Jim Lommasson: Book Talk and Signing
What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from the Cradle of Civilization

Saturday, July 20, 3:00-4:30 PM

Blue Sky Gallery
122 NW 8th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209 USA
503-225-0210
(Free and open to the public)

Jim Lommasson will discuss his new book, What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from the Cradle of Civilization, a collaborative photography and writing storytelling project with Iraqi and Syrian refugees who have fled their homeland because of war.

Jim will read participant’s stories, discuss the making of the book, and sign copies of What We Carried.
Jim began working on his What We Carried project in 2010 while completing his Exit Wounds: Soldiers’ Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan traveling show and book about returning solders from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lommasson invites Iraqi and Syrian refugees who have fled to the U.S. to write their own personal stories directly on Lommasson’s photographs of objects that they carried with them on their long and complicated journeys to America. The stories speak to much more than the object. The luminous inner life of these ordinary things are a testament to the unspeakable anguish of a life left forever behind. Ordinary objects become sacred objects.

What We Carried has received national and international attention. The traveling What We Carried exhibition is currently on view at The Ellis Island National Immigration Museum through September 2, 2019.
What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from the Cradle of Civilization will be available for purchase at the event.

To see more about What We Carried: https://whatwecarried.com/