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TRANSCRIPT
Souls Behind the Material:A Look at Conflict Photography, Memorials, and the Future
Schuyler DeMarinisArt and WarKira Van LilSpring 2017
You are struck with silence. You fall deep into the vastness of color and form
that sits monumentally in front of you, a sense of powerlessness. The painting seems
to tower over you, dehumanizing you, making you feel insignificant. Emotion runs
through you. It starts deep within your chest and flows to each of your toes and
fingers. This feeling is different for each and every viewer. You are standing below
Clyfford Still’s PH-247 (1951) at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.1
Still was born in North Dakota, moved to Alberta, Canada and then finally on to
eastern Washington. He was known as a man of the West when he finally made it
San Francisco, projecting a grave seriousness to his demeanor. As a child, he would
watch his father work the fields and later in life spent much of his time traveling.2
This can be translated into his work when you stand below it in person. It is a
magnificent experience. The stark immensity of Still's work brings you into the
West. It is as if you are watching his father for months on end plowing the field and
bringing in whatever little money he could for the family. You feel the ruggedness of
these people, how they give their lives to the land, and indeed make the West what it
is. It is this translation of emotion that makes Still’s work successful. It is this that
any conflict photographer, memorial architect, or sculptor hopes to succeed in doing
when attempting to present their vision to the world.
The intent behind today’s memorials is becoming similar to what drives the
conflict photographer into the front line of combat. As the common white marble
monument becomes a thing of our past, literally, we as a society are asking for
something new, fresh, and innovative. We want to learn from the memorials and let
them teach us lessons, to become aware of something new. We are also asking for
something emotionally when visiting memorials, this is something that the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial and well as the National September 11th Memorial and Museum
have succeeded in doing. Everything that we are asking from memorials in 2017 are
the same elements that conflict photographers want to contribute through their
images to today’s world. They are risking their lives to bring us closer to the truth. 1 Kinsella, Eileen. "Clyfford Still Museum Makes Huge Loan." Artnet News. April 12, 2016. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/clyfford-still-museum-makes-first-ever-loan-471644.2 "Clyfford Still — Clyfford Still Museum." Clyfford Still Museum Clyfford Still Comments. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/clyfford-still/.
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The question I have in mind is which of the two, memorials or photojournalism,
become more successful as a motive for change and if they both find themselves to
be equally effective, how can we use them in collaboration?
In an eerie interview with photographer Sebastian Junger, he speaks to a
fallen friend and collaborator Tim Hetherington as if they were his final parting
words. “You had a specific vision for your work and your life, and that vision
included your death. It didn’t have to, but that’s how it turned out. I’m so sorry,
Tim.” Is his death what makes the images he presented to the world so compelling
and hold meaning far after the conflict has ended? There is no doubt that Chris
Hondros and Tim Hetherington produced work while they were alive that changed
opinions and brought significant awareness to the public. When Hondros took the
photo of the Iraqi girl in Tal Afar in 2005, he exposed much more than the death of
an innocent child’s parents.3 He showed the world the instability of the Middle East,
the pain, and suffering that was occurring, and brought sympathy to the people of
Iraq. Tim Hetherington’s work in the Korengal Valley at the Restrepo Outpost in
2008 brings an identity and personal connection to the soldiers serving over seas.
He shows us the anguish and agony of everyday life, training routines, and debates
between villagers and soldiers.4 He brings their world into our living room. There is
nothing wrong with men like Hetherington and Hondros being the centerpiece of
conflict photography because they gave their lives, but we have to consider that they
are not the only ones.
In an article in The Guardian, Jenny Matthews expresses her doubts on the
criticism that women photojournalists receive for their sex. The common
misconception it that women don’t have what it takes to risk it all for a picture, that
they may not be robust enough to endure the harsh conditions, or that they may let
their emotions get in the way of the shot. Mathews as well as photographer Susan
Meiselas don’t deny these claims completely but point out ways that it helps create a
broader story, and in turn can be more effective. Meiselas remembers working in 3 "Chris Hondros: How He Got that Picture." Columbia Journalism Review. Accessed May 10, 2017. http://archives.cjr.org/campaign_desk/chris_hondros_how_he_got_that_picture.php.4 "Tim Hetherington." AFGHANISTAN. Restrepo Outpost, Korengal Valley. Accessed May 8, 2017. http://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Tim-Hetherington/2008/AFGHANISTAN-Restrepo-Outpost-Korengal-Valley-NN1108971.html.
