TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Arthur’s favorite subjects for pictures these days are his grandchildren. But in another time, his pictures were less about love, and more about war.
“So, I carried a Brownie camera in this left front pocket,” he said, pointing to a picture of himself as a soldier standing next to a recently bombed pagoda.
“And I put it there just in case it slowed a bullet down,” he added with a laugh.
It was Arthur’s candid Vietnam War pictures that inspired “The Soldier’s Lens,” the latest exhibition at the Florida Museum of Photographic Art in Tampa, which will be on display through Jan. 25.
“It’s just neat to see all these different people and the different services and where they were in the world and what was going on,” Arthur said.
There are more than 100 photographs on display in the exhibition. Some are candid, some are of familiar, but all show life in the U.S. armed forces.
“So few people really understand,” said Alexis Muellner, curator and co-creator of “The Soldier’s Lens.” “And what’s happened to the stories behind the photographs — there’s rich history being unlocked.”
“The American public was not engaged — it was just the military that engaged,” Arthur said.
This show leans into their story.
“I’m just very proud to be a very small part of it,” he said. “It’s neat to see it all.”
For more information on “The Soldier’s Lens” at the Florida Museum of Photographic Art, visit the organization’s website.
Virginia Johnson
Source link