"Thank You For Your Service?" Biblio Gallery Exhibit
The new Biblio Gallery exhibit on the 4th floor of Bird Library features Ryan Mitchell's photo biography experiences, titled ”Thank You For Your Service?," on display from May 5 to May 30, 2025.
“Thank You, For Your Service?” explores memory culminating in frustration, anger and violence, which led to emotional withdrawal and physical stress from Mitchell's military service experiences. He works with the 4x6 photographs taken on deployments during his four years in the Marines, utilizing collage techniques to express the fragmentation resulting from these memories. These recollections are a view into goals never achieved, training for a war never seen, the transition of being thrown back into civilian life, and the haunting regret and self-doubt while seeking new potential and purpose.
The collages are constructed with fragments from the textures and scenes soldiers are surrounded by -- weapons, fatigues, helmets and the desert. Mitchell creates small and sometimes miniature scale works, with an emphasis on contrast and the lack of control he felt while serving, along with the shame he felt not being able to see the pinnacle of a soldier's duty: experiencing combat. The labor Mitchell used to make his works serve as a therapeutic way to address and critique the hidden desires he wanted to experience.
For more information about the Biblio Gallery, contact Amanda DuBose, Visual and Performing Arts Librarian at Syracuse University Libraries or apply to submit an exhibit via Biblio Gallery exhibition form.