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Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 70’s and 80’s. She compared it to being physically
tested like an athlete might. She also commented on being able to use her “less
threatening” stigma to gain permission to certain situations that a male
photographer could not have. Matthews points out that, “women sometimes think of
better ways to capture a story. We look behind the action and have different
priorities, such as human interest.” In regards to physical strength, U.K.
photographer Jillian Edelstein lugged around her two-year-old child and her camera
bags using a buggy. Edelstein puts it plainly, “you work all hours. You work
incredibly hard. You don’t think about being a woman.”5 Quite simply these women
were more concerned with their vision of bringing awareness home. It is this same
idea that the group exhibition Bringing the War Home wanted to achieve.
In 2010 ten artists gathered to host an event entitled Bringing the War Home.
This show was meant to look behind the scenes of war, find the backstory, and the
effects it has closer to home. In this exhibition, we look at war photography from a
different perspective and get a chance to compare the effectiveness of combat
versus non-combatant photography. One of the most compelling works in Bringing
the War Home was Lisa Barnard’s, Blue Star Moms. She photographed the care
packages that mothers were sending overseas to their sons or daughters serving in
the military. This work immediately draws a personal connection, a care package is
something many of us received after we left for college, and the items inside are all
very recognizable. You get an idea of what these soldiers favored and you created an
identity for them.6 Christopher Sims contributed work in this exhibition that
certainly brings the war home. Sims photographs U.S. military training facilities in
California. The photos though may catch you off guard because these structures
were constructed to be mock Iraqi and Afghani towns. The image that struck me the
most was Mosque with Golden Dome, Fort Irwin, California because of the nature of
the structure.7 The U.S. military was training soldiers to fight in a place of worship. It
says something for our government's views on religions. Overall Sims did manage to 5 Abrams, Melanie. "Melanie Abrams: From the fringes to the frontline." The Guardian. November 16, 2008. Accessed May 7, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/17/women-photography-war-exhibition-barbican.6 "Impressions Gallery." Impressions Gallery. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.impressions-gallery.com/exhibitions/exhibition.php?id=36.
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take place and connect the world going on in the Middle East to our backyard, both
of these artists in Bringing the War Home managed to do this. Not only that but the
exhibition as a whole managed to successfully tell a meaningful story about the war
that the conflict photography could not, making it no less as significant.
Dane Jensen in 2008 curated a fine art exhibit using the images from
embedded military photojournalists. Jensen had a similar vision like Bringing the
War Home had by searching for the backstories of war, in this case in Iraq and
Afghanistan. He found that the Middle East was ridden with poverty, pollution, and
child labor due to effects of constant warfare. The photographs themselves were
chosen specifically to tell a story. There are images of makeshift villages built on top
of graveyards and children’s bedrooms containing nothing more than a pillow and a
few blankets.8 Military photographers have a stigma of being censored, which does
happen when filtered through the government. Jensen managed to look past this
stigma and create a personal story. These embedded photographers know Iraq and
Afghanistan better than most. Their images tell the true story. Exhibits like Bringing
the War Home and Jensen’s Eye of the Storm: War Through the Lens of American
Combat Photographers don’t hold any more or less importance than the work of
Hondros and Hetherington, they just tell a different side of the story. They do share
the same vision, and as photographer Nilufer Demir would put it, “I hope the impact
this photo has created will help bring a solution.”9
Imagery is a powerful tool in today’s society. We are constantly being bombarded
with photos of current events. The more technology grows, the less we seem to read.
The things we do read must be direct and to the point, and hold significant
importance. Photography, and specifically conflict photography, has become a
means for generating awareness of the masses. Three common themes continually
arose whether talking about Hondros or the Bringing the War Home exhibition and
7 Art Radar. Accessed May 6, 2017. http://artradarjournal.com/2010/10/27/documentary-and-art-photography-crossover-exhibition-attempts-to-portray-alternate-realities-of-war/.8 Hontz, Jenny. "Exhibit: War Photos of Iraq and Afghanistan." Newsweek. March 13, 2010. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.newsweek.com/exhibit-war-photos-iraq-and-afghanistan-89767.9 Shirbon, Estelle. "From Vietnam War to a Turkish beach, the shock of the photo endures." Reuters. September 04, 2015. Accessed May 8, 2017. http://in.reuters.com/article/europe-migrants-photo-idINKCN0R421V20150904.
