Collection Of War Photography Holds Haunting Images

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Joe Rosenthal/Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum

It is difficult for civilians to understand what it is like to experience combat. For that reason, art curators Ann Wilkes Tucker and Will Michels began compiling a survey of photography of American wars to bring that experience to the public.

“Photographs are our collective memory of war. Luckily, most of us don’t ever experience it first-hand,” Tucker told ShutterLove, a photography website. 

The survey has now been collected in a museum exhibition called, "War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” opening November 7th at The Brooklyn Museum. It was first shown at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

The exhibit features over 480 photographs and other assorted war documents from nearly every American War from 1887 through the present day. While there are a number of iconic images, such as the photograph of soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima, Tucker and Michel wanted to create a comprehensive collection that shows the entire range of experience of war. There are photos from photojournalists, soldiers, military photographers and bystanders.

“In the news and magazines, people don't show us what’s really going on,” said Tucker. “We felt that if the soldiers have to see it and if the journalists have to see it, we have to see it."

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