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Banned billboard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Soldier,” a billboard like the one banned in St. Paul during the Republican Convention, is up in Atlanta —installed on Marietta Boulevard between Bankhead Highway and Boss Street through Nov. 3.
New York artist Suzanne Opton made a series of photographic portraits of soldiers who had just returned from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shot on military bases, they feature a supine soldier with his or her face staring toward the viewer.
Opton’s goal was to humanize the military. CBS Outdoor, which owns the St. Paul location, said it was concerned that the soldier looked as if he were dead, and that the piece would be construed as disrespectful.
Sponsored by The Contemporary, the showing is a cross-country installation appearing simultaneously in Denver, Houston, Louisville, and, finally, St. Paul.
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Comments
By Otto
September 10, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
With soldiers dying everyday, we certainly wouldn’t want them to ever appear dead, now would we?
Let us not even CONCEIVE of a soldier losing his or her life. How… uncouth.