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Tayari's Blog: The Abu Ghriab Project

Posted by TayariJones on June 24, 2007 10:29 AM
Filed under Current Events

Yesterday, Daniel Heyman invited us to his studio to view the prints in his series of portraits of people released from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Daniel traveled to the Middle East to sit in as Iraquis released from Abu Ghraib described their experiences to human rights lawyers.

As the detainees spoke, Daniel drew the portraits and wrote their testimonies alongside their likenesses. You will see from the images that the words are crammed in with the faces, the letters often traveling up the sides of the pages and even onto the speaker’s clothing. This is because Daniel drew and wrote in real time. As the translators converted the words to English, Daniel wrote them down.

Below is an excerpt from the text accompanying the portrait which is called Jasim Was In A Cage (you can see the image here):

Jasim was in a cage. A metal cage. He was not allowed to stand. He was hooded for ten days. When a father was forced to bury his son in a ½ meter deep hole. That they both dug. Then the son was forced to lie down in the hole. The soilders were laughing. The Prisoners were crying. The son stayed in the hole covered with dirt for one hour. The son and the father and Jasim thought the son would die.

The images you see here are made from copper plates. Here is a little explanation for folks not versed in the technique. Instead of writing on paper, Daniel etched the images onto copper plates using a diamond-point stylus. He wrote the testimony in the same way except he had to write backwards, as everything transferred from plates comes out mirrored. His tremendous investment of labor underscores his commitment to this cause.

During the Q&A, Daniel said that he would not sell these prints to any private collectors. Because these prints are for the world to see, he will only sell them to public collections. (One set has been placed with the New York Public Library.) He was also asked about the women in Abu Ghraib. Unfortunately, no woman would allow him in the room during her testimony, but he was able to draw a portrait of one woman and used the transcript of her testimony for her plate. This woman, like many of the subjects of this remarkable series, has since been murdered. (You can see her watercolor portrait here.)

When asked what this project has taught him about the war in Iraq, Daniel said, “What you learn, is that we don’t know anything about this war. You think you know, and then you learn that it is so much worse than you thought, and that you don’t even know the half it. No matter how much you see, how much you hear, there is always something worse.”

You can see the full collection at Daniel Heyman’s website.

An NPR interview with Daniel Heyman.

Libby Rosof reports about a recent exhibition of these pieces.

PoliticsTheoryPhotography has a nice write-up, too.