PVT Dan Floyd, 2007From Simulating Iraq
Private Kendra Duffy, Private Allison Bronner and Private Jessica-Ann Layug, 2006From In Training
Claire Beckett photographs young American troops training in the Army and the National Guard to present what she calls the before-math of war. Claire explains, "My photographs do not have an overtly political message. My desire for those viewing these works is that they might consider who the individual soldiers are on a human level. I am deeply struck by how young the soldiers are, by their physical vulnerability, and by the gravity of what is asked of them."
Beckett's In Training and Simulating Iraq are a moving document about the face of the Iraq war at home, their preparation and our expectations. The war in Iraq has already marked the lives of many soldiers and their families. Beckett's portraits acknowledge what lies ahead and force us to consider their possible fate. The strength of her work lies in her non-judgmental approach to these young men and women and her attempt to view them as individuals in the context of human experience.
Claire is the recipient of the 2007 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant to Artists and the 2006 St. Botolph Club Foundation Grant. Her work has been exhibited at the Bernard Toale Gallery, the University of Rhode Island Photography Gallery, the Massachusetts College of Art, the Photographic Resource Center, the Boston University Gallery, 5+5 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY and the Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA, among others. She received her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a BA in Anthropology/ Sociology at Kenyon College, Ohio.
-Dana Mueller, March 2008
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