Beaucoup recruiters

So one of the kids I occasionally tutor through the YEP program was talking the other day about how 'beaucoup recruiters been coming around my mama's place lately,' which set he and another boy off on a discussion of which arm of the military was a)easiest to get into and b)offered the best signing bonus. Apparently one of the boys had already been to boot camp, but failed some part of it -- he's 18, but when I looked at his test score, it said '2.4' -- that'd be less than halfway through the second grade, and would make it hard for him to handle any kind of test that required reading or writing. It's crushing to think that these kids, most of whom are poorly equipped for life in general, are being groomed to become Our Boys, the face of the U.S. Military.

Which reminds me: I've been repeatedly forwarding this Soldier Portraits link to friends, and it occurs to me this would be a more efficient way of spreading the word...
The series is a work-in-progress by my friend and former New Orleans resident Ellen Susan and will be featured as part of the Photonola event taking place here in December.

Ellen's show will be at New Orleans Photo Alliance, 1111 St. Mary, and it opens December 1.

Every time I look at these photos, I'm so grateful for the contrast they provide to Nina Berman's haunting "Purple Hearts" series (heavy emphasis on the purple part) that got so much attention last summer, and, in my opinion, were provocative in all the wrong ways. Whereas the "Soldier Portraits" make you want to look deeper, Berman's photos just made you want to turn away.