at a reception for his powerful exhibit in mid-October. “I want people to listen to the soldiers. I want them to support the veterans, and hear what they have to say about Iraq, and what they’ve done to civilians.”
The photographs, handpicked from thousands brought home on laptops by soldiers who served in the occupation of Iraq, are grouped together on two walls. Collages of photos surround larger photos of the soldier who took them, along with quotes from interviews Lommasson conducted with them over the last year.
“Mom, I wouldn’t wish war on my worst enemy,” reads one photo. Nearby it are photos of bombs exploding, Iraqi children peering at the photographer, and another photo taken through the scope of what looks like a sniper’s scope, with the cross-hairs square on the head of an Iraqi man standing in a doorway.
Dahr Jamail was a panelist with me at the Winter Soldier event hosted by PDX Peace last month. Jamail also reports for Democracy Now!
