Visitors to the Canadian War Museum will receive a glimpse of modern-day war through the photographer’s lens in a new exhibit launched at the beginning of the month, just in time for Remembrance Day.
Kandahar – The Fighting Season showcases pictures from the day-to-day lives of Canadian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2011. The 16 photos displayed include everything from candid portraits of tired soldiers to striking shots of combat casualties.
Each picture is accompanied by a behind-the-lens commentary, which draws on interviews with the photographer and the subject to explain what was happening in the photo.
The artist behind the pictures is award-winning Canadian photojournalist Louie Palu, who embedded himself with both Canadian and American soldiers during their time in Afghanistan. Palu’s work has been on the cover of Newsweek magazine and has been featured everywhere from France to China.
Andrew Burtch, post-1945 historian at the museum, worked with Palu to develop the exhibit.
“It’s a moment in time in Afghanistan captured in a frame,” he says. “These are portraits of faces in the war we’ve rarely seen in the news.”
Each photo tells a story. A young soldier sits shell-shocked, cradling his gun after fighting off an insurgent ambush. A frightened Afghan soldier turns to his Canadian comrade for encouragement as he gets ready to shoot during a long firefight.
Burtch says he hopes the photos will give viewers a better idea of what the everyday slog of conflict is like.
“There’s an element of trying to put people in the moment,” he explains, “but I think these pictures really speak for themselves.”
Palu himself says he aims for viewers to take away a deeper understanding of war.
“What’s most important for me is to empower people with information,” he says. “I want people to have their own personal dialogue on what war and violence is, why it happens, and who the people are in the photographs.”
Palu says he hopes the exhibit will help spread discussions about war among viewers, and even the media.
Michael Blais, founder and president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, agrees exhibits such as these are vital to the public’s understanding of conflict.
“Far too often, the brutal images of war are sanitized for the Canadian public, and as a consequence, there is a comprehension disconnect in truly understanding the horrors of the Afghanistan war,” he said in a statement.
Veterans also appreciate these honest depictions of war, he continued.
Afghanistan veterans are sometimes marginalized in favour of the “traditional” veterans of the First World War and the Second World War, he said, but exhibits such as these work toward all veterans receiving the same standard of respect.
“As veterans,” said Blais, “I feel that we have an obligation to . . . ensure that (soldiers’) sacrifices in Afghanistan are not forgotten amongst our communities.”
Kandahar – The Fighting Season runs from Nov. 1 to Sept. 22, 2013 in the north corridor of the museum.