“War is Only Half the Story” - The groundbreaking documentary photography program from The Aftermath Project.
“War is Only Half the Story” is a ten-year retrospective of the work of the groundbreaking documentary photography program, The Aftermath Project. Founded by photographer Sara Terry to help change the way the media covers conflict – and to educate the public about the true cost of war and the real price of peace – The Aftermath Project has run a grant program for the past decade, supporting some of the best documentary photographers in the world working on post-conflict themes.
We are now taking pre-orders for the 10th anniversary book -- designed by Teun van der Heijden and co-published with Dewi Lewis Publishing, which will be out this fall. If we go above our goal, additional funds will be used to support our traveling museum exhibition, organized by Curatorial Assistance, which will launch in 2018. The book is a completely new way of looking at the decade of work we have supported; instead of organizing chronologically, we have chosen five themes, defined by the poetry of Nobel Laureate Poet Wislawa Syzmborska:
"All the cameras have gone to other wars..."
"After every war someone's got to tidy up..."
We kicked off our tenth anniversary year at the National Geographic Photo Seminar in Washington DC, with the showing of a 4 minute film we created with MediaStorm. You can see it at the top of our Kickstarter page.
"Perhaps all fields are battlefields..."
"This terrifying world is not devoid of charms..."
"Reality demands that we also mention this: Life goes on."
We are very grateful to Michel Rusinek and the Wislawa Szymborska Foundation for allowing us to use Ms. Szymborska's poetry to frame the five themes that anchor the book.
We also wanted to give you a sneak peek at the cover design, which we're really excited about. One of the things that we felt was important to communicate is that post-conflict stories existed long before The Aftermath Project, and will continue long after. How could we make that statement with a physical book? Teun van der Heijden, our designer, created accordion covers for the front and back that unfold in both directions. See the video below to get an idea of how it works. This isn't the actual size of the book, or the final selection of photos; but it is the way the covers will work. We think it's a pretty great way to convey the ongoing stories of aftermath.
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Director's Choice 10-image Portfolio
Sara Terry says she selected these 10 images as definitive post-conflict images. "I was drawn to images that celebrated the human spirit and determination to survive, as well as images that warn us of the consequences if we fail to neglect the critically important periods of aftermath, of any conflict in the world.”
Photographer's Choice, 10-image Portfolio
Donald Weber explains his choices this way: "I am interested in the traces of trauma, the physical scars that conflict leaves behind. The photos I looked for reflect how the natural and built environment adapt to conflict, the strange indifference of our environs to history."
Top (L) Danny Frazier, “Surviving Wounded Knee” Top (C) Nina Berman, “Acknowledgement of Danger” Top (R) Lara Ciarabellini, “If Chaos Awakens the Madness” Bottom (L) Andrew Stanbridge, “Uxo in Laos: Reusing the Residue of the Secret War” Bottom (R) Jessica Hines, “My Brother’s War”
Top (L) Adam Patterson, “Men and My Daddy” Top (C) Justyna Mielnikiewicz, “A Ukraine Runs Through It” Top (R) David Monteleone, “Red Thistle: The Northern Caucasus Journey” B (L) Natela Grigalashvili, “Refugees of Georgian Villagers” B (R) Diana Markosian, “Goodbye My Chechnya”
Poet's Choice, 10-image Portfolio
Clare Cavanagh says she had a difficult time narrowing her choice down to just 10 images but ultimately chose the images that she was drawn back to again and again.
Top (L) Elizabeth Herman “Women Warriors” Top (C) Natela Grigalashvili “Refugees of Georgian Villagers” Top (R) Rodrigo Abd “Reclaiming the Dead: A story Only Partially Told” Bottom (L) Natela Grigalashvili “Refugees of Georgian Villagers” Bottom (R) Christopher Capozzlello “For God, Race, and Country”
Risks and challenges
After several years of publishing an annual book, we feel we've got this down. This is our fifth Kickstarter campaign and we've pretty much ironed out all the kinks that come with learning how to crowdfund and to fulfill pledges, etc. The only problem I can imagine at this point is that sometimes a book or two can get crunched by USPS -- but we're always happy to replace anything that's damaged, at no cost.
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