Target Practice: What People Around The World Learn To Shoot At

The targets people use to practice their marksmanship reveal deep cultural and institutional fears. Why is France still aiming at Germany?

Soldiers and civilians around the world practice use targets to practice their marksmanship. These pretend enemies might be simple cans, paper bull's-eyes, or elaborately drawn caricatures of enemy combatants. In her latest book, Targets, acclaimed German photographer Herlinde Koelbl explores what soldiers around the world look at as they're trained to shoot. While on an assignment to document the German Armed Forces, Koelbl became interested in the forms the soldiers used for target practice. Over a six-year period, she visited military training camps in more than 20 countries to create portraits of the inanimate enemies soldiers learn to kill.

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