Images of war are usually unsettling on a gut level, whether they are graphic accounts of death or suggestive of impending destruction. Mark Hogancamp's photographs definitely include both types of scenes, yet their effect is altered by a significant detail. The figures captured are not humans but dolls. However, the war they are depicting is, in a way, no less real. The photographer was brutally beaten by five men outside a bar in his hometown of Kingston, NY. The attack left him unconscious for nine days and rendered him incapable of walking, eating, talking or even remembering his life before that fateful night. After a year of impressive recuperation, coverage for his occupational therapy ended and he was forced to return home. Instead of giving up recovery in the face of this set-back, Hogancamp invented Marwencol. The creation of this miniature town served as an excellent motor skills exercise, but ultimately took on the more profound purpose of piecing his life back together.
Marwencol is a tenuous oasis for the soldiers residing there amidst a fictional World War II saga. One of these soldiers is Hogancamp's alter-ego, Captain Hogie. This 1/6-scale character is many things his human-sized counterpart is not: a bar owner, a war hero and and the recipient of fawning female attention. Still, Captain Hogie encounters adversity that parallels the trials of Mark Hogancamp's own life. Being kidnapped and tortured by the enemy German soldiers is not an uncommon event for Hogancamp to put his fictional self through. Nevertheless, this protagonist of Marwencol survives even death with the help of the town witch who revives him.
Thus, Marwencol is ultimately a safe haven for its creator and the mood of Hogancamp's photographs reflect this. The incredible stillness that only inanimate objects can evoke creates a surreal serenity. Yet the human likeness of the doll figures and Hogancamp's convincing positioning of them adds an emotional punch. The end result is an abstract sentimentality. Viewing a doll in front of an execution squad doesn't cause the instinctual feeling of dread it might if there were a human in its place, but the image still evinces feelings surrounding human violence and mortality.
Jeff Malmberg's documentary titled Marwencol delves into many other layers of both the fictional plot-line and Hogancamp's own life. The film is certainly worth seeing, but isn't necessary to appreciate Hogancamp's work. The intricacies of Hogancamp's life are extremely interesting on a psychological level, yet the images are powerful in and of themselves due to the exemplary photographic skills they exhibit.
To see more of Hogancamp's photographs and to learn about the documentary, visit www.marwencol.com.
