Nina Berman has been coming to the Visa Pour l’Image photofestival for the past 16 years. The quiet little ‘odd ball’ as she calls herself had her first exhibition in Perpignan in1997. This year, her work, she tells BJP’s news editor Olivier Laurent, is in contrast to anything else exposed.

Nina Berman exposes her 'Homeland, USA' series at the Couvent des Minimes. Picture © Olivier Laurent

Berman worked for seven years on her ‘Homeland, USA’ series. The pictures explore the meaning of militarism, security and identity in the US. ‘Some of the issues that were always interesting to me are how people create these small worlds with tight world views,’ she says. ‘This now has broader implications with the introduction of all these weapons.’

After the 9/11 attacks, there has been an impulse in the US to contribute to the defence of the country, Berman says. ‘There is this pure feeling for people to work towards a community purpose. But, then, it gets distorted.’

Berman’s photos show senior citizens in uniforms searching tennis courts for bombs or weapons. ‘I can understand them, but up to a point. Then, they seem insane. I was trying to find where this fantastical world and reality met up. People are quite happy to participate [in these security exercises], they feel they contribute to the security of their country.’

One of the iconic images in Berman’s show is that of an old woman wearing a surgical mask. She is taking part in a bio-terror drill. However, what was striking for Berman was how the woman looked. ‘She had put her hair up, she had make-up on. You pick up on that. The contrast between her looks and the mask creates the humour in the picture.’

‘Homeland, USA’ started right after 9/11. However, Berman took time off this project to work on another body of work that has received international recognition. She photographed the consequences of war with the disfigured bodies of injured US soldiers. ‘When I would photograph them, I would ask them what they thought war would be like before they went to Iraq. They thought it would be fun.’ That’s when Berman decided to go back to her original project. ‘I wanted to go back to why, we as a nation, find war fun.’

Far from being an isolated phenomenon, Berman says that all across the country she found people engaging in this collective homeland security hysteria. From New York to Chicago to rural Indiana and the middle of Texas, she says. ‘There are plenty more I could have photographed, but I feel like I’m finished.’

‘I don’t know what I will do next,’ she says. ‘I’m usually motivated by some sort of confusion or outrage. I’m never really motivated by beauty. Maybe I could discover how to do it. It would be nicer.’

In the meantime, Berman is enjoying the festival. ‘I love Visa Pour l’Image,’ she says. ‘Any time a photographer can exhibit his work is a great thing. It’s very important for a photographer to see how his work looks. Seeing it in a magazine or online is not enough. You can’t know how your images work. It’s important to see non-photo people walk through it. I spend a lot of hours there watching people’s reactions. I don’t say anything and they don’t know I’m the photographer.’

In fact, Berman says that judging from the reactions of people visiting her exhibition in Perpignan, she had her publisher, Trolley, add a few images she had not included in her upcoming ‘Homeland, USA’ book, which will be published in October.