Ahouatcha Mahinou Cotonou, Benin | Lori Grinker chromogenic print, 1991

In 1991 while visiting the Vietnam War Memorial photojournalist Lori Grinker noticed children looking at the veterans "with an odd curiosity." She realized "there was something inherently different about them...They carry the war with them day to day. There is an aura around them, an aura born of having witnessed something that should never be seen." Thus began Grinker's 15-year journey around the world seeking out veterans—soldiers and civilians, adults and children—who took up arms willingly or under force. With camera and tape recorder she worked "to see veterans beyond their wounds—but to capture the war in their wounds and through their memories."

Afterwar: Veterans from a World in Conflict is Grinker's collection of portraits and stories of war survivors from over 30 countries, from the Iraq War back to World War I. Presented more as meditations than as political statements, the survivors' stories and images speak for themselves, creating what is possibly the quietest, strongest, most eloquent and most searing indictment against war yet.

The subject of the cover photograph, Ahouatcha Mahinou,  a native of Benin, was conscripted into the French Army at the age of 20 and served from 1942-1946 fighting against the Axis powers in Algeria. Mahinou's leg was amputated in 1960 due to lingering problems from an injury he received during WWII.

An exhibition of large-scale color photographs from Afterwar was exhibited at Nailya Alexander Gallery in NYC in March. Afterwar was published last year by the Millbrook-based fine art publishing firm de.Mo (www.de-mo.org; www.afterwar.com).