wejetset - magazine - Global Affairs: The Architecture of War & Richard Mosse

Global Affairs: The Architecture of War & Richard Mosse

The sharp and story-telling photography of Richard Mosse focuses its gaze upon the transition of Saddam’s palaces from the US Military back to the Iraqi government. Richard recently sat down with Flavorwire to discuss his work and what he saw while on a month-long tour of Iraq. It’s a fantastic read. Be sure to check it out.

In response to why Richard decided to photograph Saddam’s Palaces, he states: “I used to read out-of-date New Yorkers at the gym while I was a graduate student at Yale. I would sweat over the periodicals and carry some four year old magazine back to the Stairmaster. I chanced upon Jon Lee Anderson writing fresh from the US invasion of Baghdad way back in 2003. Anderson describes the US invasion in superb detail. I think his correspondence from around the time of the invasion is some of the best war literature I’ve encountered. Anderson described wandering through one of Saddam’s palaces and recounted a grand vision: Children’s scooters lay on the floor in some of the downstairs reception rooms. In one bedroom, there was a brand-new McCulloch chain saw on a sofa next to the bed, its yellow box on the floor. There were four more chain saws, still in their boxes, in a walk-in closet. I thought to myself, for f@%#’s sake, take a picture! So then, in my final year of graduate school, I wrote a grant proposal under the working title, The Accidental Monument. I proposed to photograph Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Iraq.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.