Interview with Craig F. Walker

Just arrived from the US, exhausted but cheerful and clearly happy to be here, Craig Walker walked in Hotel Pams for the first time. He hadn’t checked in his hotel yet, but was eager to discover his exhibition. So, with his boss, we walked through the winding streets of Perpignan to Couvent Sainte-Claire. Amazed by the former prison and convent, he carefully looked at his photos, as if he were discovering them. Some people watching the exhibition enjoyed his presence and asked a lot of questions.

Craig F. Walker graduated from the Rhode Island School of Photography and began his career in Massachusetts, at the Marlborough Enterprise. "I was really excited about the idea of telling stories with pictures. Photography was the medium I had to express myself. I've been fortunate to meet very helpful people for my career."

Since the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, Craig has covered some of the most important reverberations, chronicling the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York, the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, the installation of Hamid Karzai as head of Afghanistan's provisional government in 2001, and the deployment of American troops in Kuwait in 2003, and in Iraq in 2005 and 2009. Craig F. Walker likes telling the stories in a very personal way, capturing through a compassionate lens the men, women and children going through conflicts.

In 2007, the Denver Post invested in a story, documenting the detailed life of a young man who decides to join the Army, for patriotism and because he doesn't know what else to do. "A group of my boss watched President Bush's talk about the troops. The war was unpopular. Recruiting was down. And the idea came up to follow a local kid from graduation to deployment". They started looking for somebody signing up for a combat position, and heard about 2 students. Craig actually started with a young man who changed his mind. So, he turned to Ian Fisher. Craig met him at his high school graduation rehearsal. He presented the project to Ian: "Every soldier has a story. But by telling one story, we can give the reader the sense of what every soldier is going through." Ian and his family immediately agreed. Craig expresses his gratitude to Ian and his parents for sharing their story.

The exhibition, Ian Fisher, American Soldier tells the story of a young man from his time as a high school student in Lakewood, to a soldier fighting in Iraq and back home. Craig could capture intimate moments of his personal life, and the army. "I was fortunate because he was so open and honest". He followed him through enlistment and basic training, and left to Iraq with him. He was also there when he came back home. "I hate to say it, but I became kind of obsessive, because I didn't want to miss anything." Ian had ups and downs during his experience. The story is not just about becoming a soldier, but growing up. He stumbled a lot, had doubts. At one point, he even questioned his purpose in Iraq. He had several heartbreaks, injuries. "It was inspiring to me. When I met him in high school, he seemed like a tough kid. He was a leader. With his head shaved, he looked like a baby. He came back changed, a completely different person. He had a more mature view of the war, of the world". The bound that unites the two men is obvious. "I became "Uncle Craig", he said smiling, sharing with me the end of the story.

We remember the outstanding and heart-breaking reports by Todd Heisler, "The Final Salute" (exhibited in couvent des minimes in 2006), by Nina Berman, "Marine Wedding" (exhibited in Perpignan in 2008), and by Eugene Richards, "War Is Personal"(exhibited in 2009), which dealt with Americans whose lives have been deeply and irrevocably impacted by the ongoing war in Iraq, through personal stories. In the same way, Craig Walker proposes an intimate insight into the life of a young man struggling on the streets of Bagdad, but also, to become a man.

Marion Mozzi