This is in Asmara, Eritrea. Forty percent of the fighting army here were women. This is the Mariam Ghimbi prison, a former torture center. At one time there were 400 women in this one room. The holes in the walls are from insects. If the women talked to each other their Ethiopian guards would chain their hands together. They suffered many horrible tortures. Saba, pictured here, said of this experience:
December 15, 2009
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Trauma in the Aftermath
Reporting in the aftermath of tragedy and violence, journalists discover what happens when people survive crippling moments of horror. Pushing past what is formulaic and numbing, they find ways to craft stories where the touch is raw and real. In this issue of Nieman Reports, journalists are joined by trauma researchers and survivors themselves in telling their stories in their own voices. We invite you to listen in.
In her introduction to “Afterwar: Veterans from a World in Conflict,” photographer Lori Grinker writes, “If I have discovered any single truth about war … it is that it is a deeply personal experience. … What is common to all is the aftermath.” As Alicia Anstead, a 2008 Nieman Fellow, who moderated the panel “Artistic Expression: Trauma as Muse,” said of Grinker’s work, “in the veterans’ photography, in particular, but also in other topics that she photographs, I actually see the echo of Goya, I see the intensity of Vermeer, the vibrancy of David Hockney, and the fearlessness of Frida Kahlo. Today, we turn to this artist to illuminate the … relationship between her work and her subject.” Edited excerpts from her talk “Using the human body as the narrative device to portray the horrors of war” follow:
In “Afterwar,” what was important to me was telling the story of women, children and men from various types of conflicts and situations, such as people who had been imprisoned, who’d done things during the war that they would never do in their civilian life, and exploring what makes them cross that line. As a young man from England who served in the Falklands said, “there’s no button they can press to switch your emotions back on.” In “Afterwar,” Iraq War veterans are included in the introduction in the book, which is organized from the most recent conflict to those going back in time—from Sri Lanka to World War I, peeling back the layers of history.
Grinker also described what continues to propel her to do the work she does.
RELATED ARTICLE Grinker’s photo essay, “Iraqis: Making Visible the Scars of Exile,” was in the Summer 2008 Nieman Reports.After working in the field for nearly 15 years documenting stories of war veterans, I found it difficult to take in much more information; I was overwhelmed with so many emotions. However, I’d been in Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and in March 2003 at the start of the American invasion of Iraq, I was embedded on a magazine assignment on the USNS Comfort, the American hospital ship.
When I returned home, I found it difficult to listen to reports from the war; even reading novels with war stories became challenging. I needed a break, so I started photographing landscapes and lighter subject matter. But all the while I was thinking about the Iraqis I’d met on the ship as many wounded Iraqis were brought there for treatment. I wondered what became of them and what would become of the detainees in Guantanamo. This led me to begin my project documenting the lives of Iraqi refugees and of the wounded.
Something keeps bringing me back to war—to the effects of war. I think it’s to try to understand something that in a way remains so foreign to me, but to understand it from a very human and personal level. Because once news coverage diminishes, the war is still going on for these people, and they live with its consequences. How does it affect their lives long term? It’s a story I feel needs to be told.
This is in Asmara, Eritrea. Forty percent of the fighting army here were women. This is the Mariam Ghimbi prison, a former torture center. At one time there were 400 women in this one room. The holes in the walls are from insects. If the women talked to each other their Ethiopian guards would chain their hands together. They suffered many horrible tortures. Saba, pictured here, said of this experience:
In Belfast, I was doing a story on Republicans and Protestants who’d been imprisoned for their terrorist activities. Jennifer McCann had been in prison for 10 and a half years; she is now a community activist who was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for West Belfast as a Sinn Fein member. This photograph reveals how the conflict continued through these murals that can be seen throughout this area. They represent Loyalist and Republican divisions. The idea for this mural was taken from “Schindler’s List”
When I sleep, I feel it. It still fears me. I am in pain when there is a cold breeze. If there is a hard knock on the door, it shocks me because in prison just to hear the sound of the door being opened or shut was terrorizing
In Belfast, I was doing a story on Republicans and Protestants who’d been imprisoned for their terrorist activities. Jennifer McCann had been in prison for 10 and a half years; she is now a community activist who was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for West Belfast as a Sinn Fein member. This photograph reveals how the conflict continued through these murals that can be seen throughout this area. They represent Loyalist and Republican divisions. The idea for this mural was taken from “Schindler’s List”
I interviewed this Canadian gentleman, Paul Métivier, a World War I veteran, in 200. He was 101 years old when he shared with me memories of events now decades removed:
You can’t imagine how awful, how sickening the war was. It doesn’t seem fit for human beings. To amuse ourselves when we had time in the bunkers we would kill the rats. We would put the cordite in their tunnels, light it up, and blow them out. The rats would come out all dizzy and we would shoot them with our rifles. The rats were having a good time over there. Look at all the flesh they could eat with all the body parts lying in the mud. There was mud as far as the eye could see. I considered the mud to be my enemy more than the Germans. There were no trees back then, just mud: mud like porridge with too much milk. If a man was shot but still conscious and he fell in the mud, I’m sure he would die. A man could drown in the mud of Vimy
Trauma in the Aftermath
Reporting in the aftermath of tragedy and violence, journalists discover what happens when people survive crippling moments of horror. Pushing past what is formulaic and numbing, they find ways to craft stories where the touch is raw and real. In this issue of Nieman Reports, journalists are joined by trauma researchers and survivors themselves in telling their stories in their own voices. We invite you to listen in.
