In Atlantic City, New Jersey, people are lounging under brightly coloured umbrellas; a pier stretches into the distance; a sign for paintball promises ‘live targets’; and a stealth bomber streaks overhead.

This is one of the images taken from Nina Berman’s new exhibition, Homeland, which aims to capture the culture of civic paranoia that gripped the US in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. It was a time when the government was keen to talk up ‘live targets’, setting the populous on edge. But this was something of a fantasy, played out in the media, kind of war. Families stockpile anti-nuke pills (I bet they work); senior citizens become extras in a War On Terror script; and military recruitment drives aim to transform children into killers. Meanwhile a real war is being fought in Iraq and with a sequence of photographs entitled Marine Wedding, Berman examines the real human cost of the conflict, focusing on US Marine Corps Sergeant, Ty Ziegel. Ziegel lost his left forearm, three fingers from his right hand, and suffered widespread burns across his face after a suicide bomb attack. His shattered skull was replaced by a plastic dome and his face was constructed, more or less from scratch. After over 50 operations he married his girlfriend, but they separated shortly before their first wedding anniversary. Both exhibitions are running at The Side Gallery and serve as a perfect illustration of both the fog, and the fury, of war. RM

Nina Berman: Homeland & Marine Wedding, July 4-August 29, The Side Gallery, 5-9 Side, Newcastle. www.amber-online.com

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