a book about war and life after war.

“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” –General Douglas MacArthur

Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan is collaborative photo and oral history project about the trials of homecoming by author/photographer Jim Lommasson, and veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Exit Wounds is a traveling exhibition and a book (Schiffer Publishing, May 2015).

Available: June 1, 2015

Mission:

As a society, we need to understand that a consequence of sending soldiers to war is that the war comes home with every veteran. Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan deals with the effects of the United States’ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by focusing – in photographs and interviews -- on returning American soldiers as they reintegrate into civilian life. It is an ongoing collaborative effort, documenting in images and words the personal experiences and stories of these veterans. In addition to their own experiences, they bring home first-hand knowledge of the impact of war on the civilians caught in the crossfire. The soldiers need to tell their stories, and we need to hear them. We must know the true consequences of their – of our -- actions. We must take responsibility for the aftermath of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as at home.

If you are interested in participating, or want more information please contact Jim Lommasson
email: jim@lommassonpictures.com Phone: 503.939.1939

Press:

"Jim Lommasson is correct -- we have been denied the real stories and "emotional jolt" of war and those who experienced it. Exit Wounds is a powerful and moving corrective to this condition. Through raw, wise and honest testimonials of warriors and Jim's photographs that pierce into their emotional and spiritual lives and truth, Exit Wounds helps restore our awareness about the descent to hell that is war, the transformative dimensions of military experience, and the struggle to find the path home. Exit Wounds awakens and pierces with our denied truths. It provides our survivors necessary voice and portraiture, helping bring them home and making our recent wars, as they should, belong to us all."
--Edward Tick, Ph.D., Director, Soldier's Heart Author: War and the Soul and Warrior's Return

"The little long-term, intensive VA outpatient program, for which I was the psychiatrist for 20+ years, had the slogan, “Recovery happens only in community.” Nothing is more important to the formation of community than its stock of images and stories. This book brings the faces and the voices of today’s veterans to you, the reader. Look and listen. They are us. As Aristotle said, a philos—Greek for military comrade, family member, fellow citizen—is “another myself.” ALL of the varied veterans and service members in this book are US."
--Dr. Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD, Author: Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

"If your first experience with EXIT WOUNDS was anything like mine, you are right now a little bit angry, a little bit sad, a great bit proud of the young men and women in these pages, and achingly grateful to Jim Lommasson for training his thoughtful and humble eye on these soldiers, sailors, and marines."
--Anthony Swofford, Author of the military memoirs Jarhead and Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails.

"Lommasson said he didn't want to construct a political statement for or against the current wars. He wanted to listen to veterans who served. And so, veterans began to sit down with him. They are loving parents; bright, ambitious students; or impassioned veteran advocates, despite their own wounds."
--Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian

"Jim Lommasson's Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan is not about art. It's not about politics or journalism either. It's about raw human experience: The suffering, the triumphs, the fear, the pride, the visceral truths that confront every individual touched by the violence of war."
--Megan Driscol, PORT

"Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan is a subtle meditation on the intimate experience of war. Lommasson illustrates through images, stories and reflections the singular truth that war, beyond a political or economic event, is an experience, and as any experience, as infinitely varied and idiosyncratic as the individuals who experience it."
-- Jonathan Wei, The Telling Project

"Lommasson experienced the heartbreaking and profound stories directly from the soldiers themselves. The American public has been allowed to function without much awareness of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We were told to go shopping, while soldiers sent abroad returned with their souls, bodies, and consciences shredded, their lives forever altered. Until we hear their stories and accept what we’ve all allowed to happen, the collective denial of “Americanism” is allowed to persist, and the number of these stories increases."
--Dahr Jamail, Author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.