Love & War

‘Love and War’ chronicles Guillaume Simoneau’s on-off relationship with Caroline Annandale. They first met at the Maine Photographic Workshop in 2000. Both in their early twenties, they began a feverish relationship and travelled the world together just prior to September 11, 2001. After the terrorist attacks on the United States, Annandale enlisted in the US army and was sent to Iraq. The two grew apart, Annandale eventually marrying someone else, but they reunited several years later upon her return from war to begin a tumultuous second chapter in their relationship. Using a variety of images, including pictures he took when they first met, photographs Caroline emailed home from Iraq, text messages, and handwritten notes, Simoneau charts the couple’s love affair and its attendant ups and downs, but not in chronological order. Sequenced to mimic the disjointed nature of memory and identity, the project reveals how our perceptions of ourselves and our loved ones are always a blend of past and present. As the photographs progress, they expose Caroline’s loss of innocence and her transformation into a toughened war veteran. Ultimately, Simoneau reveals the lasting impact – the invisible, indelible, and often irreversible effects that both love and war have on people’s lives.