Soldier Billboard Project Comes To Albany

Thousands of American soldiers are returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We may wonder what they saw, what they did and how their war experience has affected them as they return to civilian life. These are the questions posed by an artist’s billboard appearing in Albany featuring the photograph "Soldier Williams 396 Days in Iraq."

The national Veteran’s Day holiday was established to invite us as a nation to contemplate “the cost of war” and to “honor the cause of peace.” To that end, The Sanctuary for Independent Media sponsored a number of events beginning with the mounting of a “soldiers face” billboard on the west side of I-787 near the Port of Albany/South Pearl Street exit, part of a national campaign by internationally-recognized photographer Suzanne Opton.

Artist Suzanne Opton has photographed soldiers between tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her portraits afford the viewer a very intimate and serious look at the young men and women who have put their lives at risk serving in the military. The results are haunting and when they appear on forty-eight foot billboards floating above the freeway in the light of day or eerily illuminated at night, they are riveting and mysterious.

Suzanne Opton photographed 90 soldiers over the time she was at Fort Drum, they were all volunteers and wanted to participate. These are individuals representing the ideal of a soldier and the face, life, and experience of the men and women who are sent to unfathomable situations. They are about being human. They are about men and women who are soldiers but also husbands, wives, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters.

This Soldier Billboard is part of a series that during the past two years has been sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Forecast Public Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, DiverseWorks in Houston, the Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art, The Shelf in Columbus, Ohio and now, The Sanctuary for Independent Media.

The Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts, located in an historic former church at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening, production and performance facilities, training in media production and a meeting space for artists, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.