A few years back, when I was reviewing portfolios at Photolucida, I reviewed the work of a very nervous young photographer, Jessica Hines. Even at that early viewing, I could see that as an image-maker, she had heart and passion. Her subject matter was not necessarily “family friendly.” It may not have even been “gallery ready.” But I could see that this work had legs, that the pictures were timeless in their own right. Granted, for most of us, war is not a pleasing subject, let alone fodder for most shows at galleries.

For those of us who review portfolios, we realize that the work we may see at a certain viewing may be a completely different body of work the next time we see a certain photographer. Not so with Jessica. She has believed in “My Brother’s War” since its inception.

The Blurb book is about her brother, Gary, who was a veteran of Viet Nam, and what she has found out about him and his life since she started going through the things he left behind after his death. She has also talked to some of those soldiers who fought alongside him.

Hers is an original story. The story of a sister and a brother, who never got to grow old together. But the memory remains. The emotion remains. The love remains.

“My Brother’s War,” is the story of every family who has lost a son, a daughter, a mother or a father to war.

Caroline Hirsch, writing recently in the New Yorker’s Photo Booth, said after visiting the Subjective/Objective exhibit, “Among other stunning bodies of work, I was particularly captivated by Jessica Hines’s project, “My Brother’s War.”

Even though she has gone through a tremendous amount of effort into bringing “My Brother’s War” to fruition as a book produced by Blurb, Jessica is on the lookout for an interested publisher who will give the book the push and coverage it deserves.

(Pictured, left: Untitled #9, from Chapter 7: “I Pray for Your Spirit.”)

 

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