My photographs
show a nation invaded, a nation at war. Refugees are on the road,
drifting through the rain, moving through camps and hospitals, an
endless cavalry of images flashing by in a blur: exhaustion, too
many images, too much horror. The witness becomes indifferent. My
point is that we, in the comfort of our lives, must question our
role in the history of Bosnia, which is also our history.
Gilles Peress
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When Gilles Peress spent three
months in Bosnia in 1993, his aim was not to explain the war that was
happening there. Instead, he wrote, I set out only to provide a
visual continuum of experience, of existence. (Gilles Peress, Farewell
to Bosnia, 1994) This photograph provides a visual answer to the who,
what, and where questions of the journalist. The fallen victim of the
Bosnian conflict is apparently a civilian; her family or friends gather
on the left hand side of the picture. A Red Cross worker stoops toward
the victim; others grip guns. There are obviously military present as
well. The gestures these people make toward each other and the objects
in the picture, the guns, the handles of the stretcher that hold the victim,
say volumes about their relationships to each other and their roles in
the Bosnian war.
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