Ashley Gilbertson: The Toll of War, Captured One Frame at a Time

NEW YORK—“Billy Miller died because I wanted to go see a dead foreign fighter,” said war photographer Ashley Gilbertson. After a pregnant pause, he continued: “Everyone who goes off into conflict comes back with a sense of responsibility.”

Gilbertson shared a powerful and very personal account of his time documenting the Iraq war Monday night as part of the forum series “Ground View,” hosted by The Epoch Times in collaboration with NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and moderated by Getty staff photographer Chris Hondros. “Ground View” aims to bring a remarkable photojournalist to show and speak about his or her work every few months.

“This is who does our bidding,” said Gilbertson as he displayed the humanity and suffering of American soldiers. He strives to remind Americans that we are at war, to bring the reality of warfare to his fellow New Yorkers.

“I can go through my entire day and not think about the fact that we’re at war right now,” mused Gilbertson.

This renowned photographer tells a tale of suffering—the horrid scenes experienced on the field, the guilt, and sense of responsibility after a term served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the epidemic of PTSD plaguing this nation. Gilbertson does not, however, chronicle this woeful tale without hope that if Americans better understand all of these experiences, soldiers and war-torn families may heal quicker and suffer less loss.

Gilbertson makes it clear he does not have a political message, which would have a polarizing effect, contrary to his goal of promoting understanding and community.

“I can’t politicize this work. This is about human beings,” declared Gilbertson. “If I politicize it, I am dividing human beings,” he added.

Though born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Gilbertson now calls New York home. Gilbertson is a freelance photographer who captured scenes in Iraq from 2002 to 2008 for The New York Times among other publications. His photos are not limited, however, to the battle scenes one typically associates with war photography. Gilbertson has extended his coverage to American soil.

For his “Bedrooms of the Fallen,” a series that was in large part commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, Gilbertson visited the homes of fallen soldiers to photograph the bedrooms that tell so much about the men and women behind the uniforms. These intimate settings, nestled in the homes of the loved ones they left behind, also capture the loss, the vacant gaping holes that punctuate the nation where these individuals once had their place.

He also put together a series of photos and sound bites from a national suicide hotline for veterans based in mid-state New York.

“When I was planning the event the one thing I kept coming back to was that every day 18 veterans commit suicide,” said Genevieve Long, Nation editor for The Epoch Times, in her introduction to the presentation.
A personal connection

“I went out to war to find out why. … I saw what I sought and now I’m that affected guy who wishes he could turn back the clock,” said Gilbertson. Photojournalists are not required to go to counseling, even if they have spent two solid years in Iraq as Gilbertson did.

Veterans are required to go through 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day counseling programs, explained Gilbertson. Soldiers are aware, however, that whatever they say will go on their public record so they often lie their way through it. If they admit to feeling unstable, they may be denied security jobs, gun licenses, and so on.

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