This weekend, we visited art studios and galleries as part of the Portland Open Studio tours.  We came across Exit Wounds, featured at the New American Art Union in Southeast Portland.

What an intense, transformative experience it is to see hundreds of photos from an embedded journalist, documenting the travesty of war on soldiers, with an eye towards those who are now a part of the peace movement.

From Mother Jones photo essay, Unembedded in Iraq

BAGHDAD, September 12, 2004
A young Iraqi civilian lies dead in Haifa Street as a US armored personnel carrier burns in the background. Twenty-two Iraqi civilians were killed and forty-eight injured when US helicopters opened fire on crowds celebrating around the burning vehicle, which was disabled by an insurgent attack. No American soldiers were killed in the fighting. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad)

How powerful an impact this photo has, without even considering the caption.  It gives a sense of experience, of time and place.

These photographers are real change agents.  Traveling into Mahdi Army strongholds with no guides or US/Iraqi protection, they broke a deadly silence.  Their photos have also provoked my interest in this September 2004 massacre of Iraqi citizens by American forces.  Sad to say, but this style of mass-murder, conducted and facilitated by our elected officials, continues today.

The Mother Jones photo essays are a great resource. I particularly liked The Hidden Half, The Dying Newsroom and Phone Sex Operators.  I hope we can continue to support photojournalists, who remain critical to an informed citizenry.

Linn Washington Jr. writes:

Ramsey, in an unprecedented move for a Philadelphia Police Commissioner, quickly disciplined officers involved in that 5/5/08 beating, including firing four officers who Ramsey determined engaged in impermissible brutality.

However, internal Police Department documents about this beating incident expose problems far more pervasive than excessive use of force against unarmed persons – brutality that routinely occurs outside the glare of television news cameras.

Police documents in this beating case and several others show that police fail to follow supposedly standard operating procedures.

Equally egregious – documents detail how police fail at a core function for cops: being observant.

Police contend the three men shown in the beating video participated in a shooting prior to their frenzied arrest.

Continue Reading Philly’s Keystone Kop Follies: Police Brutality and Cover-Up