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that was identity, personal connection, and visual experience. It is these elements
that make conflict photography such a compelling tool for spreading awareness.
This consciousness, in turn, will hopefully transcend into change. This is why
Hondros and Hetherington gave their lives in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011.10 It is
the reason curators like Jensen and photographers like Sims and Barnard search for
the backstory of war. They want to spark something inside of us that will hopefully
result in change. This is also what memorials seek to achieve but are they as
effective?
I grew up in Oberlin, Ohio, the ninety-ninth stop on the Underground
Railroad. The town was filled with markers and commemorative plaques. School
trips mostly consisted of visiting homes where great missionaries during the civil
war took refuge. My grandparents on my father’s side lived temporarily in a historic
home owned by the city as caretakers. Below their dining room table was a hidden
door where escaped slaves would take shelter from the slave catchers. Oberlin
College also played a significant role in the abolition of slavery, and they were the
first school to admit African American students in the 1830’s.11 The city was rich in
history, so it made sense that it was going to have a memorial devoted to the events
taking place during the civil war. The college, in fact, has an Underground Railroad
Sculpture funded by the 1977 art class and design by then senior Cameron
Armstrong. The memorial was simple. It was ascending train tracks coming out of
the ground about 10 feet, sturdy enough to play on. Around it was planted a “healing
garden,” containing flowers and herbs used by the escaped slaves along their
travels. The memorial itself was erected in commemoration of Oberlin, Ohio playing
such an important role in the abolition of slavery and the Underground Railroad.12
Not only is this memorial unsuccessful because it lacks any emotional significance,
but it plays into this idea that monuments historically are more centerpieces of a
city rather than respectful tributes.
10 "Chris Hondros." Wikipedia. April 26, 2017. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hondros#Libya_and_death.11 "History." History | About Oberlin | Oberlin College. Accessed May 9, 2017. https://new.oberlin.edu/about/history.dot.12 "Facility Detail." Facility Detail: Underground Railroad Sculpture | Oberlin College. Accessed May 10, 2017. http://new.oberlin.edu/student-life/facilities/detail.dot?id=385133&.
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When I speak of monuments of our past I mean those that are of heroic men
carved out of marble or cast in bronze. These monuments are proudly exhibited by
the city and signify greatness, success, and power. The Washington Monument on the
National Mall stands tall and high above all else. The monument was meant to be
representational of the Wonders of the World, specifically the Egyptian pyramids.
Built to commemorate the man who led the Continental Army to victory over
Britain’s outstanding and distinguished military it signifies power.13 The Marine
Corps War Memorial is another example of our nation's pride rooted the victory over
others. This memorial was erected in commemoration of any Marine Corps
personnel who has died in the name of the United States since 1775. The statue is a
recreation of the photo taken on February 23, 1945, as the American troops took the
island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese, a turning point towards the conclusion of the
war. The photo is of a group of U.S. soldiers raising a flag in an upward motion,
signaling a rise in power and triumph.14 The Battle of Iwo Jima resulted in the deaths
of over 6,000 American soldiers and over 17,000 Japanese.15 Interestingly enough,
the only two other known Underground Railroad memorials follow suit to the
formal attributes of these monuments.
The Tower of Freedom memorial in Ontario, Canada was designed by Ed
Dwight and is quite reminiscent to the Washington Monument. Inscribed on the
tower reads, “Keeping the Flame of Freedom Alive.” The white pillar is meant to
stand tall above all else, stand up against injustice and prejudice, and represent the
victory.16 I find this to be troublesome because these issues are still going on today.
The public is not gaining any awareness or connection to the historical story being
told and therefore the monument is loosing power. The other memorial for the
Underground Railroad, also designed by Ed Dwight, is in Battle Creek, Michigan. It is
13 "History & Culture." National Parks Service. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/wamo/learn/historyculture/index.htm.14 "History of the Marine Corps War Memorial." National Parks Service. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/usmcwarmemorial.htm.15 "Battle of Iwo Jima." Wikipedia. May 8, 2017. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima.16 "Tower of Freedom/Underground Railroad Monument." Tower of Freedom/Underground Railroad Monument, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://detroit1701.org/Underground%20RR-Canada.html.
