Every picture tells a story
How one company's is proudly displaying vetern's art in the workplace
WHEN Army Capt. James Eisenberg began active duty nearly 20 years ago, he took a disposable camera with him wherever he could.
The now41yearold Greenwich Village resident had a feeling the places he was going to see — even “mundane stuff ” that makes up soldier life — would be worth capturing.
Eisenberg recalls seeing scenes like “sitting on a vast helicopter pick up zone and suddenly a sky full of helicopters thunders over the tree line to pick you and 2,500 of your fellow soldiers up,” or “leading your platoon of huge 23ton selfpropelled howitzers through small towns of rural South Korea.”
It was this passion for photography, combined with his experiences, that morphed into a photography program named Reticle, named for a type of military sighting device. Essentially, the veteran’s eye becomes the reticle the civilian looks through to share the vision.
Hurricane Sandy prompted this initiative. While working alongside veteran volunteer group Team Rubicon [see Page 37], Eisenberg met a standout volunteer, Dan Gorman, who served in Japan with the Navy and was deployed twice to Iraq with the Army National Guard.
After getting to know each other, Eisenberg recalls perusing Gorman’s “amazing” portfolio. And, as the executive vice president of Urban American, a real estate property management company he runs with his father and brother, also former Army captains, an idea dawned on him.
“I thought our buildings were ready for good original artwork, and wouldn’t it be awesome to display the artwork of vets like Dan?”
It wasn’t long before Gorman, a 38yearold from Middletown, NY, loaned several photos for the new artist initiative. Calling Reticle “an amazing thing” for encouraging residents to look at unique artists on their own doorsteps, Gorman is currently displaying photos from a month long trip to Alaska. His hope? “To spark some curios ity and imagination, particularly in kids, about what is out there.”
Whether it’s military scenes or an idyllic sunset, Reticle strives to showcase veterans in an artistic light. Eisenberg, who concluded active duty in 2000 and served in the Army Reserve from 2000 until 2004, explains, “[It’s] the goal of potentially leaving a perception in some people’s minds that veterans are not just robot Rambos; that seeing life through their eyes or expressing life by their hands tells more about them as people.”
Veteran and photographer Peter Meijer, 27, agrees: He’s thrilled his work can perhaps “catch a sidelong glance and ignite a bit of curiosity” from Urban American’s tenants in its Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester and Hudson County, NJ, properties. The West Village resident is currently pursuing his MBA at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and he served in the Army Reserve from 2008 until 2014, including one deployment to Iraq.
For Meijer, photography became a cathartic way to look at combat from a different angle. In Iraq, he documented the scene of bomb blasts and identified enemy combatants, blending that passion with tactical purpose to “gain perspective and understand the experience of being deployed. Looking back at the war through my own lens helps gain context and detail that can easily be lost to memory.”
A few of his photos on display represent military scenes. One is a tight shot of a Black Hawk helicopter with soldiers walking toward it.
“The main soldier in the frame is carrying his duffel slung casually over one shoulder,” he says. “It’s simple in composition yet still conveys the calm anticipation that remains when the excitement and energy of being in a war zone fade away.”
Another was taken “from inside a helicopter in downtown Baghdad, with the fuselage, sidemounted weapon and various workings of the machine in the foreground, while sandcolored buildings and a turquoiseclad minaret stand in soft focus beyond. The tension of textures and purpose between military and civilian, ally and enemy, soft and hard — this is the balance that defines war.”