Suzanne Opton: Soldier Billboard Project launched during the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008 and was created in collaboration with MCA Denver. Opton created a billboard with an image of a soldier who served for 120 days in Afghanistan. It was located on Lincoln Street between 19th and 20th Avenue. The image is from a series taken by Opton between 2004-2005, in which the artist photographed soldiers as they returned from tours of duty from Iraq and Afghanistan. The images were taken with the permission of the soldiers and their commanders.
“My son and his friends would have been of draft age had there been a draft, though none of them volunteered for military service. Since the war began, I wondered about the young men and women who opted to serve and put their lives on the line. I wondered about what they would experience at war and how they would manage their transition to civilian life. In making these portraits I wanted to look into the face of a young person who had seen something unforgettable. And I wanted to make that a serious and intimate view, the way I would look at my own son.” -Suzanne Opton
Suzanne Opton was born in 1952 and lives and works in New York. Her photographs are included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum; Cleveland Museum; International Center of Photography, New York; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Musee de l’Eysee, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; and Portland Art Museum. She has received grants from the NEA, NYFA, and Vermont Council on the Arts.