"Unlike portraits of officers which are displayed prominently, portraits of enlisted persons have no specific function inside the military. Other than when tragedy occurs they are rarely shown publicly beyond military walls. Yet as a cultural object these portraits connect the intentional divide between military and civilian life. In private hands they find prized positions in wallets and on mantels of the working class, a reminder of the sacrifice and duty upon which a child or loved one has embarked. Social media enables new outlets for this agitprop, confirming allegiance for those who present them. ... This reconfiguration of genealogical data into a vernacular form also references the history of the medium of photography, showing those who lived before its invention by their silhouettes."

Owen Mundy, Traces of Class in the Photographic Representation of Soldiers, 2008