Thank You For Your Service

Command Sgt. Maj. Gabriel Cervantes (left) and Col. Burt Thompson (center) of the First Stryker Brigade Combat Team, with Interpreter John Mardo (right). There are 13 enlisted ranks in the US Army, from private to sergeant major of the army. Officers range from second lieutenant to general of the army. Fort Irwin, 2008. © Platon

Jessica Gray was widowed at age twenty-six by her husband, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, who was killed in Baghdad in 2007 while serving with the Eighty- Second Airborne Division. He was also survived by a five-month old daughter, Ava Madison Gray. North Carolina, 2008. © Platon

Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, honorably discharged in 2007 after five years of service, refused to be redeployed to Iraq. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a controversial advocacy group. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2008. © Platon

Elsheba Khan at the grave of her son, Spc. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, 2008. Spurred by the attacks on the World Trade Center, Khan, a Muslim, enlisted immediately after graduating from high school in 2005 and was sent to Iraq in July 2006. He was killed a year later. © Platon

Seaman Jeremiah Lineberry just after lowering the flag aboard the USS San Antonio, as he prepares for his first deployment. Norfolk, 2008. © Platon

Sgt. Tim Johannsen and his wife, Jacquelyne Kay, in a rehabilitation unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Johannsen spent two-and-a-half years at Walter Reed after losing both of his legs on his second tour in Iraq. 2008. © Platon

Family member watches the USS San Antonio as it prepares to depart. Norfolk, 2008. © Platon

Alu Banarji, a role player and cultural affairs consultant, plays a civilian in Medina Wasl, the Iraqi village inside the NTC. Soldiers are trained in cultural sensitivity, such as techniques to search women wearing abayas or burkas without touching them. Fort Irwin, 2008. © Platon

Platon is best known for his graphic images of celebrities and world leaders shot against white seamless. He applied similar techniques to create the portraits in Service, his new book on active service members, military veterans and their families. (A show of the work will be held at Milk Gallery in New York City from June 22 to July 24.) He’s also employed still life to illustrate life before and after combat: He shows an exploded jeep and blank bullets used in training exercises, a Purple Heart medal bestowed on a wounded veteran, and a pair of prosthetic legs he photographed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As the title of his book suggests, Platon is interested in people who have served and sacrificed in a variety of ways. He includes images of a veteran in a wheelchair hugged by his wife, a veteran of the first Gulf War posing with his son, and the well known photo of a mother embracing the headstone on her son’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery, the crescent carved above his name indicating that he was a Muslim.

Elisabeth Biondi, who edited Platon’s work while she was director of photography at The New Yorker, explains in her introduction that the book began as an assignment to document troops who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The assignment took Platon out of the studio, to training facilities, army bases, and other locations where, through lighting, focus or exposure, he would obscure details in the background, keeping the viewer’s attention on his subjects. The technique makes his subjects into emblems signifying defiance, pride, sorrow, anger, resignation.

Fans of Platon’s work will find much to like in this new book. The reproductions emphasize the inky blacks and crisp contrasts in his black-and-white images. The lettering of the title on the book’s cover looks like it was stamped into metal, reminiscent of dog tags. The pages are thick, as if the ink sits heavily on the page. The result is a book that feels both sturdy and raw, a repository for strong emotion. —Holly Stuart Hughes