UMUC Contact: Andrea Martino, APR
Phone: 301.985.7779
E-mail: amartino@umuc.edu

Iraqi Children Meet the Marines

(Adelphi, MD) — University of Maryland University College (UMUC) will exhibit photos of the invasion and occupation of Iraq from Jan. 7, 2005, to April 10, 2005. U.S. Marine reservist Benjamin Busch, of College Park, Md., took the photos in Iraq while serving there as commanding officer of Delta Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in 2003.

The exhibit, titled “The Art in War,” includes approximately 40 images that Busch says “do both the American military and the Iraqi people a certain unique justice.”

Busch has been a photographer for many years, but this is the first time he has displayed his work publicly.

“I generally don't take pretty pictures of sunsets,” the Marine major said. “I thought this topical exhibit needed to be seen and considered immediately.”

While many of Busch's photos are “a day in the life” of many Iraqis—at work, for example—many photos in the exhibit depict the aftermath of the horrific regime of former leader Saddam Hussein. One photo that Busch titled “Bound,” for example, shows the skeletal arms of an executed man still tied with wire after his body was exhumed from a mass grave.

Busch is being redeployed this month, this time to the Anbar Province, which includes the city of Fallujah, to serve as a member of the newly created 5th Civil Affairs Group. He says he will take his camera again on this deployment. But since Fallujah has recently been the site of such fierce fighting, Busch is not sure of the reception that he will receive with a camera.

“The complexity of my mission and the delicacy of my interactions with Iraqis in that region may simply make my personal photography inappropriate this time or impossible due to insurgent activities,” he says. “I don't go there to take pictures. I take pictures because I am there.”

UMUC is the leading provider of educational services to U.S. military worldwide, having approximately 58,000 U.S. service member-students last year. UMUC faculty members are located on about 120 military bases worldwide, and increasing numbers of troops take UMUC courses online.

The university houses the largest collection of art by Maryland artists at its world headquarters in Adelphi.

“The Art in War” exhibit can be seen from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

For more information, or directions to UMUC, 3501 University Boulevard East, Adelphi, visit the university’s Web site, www.umuc.edu .

Please include the complete name University of Maryland University College (or the acronym UMUC). Abbreviating the name might create confusion with other University System of Maryland institutions.

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