Peter van Agtmael’s Absurd, Grotesque Chronicle of the Fallout from the Iraq War | The New Yorker

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Peter van Agtmael’s Absurd, Grotesque Chronicle of the Fallout from the Iraq War

Van Agtmael’s images in his new book, “Sorry for the War,” highlight all the little ways in which the war twists and perverts whatever it touches, over there as well as over here.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/peter-van-agtmaels-absurd-grotesque-chronicle-of-the-fallout-from-the-iraq-war

For a decade and a half, Peter van Agtmael has been photographing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and their human fallout around the globe. In 2014, he published “Disco Night Sept 11,” which chronicled some of the more unexpected echoes between the wars overseas and the home front between 2006 and 2013. His new book, “Sorry for the War,” focusses on Iraq but roves farther afield. It includes images of refugees in Europe, U.S. military veterans Stateside, victims of an isis terrorist attack in Paris, an American guard at Guantánamo, and an Iraqi civilian injured in the battle of Mosul. Each individual picture is startlingly rich and lucid. Cumulatively, though, they present the viewer with a riddle: What can we learn from this body of work as a whole?