Yuri Kozyrev's new book
(with text from Michael)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Yuri Kozyrev
has a new book coming out in the spring, “Iraq - The
Full Story” and Schilt Publishing has a blurb about
it in their new brochure:
Yuri
Kozyrev
Texts by Brian Bennet and Michael Ware
Iraq – The Full
Story
Yuri
Kozyrev: ‘I have had the privilege to be a witness of
the major events happening in Iraq since 2002 until
now. It is a unique experience and this book is my
testimony. It looks like the diary of what I
remember, what impressed me most. Example: I came to
this war with the more or less clear-cut idea that
this was a battle between good and evil. I had
already travelled for months throughout Iraq and
witnessed Saddam Hussein’s oppression. When the war
started in March 2003, I was working from Baghdad and
did not have the opportunity to drive in an Abrams
tank or fly in the cockpit of a sparkling American
fighter jet. Instead, I moved from ruin to ruin, and
from one human tragedy to another. My original idea
of the glorious good guys defeating the evil bad ones
grew more and more distant until it vanished like a
mirage in the desert.
Here I am now, older and almost 7 years into this
war, and yet no wiser about how good should combat
evil. I know both sides believe that they are both
fighting against evil, but I have seen each move
closer to the dark side. Killing does not make anyone
better. Initial motives stop making sense after a
while because war is brutal. Human goodness is the
main casualty; it disappears in front of your eyes.
The book contains three chapters. The first one is
about Iraq before the war and the invasion itself. It
contains snapshot photos and movies of Saddam’s
family and his surroundings that Brian Bennet and I
found in the destroyed and looted lab inside of the
palace’s compound in Bagdad. It is pretty unique,
there are a lot of unknown images. Bennet, journalist
from Time and based then in Bagdad, writes about
Saddam’s family. Aside from the family pictures this
chapter also contains images from me as well as notes
taken during my first trips to Iraq when the
Baathists were in control. I was there when they lost
power, covering the last chapter of Saddam Hussein’s
dictatorship and the first weeks of the American
occupation.
The second
chapter is a chronicle of the Iraq War in about 100
images and text from Michael Ware.
It’s stunning, but
then, the whole thing was stunning of course. I was
in a strange way lucky to be there, at the right
place at the right time with the right people. The
third chapter is about Iraqi friends, their notes and
portraits, portraits of US soldiers and their words,
the subjects or topics I have been obsessed
with…’
Details:
ISBN 978
90 5330 741 0
Format: 17 x 24 cm (portrait)
Hardbound
320 pages, with approx. 200 photos in full colour
World rights; German and Russian rights sold
March 2011
£32.50 | $55