ARÊTE

BFA Exhibition

Louder than Reality

During my first deployment to Iraq in 2005 the Humvee I was in drove over a Improvised explosive device. At the time, the military didn’t know about blast injuries. It wasn’t until 2009 that military started traumatic brain injury screenings.

Photography has given me a platform to visually express what I and many other veterans are living with.

The van dyke prints represent the emotions attached to PTSD: anger, depression, and isolation. Using composition to express aggression, isolation, gives a feeling of a dream for calmness or need for resolution. The flag and faces behind them express the desire for the structure and unity that comes with being in a military.

When I started this project, I thought it was about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries in general but I’ve realized that’s not what this is. This is about how, I, feel about, my, post-traumatic stress and brain injury. The feelings and emotions that happen in private. Those private feelings and emotions that make you feel trapped, broken and alone. Feelings and thoughts are real, but there not always reality. Sometime they are, louder than reality.

Exhibitions: Exhibitions