Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq

by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Thorne Anderson, Rita Leistner

Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war. In the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, official truth died months before the bombing of Baghdad began. Unembedded bears witness to the enduring power of independent journalism. In their unflinching look at war-ravaged Iraq, four freelance photojournalists show that life there is brutal yet poignant; that compassion coexists with anger, hatred and fear. By gaining the confidence of Iraqi civilians and insurgents, these photojournalists have brought back images of life in wartime, from beauty parlors and joyful wedding scenes to the carnage of civilian casualties, the heartbroken faces of grieving parents, and the glassy-eyed shock of parentless children.
This is not the view from a Marine base. These photographers were on the streets of Baghdad when it fell, amid a crowd of civilians under aerial attack, and in the holy Imam Ali shrine with the Mahdi Army during the siege of Najaf. Their images document issues often the insurgency as seen from inside the separate resistance movements, civilians affected by the battles between U.S. and insurgent forces, growing conservatism and fundamentalism and their effects on women, and the devastating effects of ongoing civilian casualties.
Working outside the U.S. military's official "embedding" program, the authors bring us face-to-face with the people of Iraq. They combine photographs and essays with excerpts from two years of personal letters, journal entries, and feature stories to take us across front lines and cultural barriers into the lives of a nation in crisis. Theirs is a path to understanding the cost of war.

Genres: Photography, Politics, Nonfiction, War, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2005

Reviews

[William West · Rating 4 out of 5]

These photos, taken at great risk to the photographers, serve as a powerfully neutral reportage of the truths of Iraq. There were, indeed, massacres under the Ba'ath Party in response to violent uprisings against its rule. However, there can be no doubt that what had been a functional, mostly progressive society under the Ba'ath Party was reduced to a ruin by the sanctions, bombings, and invasion of the U.S.
Photo after photo show civilians murdered and families destroyed by the American "shock and awe". Two of my favorite pieces revealed the society that had been lost. One of a tea-house, now ramshackled and mostly abandoned, that the photographer's texts informed was previously a gathering space for intellectual debate. Another, of liberally-dressed female students, hiding fearfully in a cafe that had previously been a party-spot, now afraid to go out in public without a veil.

[Codyramin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The photos that were chosen for this book ... simply took my breath away. Somehow, the images that get into newspapers lack the sort of heart and compassion and pain, and occasional moments of whimsy, that you four captured... I thank you all for putting these images together and helping people see the real human costs of this war." Scott Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most brutal, unflinching, incredible peaces of photojournalism I have seen in a while.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering and depresssing photographs of war. So many innocents killed and maimed.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photos showing the destructive consequences of the Iraq war on the Iraqi people up through 2005, taken by four photojournalists who were not embedded with US troops.