On May 9, 2013 at 7pm, photographers Mike Kamber, Peter van Atgmael and I will discuss media censorship during the Iraq War.
The presentation is in preview of Kamber's book “Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq”
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
116st and Broadway
NYC
Join me for an artist talk along with photographers Brian Cohen and Noah Addis as part of the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project exhibition on view through June 8, 2013 at the Stairwell Gallery @ the Moose Exchange in Bloomsburg, PA.
Wednesday May 1
5pm
203 West Main Street
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Phone: 570-317-2596
Friends in the Santa Barbara, California area, I will be giving a talk at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Seeing War: Identity, Purpose and Play
Tuesday, April 16 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB
War is both everywhere and invisible. It’s there when we shop, when we socialize. We are reminded of it and yet distracted from its effects. In our culture we conflate war and play. We are attracted to weapons of war, in part, because they give us the promise of power and inspire heroic fantasies, at a time when many aspects of life feel small and without purpose. In the words of Chris Hedges, “war is a force that gives us meaning.” Photographic artist Nina Berman will present examples from three bodies of work – Purple Hearts, Marine Wedding, and Homeland – which explore the consequences and allure of war and militarism in post-September 11 America.
The artist lecture is part of the University’s ongoing series Fallout:In the Aftermath of War
Special thanks to Emily Zinn.
For those going to the AIPAD show in New York this weekend, please visit the Monroe Gallery of Photography booth. I will have two prints for sale.
AIPAD
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
NYC
April 4 – 7, 2013
The New York Police Department’s stop and frisk policy is on trial in New York City.
To learn about it, see my images on the New Yorker, and a video on the NOOR site.
Remember Agent Orange, the Monsanto produced defoliant which was supposed to smoke out the Vietnamese enemy?
It was a crop killer, a cancer agent, a chemical weapon, sprayed by the tons across Vietnam. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, causing cancer and abnormalities in veterans here and more dramatically, in children in Vietnam, more than one and two generations since the end of the war. (Do the after effects of war ever really end?)
The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have their own legacies, depleted uranium, and something you might not have heard of: burn pit exposure. All those military bases constructed like mini cities, produce trash, loads of it: hundreds and thousands of plastic water bottles, body parts, ammo, vehicles, you name it, whatever is discarded is burned and burned hot, lit by jet fuel. Troops lived in this toxic smoke day in and day out. And they got sick, really sick and now they have tumors, organ damage, asthma, and they are dying. Who operated those burn pits? KBR and Halliburton.
A powerful group of veteran victims and their advocates sought justice through the courts, and last week, they lost big time. Bush appointed US District Court Judge Roger Titus ruled that private companies working for the US government – like KBR and Halliburton – can’t be sued.
To learn more about burn pits, start with Kelly Kennedy’s brilliant reporting. I did follow up stills and videos in 2010.
All photos:Nina Berman
I will be exhibiting work at the following venues in March.
Sylvia Wald + Po Kim Art Gallery
War is for the Living
through March 23
New York, New York
RedLine Art Gallery
The Reality of FictionMarch 8, 2013 - April 28, 2013
Denver, Colorado
Galerie Cerami
Under the Bridge
March 16, 2013 – April 27, 2013
Charleroi, Belgium
Annenberg Space for Photography
War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and its Aftermath
March 23, 2013 – June 2, 2013
Los Angeles, California
Photo: Firewatcher, British Columbia ©Nina Berman, 2009, All Rights Reserved
On view at Galerie Cerami
