The Shrine Down the Hall

We should also admit the possibility that the rooms aren’t necessarily just the way the warfighter left them, but instead reflect the collective memories of the remaining family that decorated them.

My 24 year old has a room full of stuffed tigers. Not at all unusual with these young people.

I’m with jk in wondering whether this bedroom was only used when visiting. As someone who’s just a few years older than this man (I’m 27) and has had my own home for almost 10 years, my own bedroom is much more “grown up” than my bedroom in my parents’ house, which still has much of my collection of stuffed animals prominently displayed.

That’s it, as a person who has mourned the loss of family members I can attest to the fact that every possession triggers linked memories. It is a way of keeping that person alive, at least in one’s heart.
A bereaved parent is not simply mourning the loss of their child at the age they were when they died, they are also mourning the infant, the toddler, the grade school, junior high, and high school student, etc.. It is a truly heartbreaking scenario.

I am surprised by the lack of a computer or desk in these rooms, so they look more staged than actual recent occupancy. Not to criticize, just to compare to the bedrooms I am familiar with.

Dunno, Michael. I’ve been thinking about this post off and on all day. Couple of thoughts. I imagine these rooms look mostly like they did the day these children left home. Could be they enlisted and went straight from parent home to military home. Or, could be they’d been out of the parent home for a period of time before they enlisted… but, what these rooms suggest to me, is the parent’s view of their child which is likely to be as frozen in time as the artifacts in the rooms, and the rooms themselves, are.
I expect there are artifacts in the rooms which might have been pulled from other rooms in the house, or closets, or friends’ and neighbor’s homes which were added… but, I’m not really detecting that level of detail from the photographs. It’s just the kind of thing I imagine.
And, that’s kind of the point for me with these rooms. Their ability to allow the viewer to imagine. Imagine who the former occupant was, to imagine the mixture of solace and pain afforded to the surviving parent the existence of the room presents, to imagine who the child might have become had they survived. In their individuality, these rooms speak to the individuals now gone. In their sameness, and similar themes, they speak to the shared pain these parents must be experiencing.
I’ve no doubt that if the child could return, they would recognize their respective rooms as their own. Perhaps seeing it with fresh eyes resulting from the passage of time, they might notice things they hadn’t really seen the day they left; elements that had become just background might become figure again – and, an object’s meaning recaptured. It’s all left to the realm of imagine. And, it’s frozen there.

Dennis, I think you assume a bit too much implying, no stating, that “these young men’s lives had to be really screwed up.” One is just (hopefully) starting to discover and utilize a rational, mature thought procress at that age. And look at all the so called “adults” in our society (eg- in Congress) who can’t or won’t think rationally even at their advanced age and position. Our education system is in shambles, our media is an ongoing joke. Is it any wonder young adults have no clue about war, life, anything, when supposed adults are so easily scared into needless wars and restrictive laws? I think your advice is well taken, as is your call to wake up, but blaming the victims here (and yes, we must all learn to take responsibility) seems a bit heavy handed…
BTW, this is quite a unique and excellent photo essay.

Most of the bedrooms photographed were of kids from very small towns, a lot of them hunting areas. I doubt all would have computers and high tech items in their rooms. After turning 18, Brandon M. Craig asked why presents were not fun anymore but rather standard things such as underwear and needed items so it was decided they would receive a toy or something along with these items. Every year his dad buys him a new toy in memory of this, it is not staged, they stay out for a year. Ashley Gilbertson wouldn’t have altered any of these environments but to be a document on a persons life. Some parents have not removed dirty clothes for fear of losing some part of their child or the smell.

Ironically, the bedrooms that are more “adult” in their decorations don’t have the impact of the “child-like” rooms. Perhaps it is as stated above, that the child-like rooms point to the loss of the entire person life and to the loss the parents must feel.
The first image I found startling since I was not expecting to know any of the locations. Alexandia Bay in NY state is a honky tonk summer resort town in the thousand islands. The whole area around it is sort of a back country as you head to the Canadian border. It makes we think about the wonderful summers that child had – and to be ended so soon.

I agree with Bill too.