Most times, the Breathing Room Wellness Studio in Delmar is an open space, a haven for yoga lovers.
But on Saturday, Nov. 19, the studio was filled with the photographs of four veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photographs captured some of their perspectives on their time in the military without depicting graphic scenes from the wars in both countries.
Breathing Room co-owner Mikko Cook said the decision to host the exhibition was a personal one,
“One of the things that Breathing Room is about is trying to help people find new alternative ways to bring awareness and healing into their lives,” said Cook. “As a result, and this is because of experience in our own lives, that we found that these things were very helpful for us.”
The link was made through the director of the studio’s yoga program, whose husband, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Spohr Jr., showed his photographs at the event.
“We are always looking for ways to just bring awareness to their experiences, and ways that they can communicate their experience,” said Cook. “Because, just standing there and talking to somebody about what you’ve experienced in combat is not an opportunity that arises every day.”
Spohr, Sgt. Nicholas George, Sgt. Sean Baxter, and Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Williams, who all displayed their photos at the event, all have ties to the Capital District. Each man served in Iraq, and Baxter served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Baxter and George have served two tours of duty in the Army.
Stirring images at the exhibition included some of the most frightening sights that could be captured – the explosion of an improvised explosive device, or IED, from afar – and some that had a sense of simplicity, such as a picture of two army vehicles with soldiers inside, with a fading sunset and trees in the background,
Cook described the process of viewing photographs from a war as “surreal.”
“It has that really familiar feeling of looking at someone’s pictures, and a really foreign feeling of looking at a man in full combat gear standing in a field with flowers,” said Cook.
The hope for Cook is that the exhibit opened up another way of thinking regarding soldiers coming back from combat.
“There are a whole lot of people coming back from overseas who are desperate to find ways to fit back into the community and heal from what they’ve experienced,” Cook said.
Along with helping the soldiers to heal, the soldiers themselves were helping others by making the photographs available for purchase to those attending the exhibition. Half of all the proceeds from purchased pictures will be donated to the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and their Adopt A Family program. Through that program, families of soldiers currently serving in combat are chosen, and receive donations of gifts and clothing during the holidays.
It may seem like a clash of cultures to incorporate pictures of war and a yoga studio, but Cook said that alternative ways of healing might be gaining momentum.
“They’re trying their best to figure out how to make it work, how to deal with the trauma of what they’ve experienced. The traditional methods are working, but not working as well as everyone would hope,” Cook said.