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similar to the Marine Corps War Memorial in that there is an upward rise in motion
from the figures that make up the statue. This particular memorial depicts Harriet
Tubman leading the escaped slaves to freedom.17 I understand the reasons for why
Ed Dwight designed these memorials. They were what were expected of monuments
of the time. Along with Oberlin’s Underground Railroad Sculpture, it was created to
please. The issue is that these are no longer successful. They hold no emotional
ground. Over time these monuments become less of a commemoration and more of
a landmark. It was for these reasons I began to question the power of monuments
and memorials as instruments for change.
I recently visited the Portland Art Museum and was able to see the almost 3 x
4-foot photograph by Richard Avedon William Casby, Born in Slavery, Algiers,
Louisiana in person.18 I was struck with silence as if I was in front of a Clyfford Still
painting. I could see the pain and suffering that this man's life had endured. His eyes
looked into mine, though much larger, I could feel a connection with him. The
immense size of the piece grew on me and gave this man, William Casby, an identity
he once did not have. I then began to realize how much more photography has done
for bringing awareness of civil rights, prejudices, and racism and hate then any
memorial has done to date. Mathew Brady, for example, produced an image of the
escaped slave named Gordon, who’s back, was ravaged with whipping scars, during
the Civil War.19 This may have done more change than any statue erected to
Abraham Lincoln. I began to lose hope in the concept of memorials altogether until I
ran across a project being constructed by architect Michael Murphy and civil rights
leader Bryan Stevenson.
To have a museum chronicling the great crime that was African slavery in the
United States of America would be to acknowledge that the evil was here.
17 Hostmaster. "Underground Railroad Sculpture." Michigan. January 10, 2017. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.michigan.org/property/underground-railroad-sculpture.18 "RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004) , William Casby, born in slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, 3-24-63." , William Casby, born in slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, 3-24-63 | Christie's. Accessed May 7, 2017. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/richard-avedon-1923-2004-william-casby-born-5379351-details.aspx.19 "A Slave Named Gordon." The New York Times. October 03, 2009. Accessed May 8, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/books/review/Letters-t-ASLAVENAMEDG_LETTERS.html.
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Americans prefer to picture the evil that was there, and from which the
United States-a unique nation, one without any certifiably wicked leaders
throughout its entire history-is exempt. That this country, like every other
country, has its tragic past does not sit well with the founding, and still all-
powerful belief in American exceptionalism.20
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Stevenson and his team had been working for some time to research and map out
all of the sites across Alabama where a lynching had taken place. Their findings
were astounding in the most horrific way. Montgomery, Alabama, the site of the
Memorial to Peace and Justice and the victims of lynching in the South, is already
known for its unbelievable amount of plaques and markers commemorating the
Confederacy and its leaders.21 Susan Sontag’s excerpt from Regarding the Pain of
Others may have some answers to why. To the rest of the country, the lynching did
occur there, in the South. To the people of the South it occurred there, as in the past.
Stevenson and Murphy by constructing the Memorial to Peace and Justice are
bringing it here, to Montgomery, to Alabama, and to America. In a TED talk on
Architecture: That’s Built to Heal, Michael Murphy expresses that:
Countries like Germany and South Africa and of course Rwanda have found it
necessary to build memorials to reflect on the atrocities of the past in order
to heal their national psyche. We have yet to do this in the United States.22
This statement coincides with Sontag’s beliefs. We are at a pivotal point in our
society and the way we are considering the world today. Finally, we are starting to
become capable of expressing the pain and suffering of our past. It is for this reason
why the marble and bronze monuments are no longer successful and why we are
asking so much from memorials today.
20 SONTAG, SUSAN. REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS. S.l.: PICADOR, 2017.21 "The Memorial to Peace and Justice." Equal Justice Initiative. Accessed May 9, 2017. http://eji.org/national-lynching-memorial.22 Murphy, Michael. "Architecture that's built to heal." Michael Murphy: Architecture that's built to heal | TED Talk | TED.com. Accessed May 9, 2017. https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_murphy_architecture_that_s_built_to_heal.
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The Memorial to Peace and Justice though not completed yet has many
successful attributes to it, the same elements that effective conflict photography use.
