Lisa Presgraves ART 333-01 Prof Colby Caldwell
Photo Book: The Endangered Sea Bats The concept for this book was to use photographs and stories collected from current and prior service military members which depict a side of military life that is rarely seen by civilians. To the general public, military members are stereotypical figures: obedient drones of low intelligence, war mongers, or selfless heroes. These are one dimensional viewpoints that don’t come close to representing the reality of military life. The first published book that I began to model my photo book after was Engaged Observers. This collection featured the work of several photographers and covered different topics. The second chapter, “Vietnam Inc.”, was the most relevant for my topic as it captured troops in action. It was, however, typical of photojournalism that covered military personnel. The images portrayed soldiers in the midst of a war, interacting with locals in potentially offensive ways. For example, one photograph showed a soldier bathing a Vietnamese child in a bowl while village folk looked on. It was accompanied by text that explained that American soldiers were convinced that locals had poor hygiene which was confusing to the Vietnamese people who bathed several times a day. The story ends with a local woman cursing the soldier for washing a child in her vegetable bowl.
While images like these are contrary to the statements I want to make in my book about military members, the layout of the images is helpful. The photographs are made more powerful with the context offered by the text. This became an important aspect of my book project, so interviews were sometimes recorded for accuracy when transcribing. Not all the images in The Endangered Sea Bats are directly related to the stories, but the images were carefully selected to accompany the stories for impact. During my interviews with military members from different branches, a common element was discovered. The story of the Sea Bats, a practical joke, was told with a lot of variations. It spanned several generations, with the earliest version of the joke coming from the 1960’s, and remains an active joke among military members today. It was also a remarkable joke because it is played in all branches of the military. This is incredibly rare, since each branch develops its own “culture” independent of other branches. From this, the title of the book and another theme for the format of the book was chosen. There are many books available about the lives of animals. Endangered Pandas by Crossingham and Kalman offers a playful and exuberant approach to the topic of endangered animals. The book was divided into sections that were specific to various aspects of the panda’s lives, such as where they live and what they eat. The book was filled with colorful photos that were exciting as well as accurate depictions of typical panda life. It also included a glossary in the back to explain terms that may not be known by readers. All of these aspects are easy to integrate with a book about military life by simply replacing the animal with military members. This was not intended as a slight against military members, but as a way to express the often fun and silly nature of
those who serve while capitalizing on a long standing tradition among military members to use the myth of a sea bat to play jokes. While there were stories throughout my book, I chose not to explain the meaning of the title for two reasons. First, I wanted to increase reader interest when they discover that the book is not about an animal. The expectation is that they will become more curious about the content of the book as they search for an explanation. Second, it offers the book a slight sense of exclusivity by keeping the story of the Sea Bat mysterious to those who haven’t served. This is intended to give the reader the impression they have glimpsed something rare, as the title alludes to. Following this concept, I chose not to include a glossary of terms. I did use the table of contents as a guide, although I included fewer chapters and renamed them for simplicity. I also changed the order a bit to what felt like a more natural progression through serious and fun topics. This allowed the book to create a pattern which I mimicked with the photos. The ends of the book mirror each other in seriousness and in layout. The cover type was also modeled after the panda book as paper back seemed to enhance the playfulness of the book, while the hard back of Engaged Observers was more stern and serious. Overall, I think my book is very successful. It is a well-rounded depiction of the life of military members, both serious and light hearted aspects. I feel confident that it dispels some of the stigma associated with military service as well, and that it was arranged in a way that makes the content more accessible to readers who have no association to military life.
Bibliography
Abbott, Brett. Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography Since the Sixties. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Publications, 2010.
Kalman, Bobbie. Endangered Pandas. Earth's Endangered Animals. New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing, 2005.