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My photographs show a nation invaded, a nation at war. Refugees are on the road, drifting through the rain, moving through camps and hospitals, an endless cavalry of images flashing by in a blur: exhaustion, too many images, too much horror. The witness becomes indifferent. My point is that we, in the comfort of our lives, must question our role in the history of Bosnia, which is also our history. – Gilles Peress |
When Gilles Peress spent three months in Bosnia in 1993, his aim was not to explain the war that was happening there. Instead, he wrote, “I set out only to provide a visual continuum of experience, of existence.” (Gilles Peress, Farewell to Bosnia, 1994) This photograph provides a visual answer to the who, what, and where questions of the journalist. The fallen victim of the Bosnian conflict is apparently a civilian; her family or friends gather on the left hand side of the picture. A Red Cross worker stoops toward the victim; others grip guns. There are obviously military present as well. The gestures these people make toward each other and the objects in the picture, the guns, the handles of the stretcher that hold the victim, say volumes about their relationships to each other and their roles in the Bosnian war.
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