Cultural Event #1

This quarter we have been presented with many great speakers, including Jennifer Karady, a photographer I had not heard of before, but quickly learned she was the artist with the exhibit in the Myhren Gallery here at Denver University. When she spoke to us about her featured body of work, In Country: Soldiers’ Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, it sounded very intriguing so without any hesitation I went to the event opening on March 31.

Jennifer Karady is a photographer based out of New York City, but travels the country in search of pictures with stories. Her latest project has been working with American veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to create photographs that tell these soldiers war stories as well as their process of adjusting back into civilian life and some of the difficulties they may face. At the exhibit opening she talked about how after she was introduced to these veterans, she worked closely with them, getting to know them, gaining their trust and listening to them as they opened up to her with their war stories. Once this introduction process is complete both Karady and the veteran decide on one story specifically they want to reenact through a photograph. Karady then stages a photo shoot, which the actual veteran and those who are close to him or her, such as family and friends, are placed in this reenactment scene, which then Karady photographs and prints.

When I first walked into the gallery where this collection was hanging, the photographs seemed to jump off the wall at me. They were quite large, 48x48 inches, and very colorful. The one that drew me in the most was her photograph of a young man in full soldier gear ducking behind a pile of garbage on a street in New York City with his hands over his ears. Behind him, driving down the street is a garbage truck approaching a pothole. In a statement by the soldier next to the picture he describes how when he was at war a mortar hit his convoy and he was injured. After coming back to America, he has realized that the sound of a garbage truck, or any large truck hitting a pothole makes the same sound as a mortar exploding, causing him to run and duck behind anything that serves as a barrier on the streets. The reason that I liked this photograph is because Karady was able to really capture the fear this soldier is feeling which is crucial for a photographer and makes a picture that much better if strong emotions are achieved within the shot. The pained and freighted expression on his face shows the mind-set that many soldiers feel after returning home from a place that only they will really know how horrible can be. Because many of us will never know what soldiers experience while at war, Jennifer Karady is presenting through a powerful series of photographs, the mental and physical impact the war has on these men and women and how it compromises them and those around them when returning home. The exhibition In Country: Soldiers’ Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan is a display that I walked away from not only inspired to bring meaning to my own photography, but also with better knowledge of the hardships veterans face even after war.