The Eyes of War features forty portraits and accompanying interviews of men and women, who lost their eyesight during the Second World War when they were either children or young soldiers.
Former enemies from Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ukraine, and Russia are now united in their fate as blind people and victims of war.
From the introduction by Cees Nooteboom: ‘Most of the stories in this book have an epic beginning: “I needed to pee, so I left the shelter to go to the toilet.” “I turned my head because I thought my mate Wally had been hit by a Japanese bullet.” What makes sentences like this so inescapable is that you know something terrible is usually going to come next. This book is made up of inescapable stories and unforgettable faces, which are largely unforgettable because those faces can no longer see anything themselves. Why that is, how it happened, is written in the stories that the photographer, Martin Roemers, has captured in his spare, pared-down prose, which hits you head on because there is nothing to hide behind.’
The Eyes of War – Martin Roemers
Hatje Cantz Publishers
128 pages, 28×24 cm., hardcover
40 duotone photos and 40 interviews
Introduction by Cees Nooteboom
Text: English/Dutch/German
ISBN 978-3775734004
35€
The exhibition, The Eyes of War, will continue at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam until 26 August.
