Nina Berman 

Born 1960 in New York, New York
Lives and Works in New York, New York

Nina Berman’s photographs document the rarely explored effects and harsh realities of contemporary warfare. She engages the viewer with intimate images of the consequences of war that are often given short shrift in the popular media.

The 2006 photographs on view in 2010 document the marriage of former Marine sergeant Ty Ziegel, then twenty-four, to his high school sweetheart, Renee Kline, twenty-one. After being severely disfigured in a suicide bomber’s attack while stationed in Iraq, Ty underwent fifty reconstructive operations. A plastic dome, with holes where his ears and nose used to be, replaced his shattered skull. Without any staging or direction, Berman took spontaneous photographs of Ty and Renee in the weeks leading up to their wedding day and accompanied them when they had their wedding portrait taken. Her picture of them at the portrait studio conveys an air of alienation between the couple, who separated a few months after their wedding. Berman photographed Ty again in 2008 and describes the later images as suggestive of “a comfortable acceptance with military culture despite the cost.”

Read About the Artist 

Artist's website

"Showcase: The War's Long Shadows"
—The New York Times Lens Blog (June 2009)

"Words Unspoken are Rendered on War's Faces"
—The New York Times (August 2007)

"The Iraq Wounded: Images from the Dark Side of War"
—Der Spiegel Online (August 2007)

Visit Nina Berman's Wiki Page.