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| copyright Louie Palu |
After President Obama
announced his plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan last Wednesday, I've been thinking about our presence in Afghanistan, particularly over the last decade, and how much my own personal understanding of what's transpired is drawn from mainstream media sources - such as this
interesting article in The Economist discussing the new news narrative about Americans in Afghanistan now that bin Laden is no longer.
Scenes from the "War on Terror" frontlines in Afghanistan and Iraq are likely to be the most photographed and widely shared in history. Embedded photojournalists have been right there with the troops, wearing flak jackets and bearing their muddy, world-weary cameras, and eventually even
iPhones.
I'd be curious to study how images of our war in Afghanistan published in mainstream news sources have shaped the war narrative for the majority of Americans whose lives are almost completely removed from the reality of what's happening Over There. What happens during that journey from the eye squinting through a dust-encrusted lens to our eyes skimming the front page of
The New York Times?
The photos above are from Canadian photographer
Louie Palu who spent five years documenting the War in Afghanistan. In
this interview, Palu speaks about his experience and his belief in the ability of photographs to reach the soul.
Stay curious, my friends.
(the three previous pictures feature an installation that is no longer in existence. It has since been painted back to the drab rear wall of Whole Foods it once was. However, the artist has since added the art in the following picture to add some more flavor to the building's exterior. I believe this is the work of Shepard Fairey, a guerilla street artist known best for his Obey campaign as well as his iconic Obama poster). 
