A soldiers' portfolio : this is our war : servicemen's photographs of life in Iraq

Select an Action

Title:

A soldiers' portfolio : this is our war : servicemen's photographs of life in Iraq

Author:

Friedman, Devin.

ISBN:

9781579653095

Personal Author:

Friedman, Devin.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

224 pages : color illustrations ; 23 x 29 cm

Abstract:

Accompanied by descriptive text, a compilation of 256 snapshots taken by soldiers on the ground in Iraq offer a personal record of the Iraq War and the experiences of Americans.

Contents:

Moving out -- Band of brothers -- The battlefield -- Tourists in Iraq -- Home away from home -- The fallen -- Last shots -- Soldiers' stories: The highest honor -- One infamous photograph -- Love letters -- Postcards to my wife -- A military family.

Subject Term:

Iraq War, 2003-2011 -- Pictorial works.

Armed Forces. (OCoLC)fst00814586

Irakkrieg

Soldat

Guerra de Irak, 2003-2011.

Invasión de Irak, 2003-

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Book	DS79.762 .F75 2006	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

At three o'clock in the morning, in a mess hall in Iraq, a soldier from the Florida National Guard took a little plastic device from a lanyard around his neck and plugged it into GQ journalist Devin Friedman's computer. It was a flash drive containing at least a hundred pictures--of his battalion in convoy through the desert, of his sister back in Florida, of every man his unit had killed. At that moment, it became clear to Friedman that Operation Iraqi Freedom was our first digital war. Not because of all the hardware you see on TV--night-vision goggles and Tomahawk missiles and Nic Robertson's videophone--but because of the simple, inexpensive digital camera, a part of daily life for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have served in Iraq. It's how American servicemen share their lives with their friends and family, with one another. And here, with readers.

This Is Our War presents 256 photos, culled from tens of thousands that GQ collected from American servicemen and women, in order to tell the story of America's Iraq experience with their pictures and in their own voices. From photographs of the strange everyday life in desert barracks to extraordinary images of combat, from glimpses of private moments to panoramas of incredible scenery, from brief interludes of joy to devastating moments of grief, here is a candid soldier's-eye view of war-- of their war. It's the conflict the way they see it: apolitically, intimately, with honesty and humor and courage.

This Is Our War is a snapshot of history in the making.This is the first digital war, not because of computer-guided smart bombs or CNN videophones, but because of the simple, inexpensive digital camera, a part of daily life for Americans in Iraq and the way our soldiers share that life--with their friends and family, with one another, and now in This Is Our War . These photos and in-depth narrative captions were culled from the ten thousand images that GQ collected, creating a striking, moving, and revealing work of contemporary American history. Part Day in the Life , part Medal of Honor , and part War Letters , this book is an instant snapshot of history in the making.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Memorable not for their artistry, but for the perspective they provides, these amateur photographs, collected by GQ senior writer Friedman, provide a record of the war in Iraq that is both more mundane and intimate than most media images: A woman is baptized in one of Saddam?s bathtubs. Six-hundred-fifty million dollars of supposed oil-for-food money is discovered in one day. A soldier?s gun is trained on a smiling young boy. A shepherd tending his flock studies a Humvee. Group photos of battalions and divisions lend a yearbook like feel to the volume, while a wife?s sexy portraits spice up the collection. When two Black Hawk helicopters collided in the fall of 2003, killing 17 U.S. soldiers, readers learn about its effect on an Iraqi civilian who lost his roof. An automobile accident stateside is the only narrative about an individual soldier?s death. More contentious chapters in the war?s history are lightly glossed (the one Abu Ghraib photo included seems mostly like a nod to the obligatory, though the accompanying narrative is surprisingly candid). Notable for its lack of pretense, this compilation of soldiers? snapshots nimbly avoids politicking in its portrayal of life on the ground in Iraq. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal Review

Over the past three years, the editors of GQ magazine asked ordinary servicemen and women and military photographers for their photographs of the Iraq war. From some 15,000 responses, GQ senior writer Friedman and the editors at the magazine chose 250 photographs for this work, which gives readers a chance to witness the war through the eyes of some men and women who lived and continue to live it. There is no talk of politics or debate for or against the war, only personal portraits and in-depth narrative captions that create a moving and revealing look at the Iraq experience. Images capture everything from haircuts in the desert and a soldier's baptism in one of Saddam Hussein's bathtubs to combat and the war's effect on soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike. There is only one photo relating to the controversy over Abu Ghraib and the treatment of Iraqi prisoners, but its caption is both revealing and candid. With a foreword by Gen. Wesley Clark, this book is recommended for all libraries.-David Alperstein, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.