Pen and Shutter

The photo above was taken in 2006 by Peter van Agtmael during his time covering the war in Iraq. It is a part of his series War Graffiti which covers an interesting place in the Iraq conflict, the bathroom stall. A place of no accountability. A place where anything can be said, and everything is said. The doors and partitions of these stalls are filled with words written by soldiers. These words almost provide a glimpse into the minds of the those who wrote them. Looking through the series, I wondered what motivated the writing. In the instance of the photo above, it seems that the bathroom stall became a place for an anonymous release of emotion. For the faceless soldier who wrote a plea for God's forgiveness and assurance, the bathroom stall became a confessional. For the writer of the obsene response, the walls may have become a place to release the resentment caused by the bitter realities of war. Or could it simply be a trivial remark? The motives are obscure, but that obscurity compells curiosity, a curiosity that can only be filled with the products of imagination.

"My photographs are primarily about contradictions" says Agtmael, and the contridiction is in plain view. Along with obscurity, the photo bares obviousness. The vulgar response to the written prayer is loud and clear. The obcene outweighs the sincere in size and intensity, yet the weight of the photograph is balanced. The two statements evenly balance their position within the frame, one with content, the other with visual intensity.