Forgetting the Photograph of a Memory: A Senior Profile Portrait by Pierre-Henri Joubert (2011)

My character, Chris O'Neil, is a veteran of the Iraq War. Before the war, he was a very idealistic guy with an optimistic outlook on life, and perhaps he was a little naive. Even though he was not doing very well in school and didn't exactly know what to do with himself, he kept thinking positively. When he graduated from highschool, he was set to join the army, thinking that he would be able to get an easy, logistical desk job in order to get through his service and get the veteran benefits. This did not go according to plan, however, and he was quickly assigned to the front lines as a basic infantryman. The experiences he had on the front damaged him, as his unit was ordered to go into the fray of battle several times. When Chris returned home, he tried to convince himself that he was still the same and that he could get past the ordeals that he endured. His façade held up with his parents very well, as they were simply proud to have their son as a soldier, and they were eager to show him off to relatives and friends. Chris went along with their frivolities without complaint, as he did not want his family to worry about him, but on the inside, he was very troubled by the horrors of war. My picture shows Chris in his army fatigues with a rifle, posing for a picture that his parents are taking of him. He might have dressed up and gotten his gun for the photo, but his body language tells a different story. His off-kilter stance shows his discomfort with his parents' showing off of him, and his tilted head and hat covering his eyes show his reluctance to be caught on camera for fear of people seeing through his image of good health and optimism which was really swept away by his years of service. The all-encompassing darkness behind him exemplifies his feeling of loneliness, that he feels that he cannot relate with other people very well while he is wearing his mask of happiness. He feels that he has no one to talk to, and that the shadow of war still lingers over him, as shown by the saturated colors and the war-movie-esque filters over Chris.