The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien, 1987
A story exposing the realities of the Vietnam war, and war in general, by listing all of the mundane items that soldiers carry on their bodies. Things such as weapons, pictures, floss, and socks are manifestations of the soldiers’ heavy feelings such as fear, guilt, love, grief, courage, and cowardliness. I identified the most iconic items from the story and created patterns using their outlines. I cut these patterns out of Japanese stencil paper, layered the various sheets, and then scanned the stencils as if they were film negatives. The type becomes incorporated into the image as it is sandwiched in the scanner, and light shines through the stencil paper in an irregular way, creating an integrated image that is reminiscent of camouflage and a jungle environment.
