War Story: Vietnam Veterans 1984–89

Portland, OR: Don Unrau, 2014. First printing. (23) pp., 16 x 20 inches.

Twenty archival digital photographs and text printed by the photographer, housed in cloth-covered folding case constructed by Emily García of Cathemeral Press, in a signed and numbered edition of twenty copies.

As new.

Vietnam veteran Don Unrau began working on these extended portraits of twenty of his fellow veterans in 1984, inviting each of the subjects to write a text of any length to be printed along with the image, completing them in 1989 while an artist in residence at Light Work in Syracuse, New York. The images were exhibited in various venues, and some were published in periodicals; finally, more than twenty years later, he decided to publish the complete images and texts in this portfolio format.

By adapting the capability of contemporary fine art inkjet printers to deploy dozens of colors, and using black and grey values in their place (as well as through his choice of papers), Don was able to achieve a striking tonal range in the results, which could almost pass for gelatin silver prints.

The powerful images are extended into the realm of stories by the subjects’ writings, which range from brief maxims and poems to treatises. As the photographer stated shortly after the portfolio was finished:

The portraits, with their handwritten sentences, individualize the emotions, giving viewers the chance for increased understanding of the person photographed. The writings were also an indirect way for me to articulate some of the same feelings that I have had as a Vietnam veteran.

WorldCat locates copies in just ten institutions in the United States.

(Note: See also Don Unrau’s The Revolutionary Moment: Portraits of Viet Cong, also available from Passages Bookshop.)