KUWAIT: Greg Marsden speaks to visitors of his photo gallery at the Memorial Museum in Al-Shaheed Park. — Photos by Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The Memorial Museum at Al-Shaheed Park is displaying photographs by Greg Marsden taken during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Marsden, a former US military man who also served as a temporary policeman during the transition period, used his 'toy camera' to capture historic events of that time. "I was not expecting these photographs to end up here at the exhibition hall of the memorial museum. These photographs were kept in my house for many years, until I meet a guy from Kuwait recently," he said.

"I was just assisting a friend at a Sydney photo exhibit when I met Saad Al-Sarrah, a young Kuwaiti who encouraged me to display my photos in Kuwait. I had casually told him about my war photographs. They were not even displayed in that expo. But I agreed to the idea to display my photos because I haven't returned to Kuwait since I returned to America, and later settled in Australia because I married an Australian," Marsden said.

He said the old photos were kept for many years in his cabinet. "The camera I had used was almost a toy camera. I had received it along with a bunch of letters sent to us by schoolchildren from my state in the US. They were encouraged by the government to send letters of support and care packages to our soldiers, so I got that 'toy camera'. When I returned home, I almost forgot that camera, because I retired from military service. I studied and eventually got a doctorate and an executive job. I remembered those photos when I met Saad in Australia. I searched for them among my things and I found them," he recalled.

Marsden was in his early 20s during the war. He came back on Thursday to Kuwait after 27 years. "What nostalgic moments when I see Kuwait now! The picture of Kuwait stuck in my head during 1991 was only of ruins and devastation brought by war. Now I see Kuwait as a very amazing place, and to come back here as a professional photographer is very emotional," he said.

Sarrah said Marsden's photographs are memories of war and it is worth the time checking them out and remembering the past. "When I met Marsden, I was amazed because he was narrating some of his experiences during his service in Kuwait. Then he told me about the photos. Of course, I told him to exhibit his photos in Kuwait because we all deserve to see those pictures. He agreed, and there you go. They will be displayed only for two days and some of them will be donated to the museum and others probably will be sold," said Sarrah, who served as the event organizer.

Sarrah was only five years of age during the Gulf War. An event planner at Al-Shaheed Park Museums said she was approached by Sarrah about the photo exhibit. "It was really timely and appropriate because the photos were about the war and we have a memorial museum dedicated for Gulf War POWs and heroes of war. The photos are all captured during those times, so we told him to display them at the memorial," she said. Marsden considers himself as professional photographer and has a street photography workshop scheduled in Kuwait on Nov16-17, before returning to Australia.

By Ben Garcia