Photographing Iraq
By Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin
I have always been obsessed with the concept of immortality. Life is too short; you should know that if you live in a country whose history is flooded with wars while its land has been irrigated with blood since the dawn of humanity. Iraq is the Cradle of Civilizations! Saddam’s propaganda in the 1980s was quite influential to many people, including me. Reviving Babylon and the Assyrian Empire to their zenith was a cornerstone during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran War.
My father bought me a camera, a Nikon F-301, in 1986. I liked documenting events, scenes, trips, everyday life activities, and so on, to store and retrieve memories, instantly. But I was eager to leave a thumbprint on history, not just through medicine or neurology. I was never satisfied that my “job” would leave a life-long legacy, easily accessible to people while being unique and outstanding at the same time.
Through the eyes of a photographer, I see that many images of Mesopotamia and its relics are either old (in black and white) or relatively new but “immature” (in terms of technical qualities such as composition). Iraq is not yet a destination for tourists while scholars of history and archaeology continue to encounter many obstacles. Photographs are a way for Iraqis to communicate.
With the birth of social media, particularly after the introduction of smart phones, people started to post on the Internet, and images, new or old scanned ones, of Mesopotamia started to mushroom. But after the US-led invasion of Iraq and the ransacking of the Iraq Museum in April 2003, followed by the insurgency and sectarian violence, Iraqi people also began to feel a new sense of patriotism and nationalism, creating connections for themselves to Mesopotamian history.
So I finally figured it out; leaving a legacy and thumbprint can be achieved by documenting inaccessible historical images and videos. See, shoot, and store; full stop. The objective was initially to photograph Iraqi sites and relics that had few or no images on the net, using the state-of-the-art Nikon gear.
For instance, the rock-reliefs of Darband-i Gawr, Patas-Hareer, the Pass of Belula, Merquli, and Rabana are difficult to reach. I also photographed overlooked details of well-known historical cities or artifacts, such as Babylon, Borsippa, and the Sumerian city of Kish (which I visited during the peak of the sectarian violence, an extremely dangerous decision).
Preserving the Past: the Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments Project
