Image:April 8, 2003– A US Marine with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment near Baghdad following combat operations during the invasion of Iraq.
BATTLESPACE – UNREALITIES OF WAR
Battlespace: The environment, factors and conditions, which must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. This includes the air, land, sea, space, and the included enemy and friendly forces, facilities, weather, terrain, the electromagnetic spectrum, and information environment within the operational areas and areas of interest.
Image:Stefan Zaklin A U.S. soldier killed in the battle of Fallujah. Iraq, 2004.
US Department of Defense.
Battlespace, an exhibition of photographs from Afghanistan and Iraq that brings together the work of twenty?five photojournalists around the world, comes to London this November.
The exhibition presents an unsanitised view of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to a public that has been shielded from disturbing images of war.
Battlespace questions the perceptions, agendas, and narratives of the military and the media, and attempts to offer an unfiltered account from a group of photographers who saw it firsthand.
These photographs were made in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they don’t claim to depict either country. They are glimpses of an alternate reality built upon those countries. The images do not provide a comprehensive account of these wars, or an understanding of these nations or their peoples. They are fragments, seen in off?moments behind the walls of concrete super?bases, or outside them, through night?vision goggles and ballistic eye shields.
Image:Captain Sean Sims, commander of Alpha Company of the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 2-2, lies dead on the kitchen floor of a house used as a base by insurgent fighters in Fallujah, Iraq on Saturday, 13 November 2004. Sims was shot and killed as by insurgent fighters when he entered the room. Two other U.S. military personnel were wounded by the insurgents, who escaped. Photo by STEFAN ZAKLIN/EPA
Counter insurgency theory, once again fashionable, holds that the prize of modern warfare is not the territory but the minds of the population within. The battlespace is not solely defined by map lines or grid squares, but also in the areas of perception and illusion. In this shifting, human terrain, there are no facts or truths, only competing agendas. Messages are shaped and transmitted, from bunkered press officers to journalists who report from behind blast?walls and cubicle partitions.
Unpleasant, complex, or off?message images are filtered by both sides, and war stories are recycled through the echo chamber. Battlespace
aims to present unfiltered and uncensored images and thereby give the viewer a real opportunity to discover, for themselves, the realities of war.
Image:The ruins of Loe Sam, a small village in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, only a few kilometers from the Afghan border. December 2008.
In what has been described as a decisive conflict between Pakistani security forces and Taliban and Al Qaeda linked insurgents, the tribal agency of Bajaur was the scene of intense fighting which began in August and continues with daily exchanges of artillery and rocket fire. More than 80 Pakistani security forces have been reported killed in the campaign, with hundreds more wounded, and enemy casualties estimated at over 1600. Some 100,000 Pakistani security forces are said to deployed in this border region with Afghanistan, including the seven tribal agencies of the FATA and the district of Swat.
Approximately 8,000 Pakistani troops are reported to be operating in Bajaur, which is adjacent to Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Kunar has experienced intense fighting between insurgents and US and NATO forces in recent years, and Bajaur, along with the tribal agencies of Waziristan, was considered the primary stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in Pakistan. As many as 300,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes in Bajaur. The September bombing of the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad is widely believed to have been carried out in retaliation for the Bajaur offensive.
BATTLESPACE – unrealities of war
Photographs from Afghanistan and Iraq by;
Andrew Cutraro, Ashley Gilbertson, Balazs Gardi, Ben Lowy, Christoph Bangert, Eros Hoagland, Ghaith Abdul Ahad, Guy Calaf, Jason Howe, Jehad Nga, Lucian Read, Luke Wolagiewicz, Moises Saman, Petervan Agtmael, Rita Leistner, Stefan Zaklin, Stephanie Sinclair, Teru Kuwayama , Yuri Kozyrev.
Battlespace runs from November 9th to 30th 2010 at Great Western Studios, 55, Alfred Road, London W2 5EU. Monday – Friday: 10am – 6pm, Saturday & Sunday: Noon – 5pm
Battlespace will be accompanied by a programme of talks, film, poetry and Q&A events related to the exhibition and its subjects.
For full details: www.watchthisspace. org
www.greatwesternstudios.co.uk
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
terukuwayama.com/
www.balazsgardi.com/
www.cutraro.com/
www.benlowy.com/
www.ashleygilbertson.com/
www.jehadnga.com/
www.ritaleistner.com/
www.wolagiewicz.com/
www.eroshoagland.com/
www.noorimages.com/photographers/yurikozyrev/
www.petervanagtmael.com/
www.guycalaf.com/
www.lucianread.com/
www.stefanzaklin.com
www.selvesandothers.org/
www.christophbangert.com/
www.conflictpics.co.uk/
www.stephaniesinclair.com/
www.moisessaman.com/
SELECTED PRESS ON WATCH THIS SPACE:
New York Times
BBC News
Evening Standard
