TIME Magazine, Pat Barker
Book Description
In the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, these men and women and their photographs bring home the drama of war at a turning point in our history. Charlie Rose
WAR is a profoundly moving testament of the world at war since 9/11, as witnessed by some of our best and bravest journalists. Jon Lee Anderson
WAR reveals the true story of what our country has faced since that fateful Tuesday in 2001. Featuring 223 photographs, insightful vignettes, and three thought-provoking major essays, WAR is a powerful collaborative effort from VII, a cutting- edge photo agency co-operatively owned by nine elite photojournalists. The three full-length essays, written by eminent journalists Peter Maass, Remy Ourdan, and David Rieff, discuss the three major crises of the 21st century from a social, political, and militaristic standpoint and further illuminate the powerful photographic images in WAR. The photographers of VII — Christopher Anderson, Alexandra Boulat, Lauren Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, and John Stanmeyer — are used to witnessing, up close and in person, events of international turmoil. That is the duty of a photojournalist — to bear witness and to document history — and few would dispute that these photojournalists are the world’s very best.
Nachtwey was one of the few photojournalists who managed to record the destruction at Ground Zero. Rushing towards the place from which crowds of people were fleeing for their lives made perfect sense in the inverted logic of my profession, recalls Nachtwey. He produced some of the most memorable photographs taken that day, several of which are featured in WAR.
In addition to documenting the experience of 9/11, WAR takes an incisive look at the images from Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, as well as the airstrikes and US occupation of Iraq. In WAR, the photographers of VII have created a shockingly intimate portrait of US foreign policy and the most critical moments of American history in the beginning of the 21st century. What you see here will stun you.
