Online lecture July 23: Nina Berman on work made in 1987 when she traveled with a group of American Vietnam War veterans on their return trip to Vietnam

Via Pemumbra Foundation

July 21, 2025

Penumbra is excited to host a series of online public lectures in July 2025, where artists will share insight into the projects being digitized through this program.

On Wednesday, July 23, Nina Berman will discuss work made in 1987 when as a young photographer and journalist she traveled with a group of American Vietnam War veterans on their return trip to Vietnam. The experience had a significant impact on her and influenced her later work more generally on the costs of war and American warmaking.



July 23, 7-8PM | RSVP here

Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, journalist and educator.  Her work explores American politics, militarization, environmental issues and post violence trauma.  She is the author of Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, (Trolley, 2004) portraits and interviews with wounded American veterans, Homeland, (Trolley, 2008) an examination of the militarization of American life post September 11, and An autobiography of Miss Wish (Kehrer, 2017) a story told with a survivor of sexual violence which was shortlisted for both the Aperture and Arles book prizes. Additional fellowships, awards and grants include: the Gugggenheim Fellowship in Photography, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Press Photo Foundation, Pictures of the Year International, the Open Society Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the Aftermath Project. Her work has been exhibited at more than 100 international venues from the Whitney Museum Biennial to the concrete security walls at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. Public collections include the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of the City of New York, the Harvard Art Museums and the Bibliothèque nationale de France among others. She has participated in workshops around the world for young photographers and is a professor at Columbia Journalism School where she directs the photojournalism/documentary photography program.

Podcast - Nina Berman: A Lens on Consequence

Via Foto

 Foto 026 - Nina Berman by Michael Howard

 

 In this episode, Michael talks with Nina Berman, a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and professor whose work interrogates the relationship between power, militarization, and the American experience. Over a career spanning three decades, Nina has consistently focused her lens on systems of violence and their aftermath, from war zones to police training grounds to the staged patriotism of political spectacle.

A Guggenheim Fellow, two-time World Press Photo winner, and professor at Columbia Journalism School, Nina is also the author of three major books: Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, Homeland, and An Autobiography of Miss Wish. Her photographs have been exhibited in venues such as the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In this conversation, she discusses how her work has evolved from portraits of wounded veterans to broader investigations into how militarized thinking permeates everyday American life. She reflects on the ethics of long-term documentary work, the emotional cost of sustained witnessing, and why photography remains a vital civic act.

This is a powerful episode with one of the most uncompromising voices in American documentary photography — a conversation about courage, clarity, and using your camera to look directly at the systems that define our time.

Nina Berman: When the Jets Fly

 

Via MIT Knight Science Journalism

Journalist Nina Berman has been reporting on the hostile sonic environment that U.S. military training is creating in some civilian communities.

"The conflict between community health concerns and the growing demands of the U.S. military are playing out all over the country. Madison, Wisconsin, is on schedule to receive the next batch of F-35s. Health professionals and noise pollution researchers play an important role in helping communities and lawmakers understand the risks posed by military warfare training. But my reporting shows that for the most part, these concerns are falling on deaf ears, and residents have few resources available to protect themselves."  (click to read full article)

Nina Berman on WORT Radio "A Public Affair"

 Via WORT Radio, Madison, Wisconsin

This Thursday, 12/30 on WORT’s noontime ”A Public Affair”….

APA’s guest will be NINA BERMAN, the award-winning documentary photographer, filmmaker, author and educator. We’ll be discussing, among other topics, her recent film documentary, “When Jets Fly,” — a look at the impact on civilians living near airfields currently being used for Air Force training exercises from Whidbey Island, Washington to Burlington, Vermont, current site of a 20-plane squadron of F-35 attack jets.

Noon to 1:00 (Central), 12/30,  “A Public Affair” WORT 89.9fm, Madison. Listen online, live and archived at: https://www.wortfm.org/news-talk/talk/public-affair/

A Public Affair is WORT's daily hour long call-in talk program. It aims to engage listeners in a conversation on social, cultural, and political issues of importance. The guests range from local activists and scholars to notable national and international figures.

How to listen

Nina Berman for The Intercept: When The Jets Fly: New Warplanes Turn U.S. Towns Into Sonic Hellscapes

 Via The Intercept

December 17, 2021

 

THE SOUND of the U.S. military’s latest generation of warplanes is quite literally deafening. The vibration shakes your insides. Conversation stops. Stress floods your body. And just when you think it’s over, another jet, and another and another, roars above rooftops, until it feels as though the sky is going to crack open.   (click for full article with video - by Nina Berman)

Devour the Land: An Introduction with Curator Makeda Best and commentary from photographers Nina Berman, Sharon Stewart, and Robert Del Tredici

Via Harvard Art Museums  

Curator Makeda Best, alongside commentary from photographers Nina Berman, Sharon Stewart, and Robert Del Tredici, provides a brief introduction to our new special exhibition, Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970. Featuring approximately 160 photographs from 60 artists, the exhibition invites you to explore the impacts of military activity on the American landscape—and how photography supports activism in response to these effects.

Make your reservation to visit the Harvard Art Museums today.