Unembedded

Unembedded is one of the most important books about the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The four photojournalists took the moral path and chose not to act as propagandists for the U.S. military by joining the Pentagon's program of "embedding." Rather, they took their lives in their hands and chose bravely to show the harsh reality that Iraqis must live with every day now: A failed, brutal occupation. An infrastructure in shambles. A life of no security, nor freedom. The incredible will, beauty and resilience of the Iraqi people.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who has any desire to see the reality of Iraq today. The four photographers are true journalists, deserving of the highest respect and regard; particularly today when we attempt to operate as journalists amidst a media overburdened by soundbites, government/corporate/Pentagon pressure and a horribly misinformed public. This book should be required reading in our schools, universities and federal government.

—Dahr Jamail, Independent Journalist

Companion Book to the National Touring Exhibition

Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war. In the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, official truth died months before the bombing of Baghdad began. Unembedded bears witness to the enduring power of independent journalism. In their unflinching look at war-ravaged Iraq, four freelance photojournalists show that life there is brutal yet poignant; that compassion co-exists with anger, hatred and fear. By gaining the confidence of Iraqi civilians and insurgents, these photojournalists have brought back images of life in wartime, from beauty parlors and joyful wedding scenes to the carnage of civilian casualties, the heartbroken faces of grieving parents, and the glassy-eyed shock of parentless children.

This is not the view from a Marine base. These photographers were on the streets of Baghdad when it fell, amid a crowd of civilians under aerial attack, and in the holy Imam Ali shrine with the Mahdi Army during the siege of Najaf. Their images document issues often underrepresented: the insurgency as seen from inside the separate resistance movements, civilians affected by the battles between U.S. and insurgent forces, growing conservatism and fundamentalism and their effects on women, and the devastating effects of ongoing civilian casualties.

Working outside the U.S. military's official "embedding" program, the authors bring us face-to-face with the people of Iraq. They combine photographs and essays with excerpts from two years of personal letters, journal entries, and feature stories to take us across front lines and cultural barriers into the lives of a nation in crisis. Theirs is a path to understanding the cost of war.

About the Authors

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, 1975. Ghaith studied architecture in Baghdad University and had never travelled outside Iraq until after the recent war. A deserter from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army, Ghaith lived under ground in Baghdad for six years, changing his residence every few months to avoid detection and arrest.

He began making street photography in 2001 and determined to document conditions in Baghdad during the war. Arousing suspicion, he was arrested three days before the end of the war and, though he escaped by bribing his guards, he lost his cameras and all his film. The ...

View Ghaith's full profile page >

Kael Alford

Born in Middletown, NY, 1971. Kael is a freelance photojournalist who has spent more than eight months of the last year and a half in Iraq. She was based in Baghdad during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Her recent work from Iraq focuses on the growing culture of resistance, conservative religion and the grass roots movements developing ...

View Kael's full profile page >

Thorne Anderson

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, 1966. Thorne has been covering international news with Corbis/Sygma since 1999. Thorne's photographs are regularly published in magazines and newspapers including Time, Newsweek, Stern, New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Times (London), The Guardian, and others. He has a master's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia ...

View Thorne's full profile page >

Rita Leistner

Born in Toronto, Canada, Rita Leistner is a graduate of the International Center for Photography in New York, and has a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Toronto. She spent 10 months covering the war in Iraq between April 2003 and September 2004. With a focus on in-depth, long-term projects, her feature work includes a profile of an American Cavalry Unit during a three month embed in the spring and summer of 2003, a portrait story of women residents at the Al Rashad Psychiatric Hospital in Baghdad, and a feature on the gravediggers at the cemetery of ...

View Rita's full profile page >