Jessica Hines uses her camera to tell the story of a soldier & his sister

September 8, 2021

My Brother’s War tells the story of a soldier, Gary Hines, and his younger sister’s search to understand the circumstances surrounding his life with Post Traumatic Stress—and his untimely death by his own hand ten years after returning home from the Vietnam War.

Gary’s letters, photographs, and his personal effects found in a small box served as guides to Jessica Hines who traveled twice to Viet Nam, attended a reunion of his comrades, called army buddies decades after the war, and visited the home where he died. Finding handwritten declarations of love written by Gary’s Vietnamese fiancé, Hines also uncovered a surprising and mysterious love story.

Using her brother’s photographs as starting points allowed Hines to see the landscapes that shaped his experiences of trauma and to create the illusion of memory. Using shadows, magnification, and reflections, Hines met the challenge of discovery and understanding by creating images, with limited means, of things that no longer exist.

This work is the often untold story of loss, grief, hope, healing, love, and living in the aftermath of war—both for a veteran and for his family and friends. My Brother’s War makes reference to families worldwide that have lost and are presently losing loved ones to war. Hines’ work seeks to inspire, as the only alternative, a peaceful coexistence.

Hines uses the camera’s inherent qualities to explore illusion and to suggest truths that underlie the visible world. At the core of Hines’ work lies an inquisitive nature inspired by personal memory, experience, and the unconscious mind. Hines has won many awards including the Kolga Award, the Pollux Humanitarian Documentary Grant, Lens Culture International Exposure Award, and the Kuala Lumpur International Photoaward. Her work has been extensively exhibited and published throughout the world in North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australasia.

My Brother’s War has been published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in Stockport, England, and will be available in November 2021. For more information please visit www.JessicaHines.com.