september 11: the afterglow

Some call this period after September 11 a period of unity when America came together. But that’s political speak designed to manipulate and force us into narrow visions and proscribed postures. When I hear politicians say those words, I see the beginning of the deceit.
September 2001

purple hearts

Purple Hearts is a series of portraits and interviews with American military who returned from Iraq severely wounded.  

The project is presented in book, DVD and exhibition format and gives an intimate understanding of the human cost of war through the experiences of American soldiers. While their physical wounds are extreme, the primary focus of thr visual reportage is the psychological condition and the struggle to find identity and purpose in the aftermath of war. A divide exists between those who live the war each day - Iraqis, American troops, their families - and those for whom war is a distant incomprehensible abstraction.

Nina: "My intention with this work is to make that abstraction more intimately felt."

megachurches

This series of images shows the booming of megachurches all across the United States, especially in the swath of southern, western and mainly red states. The megachurch beckons, transforming empty tracks of land into the equivalent of Christian town malls.

homeland insecurities

'Homeland Insecurities' is a series of images - taken across the United States from 2001 till 2008 - which examine security as a form of state sponsored performance art, merging ideology, propaganda and entertainment.

"I am interested in how we, as a culture, visualize and fantasize war and the role of the burgeoning homeland security state in the creation and dissemination of these fantasies", says Nina.

marine wedding

Retired Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel, seriously wounded in Iraq by a suicide bomber got married in October 2006 with his fiancee Renee Kline. The young couple's wedding had been heralded worldwide as an example of enduring love during wartime. They mutually agreed to separate 3 months after their wedding and soon after became divorced.