The photomontage series "The War is Always Home," was created by the Brooklyn artist, Martha Rosler between the 1960s and 1970s. The series consists of ten photographs, which compresses victims of the Vietnam war with the surroundings of peaceful households. Although the subjects of the war seem out of place here, they blend with the shadows and light as if they had always been part of the households.
During any war, there are soldiers fighting for his or her countries and with innocent victims caught in the skirmish. Then there are other people who watch the skirmish from the safe surroundings of his or her household, where the violence couldn't touch them. To me, the artist is saying that we do not realize the sacrifices soldiers made in order for us to be able to keep our comfortable homes. We don't realize the sacrifices they made in order to maintain our safety. Many of us take the war for granted, thinking that as long as we're not in the skirmish, we shouldn't care about the unfortunate victims. Watching the results of the violence via the televised media, we don't reach out to these unfortunate victims, let alone support the soldiers.
The photomontages make the subjects of the war seem like opaque ghosts that are haunting the households. It is as if they are reminding us that there are many people out there who are more unfortunate than you are, and we need to really consider that.
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