Identity, personal connection, and visual experience, can all be applied. As you move
towards the memorial, it looks as if you were walking towards a colonnade building,
like the Parthenon. As you descend a ramp into the structure further, you notice that
these columns do not touch the ground but instead hang over you. This effect is not
only giving you a visual experience as you walk into the memorial but you are also
gaining a personal connection. The hanging columns are meant to represent
individuals who were lynched. You are now apart from this atrocious act, and the
lynching is now, here. Names are inscribed on the column and again on a matching
marker in the field outside the memorial. Here Murphy and Stevenson are giving an
identity to the individual who until this time had been forgotten by the world. The
markers that encompass the field will be claimed overtime and moved to the actual
location where that individual was lynched. The soil from that place would then
replace the marker in the memorial’s lawn. The Memorial to Peace and Justice uses
identity, personal connection, and visual experience to successfully evoke emotion
and an experience in the viewer. I found that it also had another element to its
success by evoking a psychological response.
When I describe a psychological response, you have to consider this to be a
very broad subject and something that may be experienced differently depending on
the individual. The best comparison I can make is the emotional and psychological
response that you get from the presence of a Clyfford Still painting. It is something
that is living inside the work. It is hard to describe exactly what this may entail with
the Memorial to Peace and Justice, do to its incompletion but I see it in the
experience the viewer will have as they realize the column of the memorial are not
joined to the floor but instead represent hanging bodies. Columns themselves hold a
robust and solid aesthetic and to remove them from the ground turns them into
something completely different. The spirituality of the architecture takes over, and
the memorial becomes a living thing that represents death. It is this uneasiness that
sparks the change. We have a psychological response to the architecture and what is
being presented. We don’t want to feel that way, so we will hopefully make changes
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so that this does not happen again. Like Murphy says, “architecture can be a
transformative engine for change.”23 We just have to allow this to happen.
So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused
the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our
impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an
impertinent- if not inappropriate- response. To set aside the sympathy we
extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how
our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may- in
ways we might prefer not to imagine- be linked to their suffering, as the
wealth as some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the
painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark.24
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
It is this spark that influenced a change in the way we as Americans are
growing into the next chapter of memorials. It began with the work of Maya Lin. A
then senior at Yale proposed a memorial for her final project. She intended this
memorial to give an identity to those who have lost their lives by inscribing their
names into the shiny surface. The wall would also be reflective so you could see
yourself as well as their names. Their souls are now living through you. You gain a
visual experience as you gradually walk downward and become buried from the
world above. All you can see are the black walls of the memorial. Conceptually
speaking it meant to represent a slice taken out of the earth, the people who were
stripped from our countries and sent overseas to die, a scare on our land, bringing
the war here. This evokes a psychological response inside of us. One that we are
23 Murphy, Michael. "Architecture that's built to heal." Michael Murphy: Architecture that's built to heal | TED Talk | TED.com. Accessed May 9, 2017. https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_murphy_architecture_that_s_built_to_heal.24 SONTAG, SUSAN. REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS. S.l.: PICADOR, 2017.
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unsure of but also one that allows us to mourn. This proposal went on to winning
the competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and was constructed in 1982.25
Another memorial, constructed much more recently, was the National
September 11 Memorial and Museum. This too used the same successful elements to
achieve an emotional response. Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designers
Michael Arad, Peter Walker, and Daniel Libeskind included the names of those who
lost their lives on that tragic day. This, of course, gives the missing an identity. Inside
the museum, they also include personal items donated by the families of the
deceased, such as clothing and concert tickets, brings their identity to the next
level.26 As fellow Americans many of us can relate personally to these individuals,
maybe we once owned the same pair of shoes or went to the same Broadway show.
They wanted to make it very clear that the men and women who died were just like
us because they were. Visually speaking the memorial shows a void in the middle of
on of the busiest cities in the world, a dark black hole where nothing but souls of
those who died on September 11th will exist. This plays into the psychological
response to the piece. I am yet to experience this in person, but I am assuming it
feels a lot like visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The location where the
towers fell has had this ghastly atmosphere since the day it all occurred.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum as well as the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial are both excellent examples of what we want emotionally from
memorials. They use specific strategies to engage the viewers in ways that
subconsciously psychologically affect their experience. The question at hand though
is if they are capable of sparking change? This is what is now asked of memorials.
