Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Remnants of a Secret War: Photographs by Mike Greenlar
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

An award-winning photographer for the Syracuse Post-Standard, Mike Greenlar traveled 10 times to a remote mountain region of Laos to document the effects of cluster bombing on the Hmong people. The US covert bombing campaign between 1964 and 1973 gave Laos the distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of warfare--over two million tons of ordnance was dropped. Mike documented life in two resettlement villages where the Hmong continue to farm land rife with unexploded cluster bombs and other munitions. His work shows the resourcefulness of a people who rely on each other, and on those very bombs, for their livelihood. The result is a stunning collection of documentary photographs. "Remnants of a Secret War," also the title of his recently published book, displays both some of the collection found in the book and some never before published. The legacy of the "secret" bombings of Laos takes many forms and offers many stories. In this collection of painfully yet beautifully rendered black and white photographs, he shares some of them with us.