Photo series, Marrakech Biennale Parallel Projects, 2016

10 photographs, 46x66cm, Archival Pigment Print

The project Shadows is a series of photographs made from public domain images that were made available by the U.S. Department of Defense, specifically, from the Operation Iraqi Freedom mission.
I have taken this series of images and digitally removed the soldiers, to reveal the landscape of Iraq. I have deliberately left the shadows of the soldiers in the images, not always immediately obvious, they are traces of these soldiers and the war.
The images reveal the landscape, a reclamation from the idea that Iraq is a land that is only war-torn. I wanted to present the landscape of Iraq today, in a way that we are not used to seeing it.

Each image is accompanied by a byline that provides a description as well as credits the photographer. A comment on whose narrative becomes a part of a landscape or conflict.
“U.S. Army soldiers of 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division patrol a section of Iraq’s Diyala River Valley on Dec. 27, 2008.   DoD photo by Petty Officer Walter J. Pels, U.S. Navy. (Released)”