Odyssey
Country: USA
Participants: Combat veterans
Self-portrait
I was trying to emulate the hopelessness of a situation. I was trying to act calm, just sitting under water. An acceptance.
© Jacob Welstead
In contrast to how soldiers are prepared for war, there is no preparation given to returning soldiers as they come home and have to adjust to civilian life and to peace. Disconnected from their units, the deep-rooted friendships, structures and routines of military life, soldiers returning home face challenges which can include survivors’ guilt, post-traumatic stress and mental health disorders as well as social isolation.
The Odyssey Workshops seek to use photography to activate new connections for combat veterans, to find purpose together, to create meaning and discover beauty. Using photography as a tool to help returning combat veterans reintegrate back to civilian life, the project provides veterans with a peer support network and artist/educator mentoring. The three-month programme of weekly photography workshops, which started in 2018, have been run four times in partnership with the Josephine Herrick Project and the Queens vet center as well as CEPA gallery and the Buffalo Vet Center. They are led by the photographer Brendan Bannon with the support of co teachers including Air Force veteran Rob Healy, Navy veteran Jojo Chen and Julian Chinana, a photographer and former scout sniper with the Marines.
Self-Portrait
I wanted to show the daily struggle of living with post-traumatic stress disorder. I wanted to make a picture that shows how I’m drowning in everyday life.
© Erica Duncan
The 12-week photography workshops start with a two-day retreat to support unit creation and a deep dive that reshapes perceptions of photography as an expressive medium. In the subsequent weeks the participants explore the impact of war on their lives through photography. They photograph each other, their loved ones and meaningful places, weaving visual stories that illuminate the past but that also look to the future. Many participants talk about the sense of healing and catharsis that comes from working with photography as they process their experiences, express their stories and private battles and are validated by the sense that they have been seen and recognized.
© Erica Duncan
Through the workshops the veterans make connections with each other and create a sense of belonging while engaging in creative engagement and experimentation. The group works with cyanotypes and undertake a ‘dreams project’ in addition to double exposure self-portraits. These were introduced after one participant created a self-portrait by merging images with photo editing software. The portrait struck a chord with others as the technique allowed people to juxtapose images to capture complex ideas, identities and emotions in a single photograph.
Story Time
I caught this candid moment with my mother reading to my son after a long day of adventure and play.
© Rob Healy (@dangerclosearts)
To date, 95 veterans have participated in the Odyssey Workshops and their work has featured in multiple exhibitions. It has been covered on National Public Radio and in the New York Times and published in a 180-page book. A number of participants have gone on to start photography businesses, engage in photo outreach work and win arts prizes.
‘People think of photography as a solitary practice, but the quest for meaning through photography, as they practiced it, was intimate and rooted in a community of peers. By using a camera to engage each other and the world around them, veterans shared the battles that continue long after the war has ended. They also reflected on their victories over circumstances’.
‘Memorial day’
© Maja Kraft
