Yuri Kozyrev's new book (with text from Michael)
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
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