Glad Tidings of Benevolence

Twenty years ago, Moises Saman was working in Iraq as a photojournalist during the US-led invasion and occupation. Glad Tidings of Benevolence combines his photographs taken during this period and the following years with disparate documentation and texts. Collectively, these materials raise questions about the complex representation of war, competing narratives and the truths buried within the clamour—at a time when the war begins to recede from global public memory. ‘My photographs are not meant to represent an objective account of the Iraq war against which to compare the textual references. Rather, the book grapples with my own role and power as a narrator - particularly one with access to foreign publications - and the biases and limitations inevitably embedded in my work.’ Saman began working as a newspaper photographer in Iraq just before the invasion. He has covered the US occupation and withdrawal, displacement, ethnic cleansing and other human rights and humanitarian crises, governance issues and the rise and fall of ISIS.