An email from Iraq A few months ago, I got an email from a buddy of mine currently serving in the US Army in Iraq.
→[More:]The email contained a bunch of pictures that he took in recent months. Most of these were pictures of his buddies, his co-workers and friends (Iraqi, American and the like), and there was one or two shots of some of the work they were doing with detainees. Nothing Abu Ghraib like, just people sitting down with their hands bound with those plastic handcuffs they use. I guess that someone else on the list took exception to those particular photos, and accused him of sending "war porn". I don't endorse or refute the thoughts he has laid out, but the were somewhat though provoking, given his current location, but this was his response:
not so recently i sent some pictures of local's -- not the decent kind who give us great food when we stay in their home, but rather "insurgents." someone i sent them to chastised me for a couple of them - the "war porn" nature of taking pictures of locals. although i hope i haven't lost track of a persons natural humanity, a lot of the pictures probably do objectify the peope as "insurgents" or "locals" or "iraqi's" or even "soldiers" for that matter.
photography inherently obectivifies what is photographed - i don't apologize for that, but i probably should try to give a better context to the pictures - who they are and why we're photographing them.
most of the locals are just families we stay at - i take pictures of them because i like to, and i think other people are interested in seeing what the people look like here in the area i come into contact with. some of the pictures i take are to document criminals or insurgents and their 'stuff'. i don't have animosity for them - mostly they're fighting for what they perceive as a problem for their country, but some of them just attack americans simply because we are americans - they don't want to work with the government, or other tribes to improve iraq but want to kill us because we're American or British or Ukranian.
whose path will create a better iraq is an open question - i'm sure it's neither the path of the Wahabist extremists, nor the Shi'a militia extremists, nor the Democracy Capitalist extremists which will singlely "fix" iraq. i'm not happy to be advancing an agenda whose long term goals i'm sceptical of, but i do think that our "path" is much less intolerant of the various groups than the other extremists - even at the most nefarious of possibilities.
it's troubling and complex - i don't want to arrest someone because he has two AK-47's (we do because the law says only one) but when we don't arrest him for a weapons violation and then find out a week later he was one of four who planted an IED in the road, it erodes ones desire to overlook seemingly minor infractions when we find them.
although i only see a small part of Iraq and its issues, i do understand that there are many bigger theoretical problems which are being played out. none of the individuals i meet are faceless - nor do i try to blame any one person for the issues they can't control.
so, thank you for reminding me what i see as familiar is not so to most of the people i email pictures to. i'll try to write background about what is in the pictures in the future.
go easy,
XXXX
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
