“You give me access and I give you photos.” That was the deal struck by Dutch photographer Marieke van der Velden and journalist Paulien Bakker, who has covered Iraq extensively. For three intense weeks, they traveled  documenting a side of Baghdad that doesn’t often make the news — daily life, families, youth, people living resiliently though the conflict, the tension, the danger. There were four bombings during their stay, one at a Sunni mosque, killing 25. Armed with a Hasselblad, the women had to travel with a male “fixer” who helped them get transportation and the attention of certain male subjects. Yet, meeting two families a day, the duo felt welcome, enthralled by discussions of gender politics with the women and greeted happily by the children. See the photos, as featured on Behance and The New York Times’ Lens blog, and get closer to Baghdad. … Read More

Luckily, most of us will never know the danger of everyday life in a war-torn country — much less what it’s like be part of an invading force in one. The work of photographer Benjamin Lowy, who started covering the Iraq War back in 2003, could help change that. “I began this project as a response to what I felt what the general inability of people back home to comprehend what Iraq is like,” he writes. “Confronted by a level of violence so high that walking on the streets to photograph is tantamount to suicidal behavior, I found myself confined to working with American soldiers, spending most of my time going on various missions while looking at the landscape of this broken country. My only view was through the inches-thick bulletproof window of an Army Humvee.” Click through to view a slide show of what he saw over a six-year period in Iraq, and be sure to check out the book collection of his fascinating photographs, Iraq | Perspectives, which hits shelves today. … Read More