Jason Koxvold: Engage and Destroy

ENGAGE AND DESTROY is a subset of a long-term investigation into the cultural effects of the perpetual war in which we find ourselves.

Made over the course of sixteen months at Fort Moore, GA, the project is comprised of portraits of male U.S. Army recruits at the beginnings and ends of their basic training cycle, interspersed with imagery of the hand-to-hand combat training which lies at the core of Army doctrine. 

Juxtaposed with the deconstructed words of the Soldier's Creed, the images are a meditation on culturally manufactured notions of hegemonic hypermasculinity in a time of global conflict — and how these notions meet with reality in the minds and bodies of the subjects of this work.