A Thousand Words

The "Marlboro Marine" was one of the most powerful shots to result from the Iraq War.  To many, the picture stood out from innumerable others in ways that couldn't really be articulated.  The emotive nature of the photo is as wide and deep as any of Earth's oceans; here we have a man who is weathered physically and mentally beyond his youthful years, obviously trying to relieve whatever burden he carries with a Marlboro cigarette.

What is missing from this excellent piece of photojournalism is closure.  Did this marine make it through hellish Fallouja?  Was his despondent look a product of the war-zone or something that goes far deeper?  That's just the thing - a picture may be worth a thousand words, but it's all speculation until the subject reveals the truth to the viewer.  Multimedia can accomplish this.  And certainly did in the second-place, "Marlboro Marine" effort by MediaStorm.org (Mary Cooney, Michael McGehee, Stephanie Ferrell and produced by Brian Storm and Chad A. Stevens).

MediaStorm took the already intriguing Fallouja Marine in the famed picture and provided insight to his personal story through sound, video and namely pictures.  They took that nameless emblem of the Iraq War and revealed him, James Blake Miller, as a human being.  The presentation is based around Miller's personal experiences following his time in the war and how he handles with post-traumatic stress disorder.  How he copes with his nightmares, deals with the troubles of today and hopes for tomorrow.

A single shot may be worth a thousand words but, combined with personal accounts among other techniques, it has potential so much more vast.

Kevin Ornduff