Soldier Billboard Project: Discussion
Friday, October 31st, 2008
Soldier’s Face, a collaboration between Suzanne Opton and curator Susan Reynolds, has displayed the artist’s photographs on billboards in select cities around the United States in the lead up to the election. The billboards gained national attention when CBS Outdoor refused to post a billboard scheduled to coincide with the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN.
Opton has certainly generated a conversation. Here are a few of the comments on the project’s website:
“Wonderful against the sky, our soldiers with their heads on the line and our nation with its head in the sand. How can they deny you? Thank you for such a timely reminder.†-Jean
“I’m glad that these were taken down. They speak to none of the dignity that goes in serving ones country, they just address the DEATH that one might face by choosing the service. WE NEED FIGHTERS! Not art.†-Roy Alexander
“These photographs of our soldiers represent the freedom that our country stands for, and that includes the freedom, dignity and honor to have their faces and names shown. This project should be applauded no matter where you stand on the war.†-Brent
“I think the photos/billboards were brilliant. 
The photos humanize the soldiers, and it may help people who the billboards to understand that the soldiers who are fighting in Iraq aren’t necessarily good or evil.†-Jenny
“At first glance I thought it was an ad and I tried to figure out what they were selling. The more I passed by I began to see more and more detail and was taken back about how real these people were no airbrushed on/off flaws… In a way we are all like those soldiers regardless of what the backdrop might be.†- Natalie
“I’ll admit that I am not that “in to” art, but I did immediately take offense to this billboard. I can appreciate the goal however this young man is still alive. As the sister-in-law of a fallen soldier the billboard was hard to swallow. I don’t need a billboard to remember him and the sacrifice he made every day.” - Allison
“Wow, as a newly enlisted service member, this art is seriously inspiring to me. These faces reflect the raw, un-hyped, true reality many soldiers are facing. To me these faces reflect a weary, numb, weathered sense of being from the lifestyle they live in the center of our nations conflicts. Somebody has to do it.†-Nick
“The images on your billboards seem to be doing an excellent job of getting people to participate in that all to lost art of thinking. Now maybe some people will attempt to consider whether their thinking is actually patriotic or nationalistic.†–Michael Cabrera
Here is a short video of Suzanne’s talk at American University Museum:
