Features of these training environments included costumed role-players, elaborate Hollywood-inspired sets and staged tableaus hinting at the imagined lives of far-away people. Those portrayed in the photographs include military personnel—often combat veterans playing the role of enemy combatants—immigrants from Iraq or Afghanistan intended to make the training look and feel realistic, and local American civilians hired to populate the artificial villages.

In Defense Language, Beckett examines the way Americans interact with other cultures while the images draw attention to the often problematic depiction of ‘cultural others’ in these trainings, challenging the implicit assumption of American cultural superiority.

Claire Beckett is a photographer whose work offers a critical lens on American identity. Recent projects look at cultural appropriation within American military training and the experience of converts to Islam, interrogating how we, as a nation, grapple with identity, whiteness, an dorientalism. Solo exhibitions include the Wadsworth Atheneum, Carroll and Sons Gallery, and Journée Photographiques de Bienne; group shows include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Mass MoCA, the National Portrait Gallery, and Aperture Foundation. Beckett has been awarded an Artadia Award and was artist-in-residence at Light Work. Collections include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Fidelity Investments and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.