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Photographs of simulated Iraq and Afghan villages on U.S. Army posts will be displayed beginning Tuesday (Oct. 7) by the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Photographs of simulated Iraq and Afghan villages on U.S. Army posts will be displayed beginning Tuesday (Oct. 7) by the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The exhibit, “Home Fronts: The Pretend Villages of Talatha and Braggistan,” will open at a free public reception with the photographer from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday. The exhibit and reception will be at the Love House and Hutchins Forum at 410 E. Franklin Street, home to the center. The exhibit will be free to the public from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays through Nov. 20.

Christopher Sims, represented by Chapel Hill art consultant Ann Stewart, took the photos of the simulated villages, which are deep in the forests of North Carolina and Louisiana.

The sites serve as stage sets that the U.S. military uses to train troops before they deploy. The soldiers interact there with actors portraying villagers. The actors often are recent immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan who have fled the conflicts there.

Before starting this project, Sims worked as a photo archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He teaches at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Sims’ photos can be seen at http://www.annstewartfineart.com.  

For more information, call (919) 962-5665.

Center for the Study of the American South contact:
Nancy Schoonmaker, (919) 962-0503, csasnancy@gmail.com.
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu

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