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"Unembedded" - Photographs by Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Kael Alford, Thorne Anderson, and Rita Leistner

Exhibit hours: Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm; free and open to the public

Reception: Sunday, August 6, 2006 2:30 to 5pm; free and open to the public
Introductory Commentary Presentation by Kael Alford on the exhibit and companion book: 2:45pm

The exhibit, consisting of sixty photographs, deals with the day-to-day realities of the Iraq War as captured through the lenses of four photographers who have worked outside the U.S. military’s official “embedding” program. Their photographs document issues such as the insurgency as seen from inside the separate resistance movements, civilians affected by the violent battles, the devastating effects of war on civilians, and growing conservatism and fundamentalism and their effects on women. These photojournalists’ works bring viewers face-to-face with the real-life people in wartime Iraq, from images of beauty parlors and joyful wedding scenes to the carnage of civilian casualties, the heartbroken faces of grieving parents, and the glassy-eyed shock of parentless children. The photographs take viewers across front lines and cultural barriers, into the lives of a nation in crisis.

Photo: read description below

Father & Child in Najaf

by Kael Alford

One of the photographers, Kael Alford, grew up in Middletown, and attended
Orange County Community College. She has a BA in English, Magna Cum Laude, Boston University and an MA in Journalism, University of Missouri.

Kael Alford has worked extensively covering culture, politics and conflict in Southeast Europe and the Middle East for many major US and European magazines and newspapers. Her work from the conflicts in Kosovo and Macedonia was recognized in the Pictures of the Year competition in 2001 and 2002. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, The New Yorker (on-line), Mother Jones (on-line), US News and World Report, Time, The Independent (UK), The Irish Times, Scotland on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal Europe, L’Express (France), Le Monde (France), Marie Claire (Poland), Elle (Holland), NRC Handelsblad (Holland), Die Zeit (Germany), and Facts (Switzerland) among others.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad studied architecture in Baghdad University and had never travelled outside Iraq until recently. A deserter from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army, Ghaith lived underground in Baghdad for six years, changing his residence every few months to avoid detection and arrest. He began making street photography in 2001 and determined to document conditions in Baghdad during the war. His photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Times (London), and others. He has deftly managed to photograph and write from the front lines of both the Sunni and Shia insurgency movements.

Photo: read description below

Nine-year-old Hussein of the Village of Sheker in Falluja Hospital,
September 23, 2003

by Thorne Anderson

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Thorne Anderson has been covering international news with Corbis/Sygma since 1999. Thorne's photographs are regularly published in magazines and newspapers including Time, Newsweek, Stern, New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Times (London), The Guardian, and others. He has a MA from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and formerly taught Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Bulgaria. He and journalist, Phillip Robertson, spent three days inside the Imam Ali shrine, Najaf with the Mehdi Militia and it supporters at the peak of the American military siege.

Photo: read description below

August Unrest in Sadr City, Bagdad;
August 6, 2004
Members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army

By Rita Leistner

Born in Toronto, Canada, Rita Leistner is a graduate of the International Center for Photography, NYC and has a MA in comparative literature from the University of Toronto. She spent 10 months covering the war in Iraq between April 2003 and September 2004. With a focus on in-depth, long-term projects, her feature work includes a profile of an American Cavalry Unit during a three month embed in the spring and summer of 2003, a portrait story of women residents at the Al Rashad Psychiatric Hospital in Baghdad, and a feature on the gravediggers at the cemetery of Najaf during the August-September siege of 2004. She often writes as well as photographs her stories. Her photographs and stories from Iraq have been published in The Walrus, Newsweek, Time, Colors, Rolling Stone and Maclean's, among other publications.

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Contact Us:
Dorothy Szefc
Coordinator of Cultural Affairs (Middletown)
(845) 341-4891
cultural@sunyorange.edu

Nicole Shea
Coordinator of Cultural Affairs (Newburgh)
(845) 341-9386

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