Armymen

I need to put my senior thesis work up....

This was my artist statement:

What is it about war that attracts the attention of boys at such an early age?  How is it that something so violent and deadly could be looked at as “cool” or “awesome” through the eyes of a ten year old?  For me, the interest of warfare has lingered about for as long as I can remember.  Being an impressionable six year old and having a close, eight-year-old cousin meant that I was always following in his footsteps and doing exactly as he did.  When it was time to hangout, we would play with his homemade battlefield made of window screen and paper Mache, with 1:72 scale plastic American and German soldiers scattered around us on the hardwood floor.  As we grew and our skills developed, our hobby expanded to include painting our soldiers to look more realistic.  We also built miniature model planes, tanks and half-tracks to go along with the Army.  It didn’t stop there, as we also created battlefields to replicate authentic World War II battles.

            With the array of army-men that I own, I’ve become fascinated once again in constructing realistic battlefields to photograph.  In working with this series, my goal is to present a shared nostalgic feel that I am immersed in when arranging my army-men and to move the viewer into the battle, forcing them to forget that they are looking at toys.

Some of these photos are meant to take place during the Italian campaign in 1943 (the scenes with sand) and others are meant to take place in the Ardennes Forest( The Battle of the Bulge) (the scenes with the snow).