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Five pictures were okayed by CBS Outdoor to be put on billboards. Suzanne Opton, in cooperation with curator Susan Reynolds, photographed nine soldiers laying on their sides. They look a little tired, maybe dazed. All of them were in between tours of duty.

Unfortunately, the images are not being posted in St. Paul/Minneapolis, as they are being labeled “too jarring.” CBS Outdoor Executive Vice President of Marketing Jodi Senese wrote to Opton along with the cancellation of the contract, saying the images may be seen as disrespectful to those in the service with the allusion to death in their gazes and might freak out passing motorists. That the pictures are “out of context” being outside of a gallery.

Errrr isn’t that the point?

Folks are pointing fingers, saying that the contract got canned in the Twin Cities due to the Republican Party convention. The images were originally put up in Denver in the beginning of August with the help of the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. Three other cities are to be involved: Houston in Texas, Atlanta in Georgia, and Miami in Florida.

the site for the project
article at lensculture
article at marketwatch