Soldiers Faces

I saw Suzanne Opton’s “Soldier’s Face” billboard in Denver during the DNC. It was a powerful statement. The photographer has captured these soldier’s with their guard down. We all get to peer into their eyes and their souls.

“I wanted to look into the face of someone who had seen something unforgettable.” Suzanne Opton said.

The color headshots of soldiers who have served in active duty, beg the question “What happens to people who have seen terrible things that change them forever? Can you see it in their faces?”

The subject’s unconventional supine pose references Man Ray’s Noir et Blanche and Brancusi’s The Sleeping Muse, and are balanced by portraits of Iraqi refugees now living in Jordan, whose worlds have been turned upside down. These images are uncomfortably intimate distillations of the essential humanity of the sitter.

Unfortunatley, CBS Outdoor abruptly refused to post the billboards in Minneapolis — as well as in Miami, Fla., and Houston, Texas — citing concerns that pedestrians and motorists would mistake them for images of war dead.