Sylvia's War

Photo Essay, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2018

This photo essay illuminates one woman’s fight to reclaim her life from mental illness due PSTD sustained in her military service in Iraq as a broadcast journalist attached to the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul and two additional tours mostly in Baghdad as a “3161” Press Officer. Sylvia Bowersox is a writer by trade and a self-trained artist.
The title of the series uses military terminology to represent the process of the rebuild, the re- execute. After losing 10 years to mental illness as a result of PTSD which included a suicide attempt, and a disastrous stay at the VA, Sylvia works daily to regain her mind, her life. The images include interactions in daily rituals that I interpreted as the building blocks of Sylvia’s stabilization and reconstruction

It was an honor to glimpse into Sylvia’s heart and mind and create these images.