A conversation with artist Steve Mumford

By

May 28, 2010

Need to Know’s Alison Stewart spoke with war artist Steve Mumford, who was embedded with U.S. troops during the first six years of the Iraq war.

Although Mumford says he set out to draw the horror of war, and did on occasion encounter scenes of conflict, the overall impression a viewer gets from Mumford’s work is of the ordinariness of life in a war zone.

“I don’t want to give a false impression, that everything is nice here,” Mumford said. “On the other hand, that is usually how life is in a war zone, you know, until something bad happens.”

Last modified: May 28, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Tags: , ,
 
SUGGESTED STORIES
  • thumb
      Dear Obama
    In this video from VII photographer Marcus Bleasdale, victims of the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa call upon President Obama for urgent and decisive action to neutralize the LRA.
  • thumb
      Blood on the grass
    VII photojournalist Ron Haviv gives us an emotional look at a group of young men and their coach playing American football in Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico.
  • thumb
      National security since 9/11
    On the 10-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, Need to Know host Alison Stewart talks with the Chair of the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean, about where our country has come since 9/11 in terms of security and what remains to be done.

Comments

  • Gene Kohn

    Would you consider drawing/painting the following depiction on the Gulf Oil Crisis:

    Looking onto the rectangle panel from left to right, the left side would have a group of people refusing a glass/pitcher of water that is loaded with carbon based oil and chemical dispersant. The people would decline the offer to drink the contaminated concoction vehemently.

    On the right side I would have you depict an ocean of the same concoction, perhaps in the form of a large aquarium tank with creatures of the gulf ocean.

    The caption for the left would read “You and I have the right to refuse the toxic and deadly concoction”…on the right, it reads “They do not”. Underneath both, in bold letters, it should read “CONSERVE”.

    This then becomes the basis for a Billboard.

  • rockrat

    Please do a whole show on Steve Mumfords work.

    I’ve seen news video and photos, and I was floored at how much more powerful and engaging his sketches and water clors were of “everyday ordinariness of a war zone” especially when a lucky moment of symbolism presented itself.