This is something that Stevenson and Murphy hope to accomplish with the Memorial
to Peace and Justice. For them, it is not only an emotional and psychological
experience but also a learning experience. These are all the aspects of
photojournalism. Memorials and photojournalism are equally important at telling
the story of the world, and the question is not, which of the two is more effective at
25 Lin, Maya. "Making the Memorial." The New York Review of Books. Accessed May 8, 2017. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/11/02/making-the-memorial/.26 Home | National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.911memorial.org/.
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bringing change but instead, how can we use them in conjunction with each other.
Just like the photography exhibitions Bringing the War Home and Eye of the Storm:
War Through the Lens of American Combat Photographers it is just as important to
get the backstory, as it is to see the frontline. With memorials, we are capable of
spiritually releasing the past. It is just another way of expressing our societies grief.
The question then becomes how photojournalism and memorials will evolve from
this point? Is it possible for these two subjects to work in collaboration?
In October of 2016 the National Parks Service, the National Capital Planning
Commission, and the Van Alen Institute hosted an exhibition, Memorials for the
Future. Teams from all over submitted their proposals “to reimagine how we think
about, feel, and experience memorials.” The Van Alen Institute’s statement helped
develop the central motive of the competition and the importance of it:
Memorials enshrine what we as a society want to remember. But the places,
people, and stories that we memorialize, and the audiences who engage
with them, are in fact constantly changing. A memorial tells its story through
subject matter and design. This story is often complex and multi-dimensional
as a memorial’s interpretive elements embody ideas of identity, culture, and
heritage, and each have intensely personal interpretations for every
individual.27
After the completion of the exhibit, they put together their key findings on what they
find necessary for future memorials to be a motive for change. They concluded that
it is just as important to memorialize the past, as it is to consider the present and
future. This is because we are living in an ever-changing world, as The Van Alen
Institute put it we are “multi-dimensional.” We are constantly being fed new
information and forgetting the unnecessary. Our society needs our memorials to
convey “multiple truths and complex histories.” Events occurring today are also
becoming much more universal and less of a national subject. This means that these
27 "Memorials for the Future." Van Alen Institute. Accessed May 9, 2017. https://www.vanalen.org/projects/memorials-for-the-future/.
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monuments must represent every side of the story. They also must become
educational learning experiences in order to produce change.28
Climate Chronograph took the win at the Memorials for the Future
competition, and rightfully so. This work revolutionized the way we think about
memorials. A rectangular sloped garden of cherry trees would be planted on the tip
of Hains Point in Washington D.C. where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers meet the
Washington Channel. As sea level rises over time the ground water at the lower
portion of the park would become toxic for the trees. They would begin to die in
succession, as the roots would become wetlands. This park would also serve as an
environmental center for research and teaching. There is no stopping the inevitable
sea level rise, but we can take measures to slow it. Visually speaking the visitors will
be experiencing the effects of climate change first hand. They are gaining a personal
connection by becoming engaged in the memorial through educational and visual
aids. Climate change is also gaining an identity by documenting the slow death of the
cherry trees over time.29 To be able to see the effects of climate change helps the
world believe that it is there. Crazy concept. In regards to the key findings that the
Memorials for the Future proposed to be necessary to motivate change, Climate
Chronograph managed to achieve most of them. The memorial itself grows as it
decays over time and in turn represents not only the future but also the past as the
skeletal branches remain. Though the location is on the National Mall, climate
change is much more universal and can be related to from any nationality or
background. Lastly, it is educational. This is important to induce change. If you
aren’t learning anything from it how can you progress your thinking? Climate
Chronograph could be the next generation of memorials.
One proposal that gained honorable mention but is much more relevant to
the combination of photojournalism and commemoratives was American Wild: A
Memorial. The team DHLS stated in their introduction that their memorial:
28 "Memorials for the Future Competition." Memorials for the Future. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://future.ncpc.gov/.29"Climate Chronograph." Memorials for the Future. Accessed May 10, 2017. https://future.ncpc.gov/pdf/Climate_Chronograph.pdf.
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Can be interpreted as an act of memorializing the American wilderness and
preserving the memory of the American landscape. In keeping with the
memorials of the future prompt this proposal challenges the notion of
memorial, as a static and permanent construction, as the parks are alive and
ever changing.
