Why do people accept being photographed by strangers?

Is it simply a desire to make a connection? Or is it a hope to be remembered? Is it a delight in stepping out of the world of fleeting moments; an attempt to assert an existence beyond the here and now? Or is it a desire to exist forever in the form of a photograph, even one that appears only in someone else's album? And maybe even in a land where they could never go in person?

These photographs were taken in November and December 2003 in Iraq, a few months after the official end of conflict. I was in Iraq working on a documentary film. While walking the streets, mosques and markets of Baghdad with my camera, I realized that many people were asking me, often subtly and sometimes openly, to take their picture. I decided to follow through with this interaction and to allow it to reveal itself in the form of photographs. In almost all cases, after making eye contact with the individual, I stopped, took one or two snap shots and then continued walking. They chose their own pose and expression while I chose the angle and the frame. Sometimes we exchanged a "hello" and "thank you," but usually a polite smile and a nod ended the moment of encounter.

Taken a few months after the fall of the previous regime, the photographs document a unique moment in Iraq's history. They capture a short period when many in Iraq still anticipated a peaceful transition to a new society. There was hope mixed with fear and the desire to say hello and smile at the world was tempered with suspicion at the sight of an influx of foreign soldiers, journalists and contractors immediately following the occupation.

I have enlarged a number of the photographs into life-size images and installed them in public spaces in various US cities. The installation aims to offer an alternative to the habituated images of violence and destruction that saturate the media coverage of Iraq. It is my hope that in seeing Iraq, its monuments and its public spaces in relationship to its own people will help us gain a new impression of that nation. Hidden in the eyes, smiles and gestures captured in these photographs, is the reason why each of these individuals took a moment to look into the lens of my camera. Those reasons are for us all to appreciate, ponder and share.

Kouross Esmaeli

 

To contact the artist and for more information about the public installation of the these photographs, go to: http://www.AlwanForTheArts.org/iraqphotos