Christopher Sims: Theater of War

Christopher Sims: Theater of War showcases photographs of the fictitious Iraqi and Afghan villages staged at Fort Polk, Louisiana, to train U.S. troops prior to overseas deployment capture an unseen side of combat. The mock villages bring together U.S. soldiers, recent Iraqi and Afghan immigrants, and local townspeople to reenact the drama and horror of war — an imaginary front in which Sims has been both a backstage visitor and played the character of an international news correspondent.

Christopher Sims was born in Michigan and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He has an undergraduate degree in history from Duke University, a master’s degree in visual communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a M.F.A. in studio art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He worked as a photo archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and currently teaches photography at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

His most recent exhibitions include shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Houston Center for Photography, the Light Factory, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. His recent project on Guantanamo Bay was featured in The Washington Post, the BBC World Service, Roll Call, and Flavorwire. In 2010, he was selected as the recipient of the Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers.