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October 26, 2004
Photos by Iraqi Civilians
Text & photos courtesy of Daylight Magazine
This photo essay was commissioned and curated by PixelPress/Daylight Magazine in New York City. The 30 color prints were taken by Iraqi civilians in the months of April and May, 2004. The photographs were made as part of an initiative by the Daylight Community Arts Foundation to distribute disposable cameras to Iraqi civilians to show another point of view unavailable to the foreign press.
They were asked to photograph people and scenes to communicate back to us, the people of the United States of America, whose army is currently occupying their country. What would they want us to know? What is going on that dispels stereotypes? "This is an opportunity to show the American public what you want them to see," these amateur photographers were told.
For example, one poor family is photographed near a garbage dump. The man, Sadiq, had named his daughter, born the day US troops entered Baghdad, Americas, meant to represent hope and freedom. Others are less sanguine: one photographs burials in Falluja, where much of the anti-US violence has taken place. Others photograph scenes in a barbershop, a school, on the street, sometimes eliciting smiles from people who are normally shown as surly, even hostile, when depicted by foreign journalists.
This exhibition is an attempt to show a small slice of the life lived by people who, for a variety of reasons, are still not very well known or understood by the US more than a year after hostilities were said to have ended. Now, when it is too dangerous for most U.S. photographers to walk around and photograph, these photographs by Iraqi civilians are timely and revealing.
To view the full photo essay, visit Daylight Magazine.