Over a period of 59 days, the team proposed to use projection mapping to display 59
different National Parks in ultra-high-definition video, one day for each park. This
would be presented in Washington D.C. Metro L’Enfant Plaza Station. The hope
would be to engage these city dwellers visually and create a personal connection
between themselves and our National Parks. By presenting them to the people
visually, they then gain an identity, like with climate change. The team’s goal was to
influence individuals to go visit the National Parks and hopefully gain an
appreciation. The team’s motto was View Visit Vote. They hoped to change the
public’s opinion and create awareness of particular political acts and bills that could
change the face of our earth. The memorial itself is open-ended and does not force
any opinion, and it respects our “multi-dimensional” world. You could just as well
enjoy the natural beauty of the American landscape on your way to work and care
less about the future of our environment. The significant element to look at in this
proposal is the use of imagery. This is the first memorial that I have come across
that uses actual images, in this case, video, to convey the message.
I end this report by looking at the work of Krzysztof Wodiczko. His projection
projects may not be considered memorials, but after exploring what is becoming of
commemoratives in today’s time, I don’t think he was far off. The Tijuana Projection
done in 2001 was intended to give a voice to the women who work in the
“maquiladora” industry. These women live horrific lifestyles being exposed to rape,
incest, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence. Wodiczko projected these
women’s faces on the 60-foot façade of the Omnimax Theater at the Centro Cultural
Tijuana, an urban center point for the city. For a crowd of over 1,500 people, these
women told their stories, their voices being projected into the night.30 The piece was
30 Net, Media Art. "Media Art Net | Wodiczko, Krzysztof: The Tijuana Projection." Medien Kunst Netz. May 10, 2017. Accessed May 9, 2017. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/the-tijuana-projection/.
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meant to bring awareness and visibility to the issues at hand. In 1999 Wodiczko
went as far as to include a memorial into his work. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
in Japan, projections of the arms and hands of survivors of the atomic bomb
accompanied their amplified story of life after the devastation. Wodiczko’s attempt
was to make a connection between generations and generate ideas for how to work
towards peace. Like the successful memorials that we have examined these
projection projects visually engage the viewer create a personal connection and
gives the victims an identity. In response to these dynamics, we have a psychological
response that will hopefully result in change. Wodiczko may have been making a
comment on monuments when he projected his Hiroshima Projection onto the A-
Bomb Dome, but I don’t expect it was intended to be the future of memorials.31
Photojournalism and memorials together help tell the story of our world, the
present, past, and future. There is no siding with one or the other because they are
both equally as powerful for motivating change in their ways. Without one or the
other, we lose context. We miss the whole story. The important thing to look at is
what makes photojournalism and memorials successful and apply it to future
consideration. Identity, personal connection, visual experience, “multi-dimensional,”
ever-changing, and resulting in a psychological response are all key factors. It will be
interesting to see if memorials will be designed to incorporate the grotesque
response that we look for in conflict photography. In an interview with artist Jake
Chapman, co-creator of Hell with brother Dinos Chapman, he puts it as simply as:
We have to have some indication of what death means. We have to have high
feelings of stimulation for what the idea of atrocity and death and murder
and everything that’s nasty, in order to kind of make what we have, have
some value.32
31 "“Hiroshima Projection”." Art21. Accessed May 9, 2017. https://art21.org/read/krzysztof-wodiczko-hiroshima-projection/.32 Cube, Source: White. "Jake Chapman on themes behind 'Hell' and its successor - video." The Guardian. June 16, 2015. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2015/jun/16/jake-dinos-chapman-fucking-hell-video.
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Our society has forced us to be in a constant need for more. This is why combat
photography will be praised higher by the media than exhibitions like Bringing the
War Home. The Memorials for the Future prompted artists to think conceptually
about how to please generations to come as well as their own. We are finally
jumping out of our comfort zone to “heal (our) national psyche,” as Michael Murphy
puts it. It will be interesting to see if memorials will become more graphic in nature
to motivate a desire for change. Climate Chronograph was successful at showing
death and decay through the lens of the degenerating cherry orchard. What remains
are skeletons of the once living tree and the park becomes a graveyard. I think the
next step will be to include the work and findings of conflict photojournalism with
the design and creation of memorials to come. Work like Wodiczko’s projections,
team DHLS’s American Wild: A Memorial, the National September 11th Memorial and
Museum, and the Memorial to Peace and Justice are all productive and successful
starting points to build from to stimulate change.
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