Works by award-winning photographer Stephen Dupont are now on display at the UConn Co-Op at Storrs Center. The twenty images on exhibit are selected from two hand-made limited edition books by Dupont, Axe Me Biggie and Why am I a Marine?, both published in 2012. Dupont has been making photographs in Afghanistan regularly since 1993, documenting the story of the people and how they cope with war.
Axe Me Biggie: These photographs are the result of a series of photographic portraits Dupont made in a make-shift studio outside the main Kabul bus terminal in March of 2006. Carrying a large-format Polaroid land camera through the streets everyday, Dupont was constantly beseeched to "Axe me biggie!"--a phonetic rendering of the Dari for "Mister, take my picture!" The result is a startling reflection of the wounds, resilience, and dignity on the streets of Kabul that day.
Why am I a Marine? was made on another trip to Afghanistan, this time in 2009 with Weapons Platoon 2nd BAT LAR. The images displayed are based on scans of the original Moleskine journal Dupont took into the field and include Polaroid portraits of Marines alongside their handwritten answers to the question, "Why am I a Marine?"
The exhibition is on display through May 1 and is part of the event "War, Struggle, and Visual Politics: Art on the Frontlines" hosted by the Thomas J. Dodd Reseach Center and Archives & Special Collections in conjunction with the UConn Week in the Humanities: War and Its Meaning.
For more info visit:
http://thedoddcenter.uconn.edu/2014/03/19/war-struggle-and-visual-politics-art-on-the-frontlines/
For more information, contact: Glenn Mitoma/Dodd Center at glenn.mitoma@uconn.edu