The Few, The Proud... The Artists?

The BBC has a nice slideshow up on Marine SSgt. Michael Fay, who is a an official US war artist.

Adrian Jones lost both his legs in Iraq. SSgt Fay says he does not shy away from such images: "If something I do is controversial, then the reality is controversial."

Years after Michael Fay posted a picture of Nick Ciccone on his blog, he heard from Ciccone's stepbrother the marine had killed himself. But the picture "made him alive for them". "The art had given him back to them," Michael Fay says. "It took on this whole life of its own. You never know what art is going to do."

Fay's Blog is here, and though I must say I find myself much more in accord with his aesthetics than with his politics, I think it's worth a look. There are some interesting bits there on the history of combat artists, and though I don't really agree with his politics, he's an intelligent well-spoken man, with a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the Iraq conflict.