Ben Brody

About Episode 76

In this installment of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, guest host Michael Chovan-Dalton continues his Chico Review series, this session featuring photographer Ben Brody. Ben joins Michael to discuss his two books, Attention Servicemember and 300m, both published by Mass Books—a venture he co-founded with Peter van Agtmael. The conversation delves into Ben’s tenure as an Army photographer during the Iraq War and his decision to work as a civilian freelance photographer in Afghanistan. They explore how both books serve as Ben’s personal reckoning with his role in generating propaganda. Additionally, they discuss his involvement with The GroundTruth Project, an organization committed to supporting local journalism in underrepresented communities.

About Ben Brody

Ben Brody is an independent photographer, educator, and picture editor working on long-form projects related to the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath. He is the Director of Photography for The GroundTruth Project and Report for America, and a co-founder of Mass Books.

His first book, Attention Servicemember, was shortlisted for the 2019 Aperture – Paris Photo First Book Award and is now in its second edition.

Ben holds an MFA from Hartford Art School’s International Low-Residency Photography program. He resides in western Massachusetts.

What advice do you have for emerging photographers?

“Just do it. Seriously, that was the best advice I ever got. But
there’s no point unless you’re going to take it really seriously.
Look at all the photography you can, talk with the photographers
you’re interested in, and figure out how you’re going to push the
conversation forward with your own work. Don’t worry about
photography class – taking pictures is really not that complicated.
Learn something complicated in school, like economics or political
science. Then take that knowledge and use it to inform your image
making.”

Is there an image by another photographer who has influenced you in your career?

“The first photographer whose work really blew my life up was Ralph
Eugene Meatyard with his Lucybelle Crater family portraits. Among documentary photographers, Eugene Richards and Nick Nichols opened my eyes to what photography could really do when you pointed a camera at something real, something frightening. In war photography, Gary Knight has been my most important mentor – he in turn was mentored by Philip Jones Griffiths and Gilles Peress, and Philip and Gilles were surely mentored early in their careers, and thus the visual conversation around representing war is unbroken over generations. So at this point in my career, mentorship is a really important part of my own professional work.”