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'Star Wars' Clone Troopers Recreate Powerful Images of War

Active Marine Matthew Callahan blurs the line between sci-fi and reality with his gritty 'Galactic Warfighters' photo series.
Images courtesy the artist. This image is based on Goran Tomasevic's photo of Sgt. William Bee under fire from snipers in Garmsir, Afghanistan

Watching Star Wars is an escape from reality, your TV screen a portal to a galaxy far, far away, full of heroes, lasers, and magic. But like any art, it's also a venue for commenting on our own reality, as photographer and active US Marine Matthew Callahan does in his series of war photos recreated with model Star Wars soldiers.The snapshots in Galactic Warfighters evoke the style of professional war photography, which Callahan studied in-depth as a member of the Marines' public affairs department.

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Two of the photos are direct recreations of iconic photos from recent military actions in the Middle East. One is an image captured by Goran Tomasevic of then Marine Sgt. William Bee narrowly avoiding sniper fire in Afghanistan, and the other is the Hell House photo snapped by Lucian Read of a wounded 1st Sgt. Kasal being helped out of a house in Fallujah, Iraq. "I choose these images largely because they've made me stop whatever I was doing to study them," Callahan tells The Creators Project. "They demand your attention and force you to reconcile with your understanding of history. I think that adds to what I'm making with Galactic Warfighters."

A recreation of Lucian Read's iconic portrait of soldiers helping a wounded Sgt. Kasal leave a house in Fallujah, Iraq

Callahan joined public affairs after breaking his leg on a patrol in Afghanistan a month into his first deployment. He was moved to a base in Okinawa, Japan, where his mission became telling the stories of the military, which he now channels into Galactic Warfighters. "I never experienced combat myself, but my role as a storyteller for the Marines now has allowed me to explore and learn about nearly every part of the Marine Corps. With that comes countless stories from good friends and men and women I've met over the years," he says.

Based on his experience as serving in the military and being a Star Wars fan from the time he was a child, Callahan creates what is essentially really good propaganda for the Galactic Republic's army. However, this bleeds into reality as he illustrates the similarities between fictional soldiers and non-fictional ones. "The clone troopers are a near perfect illustration of the facelessness of a military force. They are literally all the same person, and can be employed in battle and lost without any real consequence. This sets the stage to explore their stories through the small vignettes I create with my photographs and stories that accompany them." Suffice to say, you'll never play Star Wars Battlefront quite the same way again.

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Callahan plans to eventually apply his world of 1/6th scale soldiers to the other militaries, adapting to issues as they arise. "Galactic Warfighters for me is the marriage of science fiction and the real world military, two things that have been with me my whole life and well into my military career. This is my small contribution to the conversation surrounding conflict and popular culture," he says. Fellow marine Gunnery Sergeant Joseph DiGirolamo documented his creative process for a short film, also called Galactic Warfighters, that demonstrates how Callahan creates these riveting images with collectictable. Watch the video and check out some selects from Callahan's series below.

See more of Matthew Callahan's work on his website.

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