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 o f war through the experiences of American soldiers. While their physical wounds are extreme, my primary focus is their psychological condition and their 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. My intention with this work is to make that abstraction more intimately felt.
© Nina Berman
