I still want to create a book, and these are the images that made the final cut.
A few of them deserve to be printed large and hung on a wall not because they’re perfect, but because they’re reminders. Reminders of where I was, what I saw, and what I managed to preserve in a fraction of a second.
It took years to revisit, edit, and make sense of these photographs. There may still be a few forgotten gems hiding on old hard drives, but for now, after 17 years, I think this is my final collection from my first tour in Iraq.
Looking through them, I’m proud of what I captured. Proud that I carried a camera. Proud that I paid attention.
Sometimes I wish I had taken more photographs. But then again, maybe that’s why these matter so much.