Simulating Iraq: 2008

With my series Simulating Iraq I deal with American military training for the war in Iraq. These photographs were made on military bases within the U.S. in fabricated spaces designed to simulate conditions in Iraq. I draw attention to the appropriation of Iraqi culture including Americans (both soldiers and civilians) role-playing as Iraqis, the use of specific costumes, objects and architecture. What interests me about these simulated Iraqi spaces is the way the imagination is at work in them, both in the psychology of this imagination and in its inherent consequences.

The pictures, like the reality, can be confusing, provoking one to wonder who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys? Who is a real Iraqi, and who is a fake insurgent? What does it feel like for a soldier to play the role of her or his enemy? What does it mean to a young soldier who has their first encounter with difference in this environment? These spaces are meant as imitations of reality, but take on their own realities, especially because they are, after all, preparation for soldiers who shortly will be in the real Iraq.

While my process in some ways borrows from the documentary tradition, I take a deliberately more subjective approach. Using a large-format camera my process is inherently slow, thus rendering it impossible to record real-time events. This inability to objectively render facts opens up the subjective possibilities of storytelling and allows me more conceptual license.