Jennifer Karady

For over nine years, Jennifer Karady has worked with American veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to create staged narrative photographs that depict their individual stories and address their difficulties in adjusting to civilian life. After an extensive interview with the veterans and their families, Karady collaborates with them to restage a chosen moment from war within the safe space of their everyday environment, often surrounded by family and friends. The collision of, or collapse of the barriers between, the soldier’s world and the civilian world evokes the psychology of life after war, and the challenges entailed by any adjustment to the home front. Each large-scale color photograph, created on film in one choreographed image, is accompanied by a recounting of the veteran’s story in his or her own words.