2004
Suzanne Opton
Soldier: Birkholz - 353 Days in Iraq, 120 Days in Afghanistan
Suzanne Opton
Soldier: Birkholz - 353 Days in Iraq, 120 Days in Afghanistan, 2004
Inkjet-Print, 50 x 60 cm
Courtesy of the artist
2009-051-002
© Suzanne Opton
Soldier: Birkholz - 353 Days in Iraq, 120 Days in Afghanistan, 2004
Inkjet-Print, 50 x 60 cm
Courtesy of the artist
2009-051-002
© Suzanne Opton
b. 1954 (Portland, US), lives and works in New York, US
The faces of soldiers are shown lying sideways; beneath them as captions are their first names and the number of days they have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Suzanne Opton’s horizontal soldiers are far removed from heroic poses, the war of nerves, or bloody battles. And yet this can all be sensed in their faces’ vulnerable tenderness and the melancholy expressed in their eyes. Opton, whose most poignant photographs all seem to be of people who have been injured in some way, allows us in her Soldiers series to regard distant wars with new, naked eyes.