Embedded Artist Gives Another Perspective on Iraq War

[Barrett808]

Embedded Artist Gives Another Perspective on Iraq War
By Claudia Parsons | January 10, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world has seen more images from the war in Iraq than of any conflict in history, from film of tanks advancing on Baghdad to digital pictures of prisoner abuse, but artist Steve Mumford is offering something else.

The 44-year-old New Yorker, whose previous works include pictures of wolves in a forest and sharks underwater, seems an unlikely heir to the man he cites as a hero, Winslow Homer who documented the American Civil War for Harper's Weekly.

With no official links to the military, which has its own combat artists, Mumford decided to travel to Iraq independently within days of the U.S.-led invasion.

He reported back only to an arts Web site called artnet.com, writing a "Baghdad journal" about his experiences illustrated by his drawings and paintings that have since been shown in a New York gallery and which go on tour early this year.

...

"The drawings have attracted a lot of attention though the attention is mixed," Mumford said. "Most artists are pretty strongly politically against the war so there's been criticism that the drawings seem too neutral."

He says he felt no compulsion to be objective since he was an artist rather than a journalist.

"If I was with a military unit and I felt like these guys were doing a good job ... and they were good guys, I tended to identify with them and be supportive of their mission."

"At the same time if I was with Iraqis, especially my Iraqi friends, I would try to reflect that subjectively too."

(more)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/10/embedded_artist_gives_another_perspective_on_iraq_war/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[brentspeak]

4. Er, no. The good guys are OUR guys

and the Iraqi civilians who are caught up in this whole mess. The bad guys are Bush and his cronies, as well as the "freedom fighters" who are blowing up our troops and Iraqi civilians.

[NYC]

2. Baghdad Journal by Mumford.

http://www.artnet.com/ag/fulltextsearch.asp?searchstring=mumford¤tCategory=Magazine&page=2

An example:



The AK-47 Round, Squad from Bravo Company takes cover during a nighttime patrol after a shot is fired nearby.
2003

From: http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/mumford/mumford8-27-11.asp

[othermeans]

3. Thanks for that link. Excellent gallery. nt