Images from the Veterans Book Project

Monica Haller

Monica Haller works with photography, design, sound, installation, and writing. Her work explores violent and non-violent activities in human and environmental systems. Recent projects include Riley and his story and the Veterans Book Project, both focused on the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Monica’s current research and work involves soil, geologic time, industry, wetlands, and lives of coastal Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta.

Monica has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, Jerome Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Recently, she exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Nomas Foundation Rome, Italy and the 01SJ San Jose Biennial. She has a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies and a MFA in Visual Studies.

The Veterans Book Project, which will be presented at LOOK3, is a library of books authored collaboratively by Monica and dozens of people who have been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the printed format, the books provide a place or “container” that slows down and materializes the great quantity of ephemeral image files that live on veterans’ hard drives and in their heads. Each book re-deploys volatile images with the aim of rearticulating and refashioning memories, standing both independently of and in concert with the larger collection.

The 2015 Festival is curated by Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine and Scott Thode, independent curator.