The Odyssey Project: Warriors Come Home
Life-size cyanotype self-portraits by participants in the Odyssey Project in New York City
The Odyssey Project was founded by Brendan Bannon in 2018 to encourage veterans to engage with each other and the world around them in new ways through photography. Josephine Herrick Project now offers it to combat veterans in New York City, where we partner with Bannon and with the Queens Vet Center, a community mental-health arm of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This program immerses veterans in photographic practice and offers peer and professional support. Structured as a three-month workshop that begins with a weekend retreat, the Odyssey Project gives each participating veteran a pro-caliber camera and ongoing opportunities to remain engaged. Veterans use photography to communicate with each other—and with audiences for their work—about their experiences.
Over the past two years, the veterans of the New York City Odyssey Project have made these intimate photographs. Meaning is crafted from memory, love, loss, and war. Here they share that meaning and the questions that remain. These images explore the themes of the warrior’s return in an epic visual poem. Together, their voices combine to exclaim a powerful vision of life.
About Brendan Bannon
For 23 years, Bannon has worked professionally as a photographer grounded in documentary practice and committed to experimenting with form and methodology to create innovative character-driven storytelling. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, United Nations Headquarters, and Trienalle Di Milano, and has appeared in leading publications internationally.
As the founder of mostimportantpicture.org, he has designed collaborative photographic storytelling projects with communities of refugees, HIV+ youth, and combat veterans. The resulting work is presented in leading exhibition venues, newspapers, and magazines.
Photo by Maria Bannon
Generous support for Josephine Herrick Project’s partnership in the Odyssey Project in 2022–24 has been provided by the New York City Council’s Veterans Community Development Initiative through the Department of Youth and Community Development, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, and a Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant, part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Forces® initiative in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance. Cameras provided by Canon U.S.A. Host support from the Gettysburg Foundation, DCTV, and the Queens Vet Center. Thanks to our program partners, the Harlem Vet Center and Queens Vet Center.