Hot Shots : Nina Berman
Artist Statement
I'm a documentary photography interested in the American political and social landscape. I started as a writer wanting to tell stories but found myself increasingly frustrated with the act of writing and would edit myself into oblivion. I chose instead to make images because I felt the process was inexact and I enjoyed not knowing for sure if what I felt and hoped to convey actually came through in the photograph. Now I intentionally seek the ambiguity of a photograph's meaning and welcome the conversation generated by imagery that has multiple interpretations. I have no formal training other than a dark room course long ago at the New School. I am submitting images of those wounded in wartime. I made the photographs in an attempt to explore the myths of warfare and offer images that strip the warrior of heroic sentiment.
Biography
Nina Berman is a documentary photographer with a primary interest in the American political and social landscape.
Her work has been extensively published, exhibited and collected, garnering praise in both the art and journalism worlds. She has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, awards from the World Press Photo Foundation, and a grant from the Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Fund. She was a Hey, Hot Shot! winner in the spring of 2007.
She is the author of Purple Hearts - Back from Iraq, portraits and interviews with wounded veterans, published by Trolley in 2004, and Homeland, a look at militarism, religion and security in post 9-11 America, published by Trolley in 2008.
She is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography and lives in her hometown, New York City.