But it's not over, not by a long shot. I's Western Front. Using more than 300 rolls of film, she documented the war's lasting impact. The exhibit opens Saturday, June 9. I first wanted to explore the memorials, battlefields, affected towns and countries of World War I, because I've always been interested in how people memorialize other people.
Remembrance is powerful.
It helps us take stock of where we come from as a culture as well as individuals. However, what she found as she crisscrossed England, Germany and France was that she was not only chronicling how people remember , but how they live today because of the long-ago war. For instance, near the French city of Verdun, it's estimated that shells rained down at the rate of 1,000 per square meter during World War I battles. Many plunged deep into the ground, and they've been working their way up ever since. In addition, millions of acres of forest are surrounded by barbed wire, off limits because of unexploded shells in the soil.