Baghdad Calling by Geert van Kesteren (Book, 2008)

To find other truths, given the increased quantity of imagery recently available while sensitive to the contested role of the photographer, there are others who have moved into a role not unlike that of an archivist, or a “metaphotographer,” gathering work from people who, from direct experience, may know the most about a situation. Consider, for example, Geert van Kesteren’s 2008 Baghdad Calling, a collection of cellphone images and testimonies from Iraqi refugees that testify to the profoundly unsettling and long-lasting impact of the war on their personal lives.  In this project van Kesteren combines his own photographs with hundreds of cellphone and digital photographs by Iraqi refugees.