Harn Museum exhibition shows impact of war through art

When you walk into the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, blank gazes of soldiers stare back.

Fifteen years after 9/11, about 50 people listened as Carol McCusker, the curator of photography for the museum, spoke about her most recent collection, “Aftermath: The Fallout of War — America and the Middle East,” a gallery of photos, videos and moving pictures of war’s realities from international photographers.

The portraits of soldiers, some of the first photos guests see, are from a collection called “Soldier” by photographer Suzanne Opton.

The pictures give a uniquely intimate perspective of people deployed to war; below, a description details the country of each soldier’s deployment and the number of days they were there.

“What I also hope is one of the outcomes of this exhibition is that there is a shared humanity here and that everyone suffers,” McCusker said.

The photos showed the product of war over the past 15 years since 9/11, said Gabriel Lopez, a UF alumnus who attended the event.

“The impact is basically the destruction of cities, the destruction of families, and in many cases, the destruction of civilization,” the 61-year-old said.

As he walked around, Lopez said he felt the reality of violence that followed the tragedy of 9/11.

“This is the product of what we’ve been doing around the world for 15 years, and wars that seem that (sic) have no end,” he said.