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| Calgary Military Museum |
Although not particularly enamored by
war itself, I always enjoy war museums. I enjoyed the Canadian War
Museum in Ottawa, and spent a wonderful day a few years ago exploring
a now closed storage facility full of old military vehicles. I
noticed that Calgary had a large Military Museum during a drive, and
I asked Gordon if he would take me there.
Unfortunately, this museum was not that
good. It started out well, with a happy gentleman at the desk
greeting us with good humour and jokes, but closed halls, displays
without signage, and many displays under repair or renovation meant I
was generally disappointed in the museum. There were many good
interesting displays, but the missing bits definitely detracted from
the overall visit to the museum.
There was however an amazing exhibition
in the Art Gallery. I was expecting painting of planes, ships and
perhaps famous battles. That was not what I found. The Gallery was
featuring a special exhibition entitled Eleven Women Facing
War. This
was an incredible display. I spent more time here than I did
examining tanks and airplanes.
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| Eleven Women Facing War |
In 2001, Nick Danziger created eleven portraits of women and girls
affected by conflicts in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Colombia, Israel
Palestine and Sierra Leone. From 2008 to 2011 he worked to reconnect
with these women again and document how their lives had changed. The
photos from 2001 are in Black & White and the later photos are in
colour. The stories are really worth viewing. In one he interviews
and photographs a woman from Sierra Leone who had both her hands cut
off when she was caught in the combat zone. She faced many hardships
and was negative and down about her prospects, but Nick located her
in Toronto Canada and she is doing extremely well, and has published
a book about her experiences. Unfortunately all the stories do not
end this happy, and the opposite extreme was on one wall which did
not have any coloured pictures. It was about a 10 year old
Afghanistan girl who's mother had died in childbirth, and when her
dad went to find food, he never returned. She was left to care for
and provide for her two younger brothers, Her's was a sad story in
the black and white photos, but when Nick tried to find her for the
later photos, he could not locate her, and the rumour was that she
had died soon after he had originally taken her pictures.
This is an exhibition that is well worth seeing. You cannot help but
be affected by these stories. Luckily you do not have to travel to
Calgary to see it; it was a traveling show, and the Canadian War
Museum has the show on their website from when it was featured in our
nation's capital. I encourage you to check it out. If the following
link does not work, just search for the title.
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