LANDSCAPES WITHOUT VIOLENCE

How does a proud nation internalize defeat? How does it absorb the consciousness of its weary troops as it brings them home? How do we concede mistakes made on such an overwhelming scale?

Machismo is defined by its inadequacies. The Iraq war now seems a deranged attempt at collective catharsis. If the war cannot be won, have we lost? As we drawdown our troops, what will be left behind, not just in the landscape but in the minds of those who have fought?

These images are stills from war games, taken during "quiet" moments of the game—moments of tension just before or just after violence. In some cases, I have removed weapons and traces of the games, so that what remains is largely psychological. What remains is the memory of violence and the anticipation of violence, as well as the promise of an unknown kind of violence—which is perhaps what we have come to know as "terror."