8 ms·
Photos of Mosul 2017
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- arcticbull 9y agoI would love to donate to this person, and I couldn't find a way. Any suggestions?
- Doches 9y agoFrom the last line of the article: > If you’d like to support my work, you can purchase prints of my photos. You can also learn about and support the world of the Free Burma Rangers here. http://www.kainoalittle.com/prints/ http://www.kainoalittle.com/prints/
- nl 9y agoWhile I strongly support this journalist's work, I'm extremely hesitant to support the Free Burma Rangers. In Iraq they are an armed religious group, and while their goal of supporting refugees is admirable, their methods seem likely to make things worse. To be clear, their methods involve actively seeking out firefights. See http://www.freeburmarangers.org/international/kurdistan/ http://www.freeburmarangers.org/international/kurdistan/ for some idea of how they think about this.
- notacoward 9y agoThey are armed and they are religious, but they don't seem to be acting as combatants. The article you cite doesn't indicate that FBR members participated in any fighting. Yes, they actively seek out firefights because - rather obviously - that's where their services are likely to be needed. There are arguments for and against being armed in such an environment, but none of that suggests they're an "armed religious group" in the same sense as ISIS or the Badr Brigades. Perhaps you could explain why you think their methods are likely to make things worse, more than is true for any foreign group up to and including Red Cross/Crescent or MSF.
- farss 9y agoThey're a bunch of ex-military cowboys running around playing saviors, but they're not humanitarians. They're missionaries with guns. They endanger probably more lives than they save and screw things up for the actual humanitarian agencies who have to clean up their mess, while they get their egos stoked on puff pieces on the Omaha evening news. Do NOT support FBR.
- rdl 9y agoNot being armed in such an environment is insane. I spent most of a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unless I was on US bases with vastly better security, was armed in any situation where it was possible (there were a couple exceptions in Afghanistan and they were horrendously stupid.) (Not religious, and not a "security contractor" -- we ran wifi and satellites and such -- but zero interest in being kidnapped and beheaded in a crappy video like one of my high school classmates. Never had anything bigger than a .30cal, and generally low profile vs big armored trucks, but also never got kidnapped.) Given the lack of US QRF in the conflict areas of Iraq today, the case for every humanitarian or commercial entity being armed is even stronger now. Some form of neutral, armed-for-self-defense entities for both commercial and NGO services would make a lot more sense than relying on foreign governments. While I love a lot of what MSF does, they have been criminally negligent in securing their personnel in places like Afghanistan.
- scott_karana 9y agoAside from the political/ethical discussion here: logistically, how did you arm yourself when abroad as a private citizen in the Middle East? I'm guessing you get blessing from Iraqi and/or American embassies in advance? How do you ship arms without falling afoul of carrier and export issues? Or are there arms corporations that allow for pickup on location (or on US bases)?
- rdl 9y agoIn Iraq in 2003-2004 it was "send one of my guards to the market to see what was on offer". I spent the entire time I was there trying to get a Sig or Glock; had a Browning Hi Power pretty early on, then upgraded to a CZ 97B once I found a way to get .45acp ammo. Also spent the entire time trying to get a decent AKM, never found one, ended up with an RPK. I saw some MP5s as well, but they were $3-5k, and 9mm isn't really a great round in FMJ, so I never got one. Obviously everything remained in country when I left. I was locally contracted with DOD/etc and had letters from my customers authorizing me to be armed. (There was policy that such authorization had to come from the combatant commander, but in reality it got delegated pretty far down, and even if people in my customer orgs were not individually authorized to sign, no random MP would challenge those orgs.) It was a pretty ambiguous situation, but being American, I was essentially exempt from local law, and private citizens (Iraqis) were allowed one rifle for self defense in any case. There were some US bases where I wasn't allowed to carry, but the commanders were able to authorize that as well. The absolute worst thing that could happen from the US side would be "sent back to the US", but there was really no risk of that, and the most routine thing was at worst "please deposit your weapons with our office until you leave our base, if you don't have weapons authorization" on the biggest bases toward the end of the occupation -- and those are the places where I would have just secured it anyway in an armory because I didn't want to carry it around, and in any serious incident I would have been around professionals or could have picked up M4s off the ground. Most private contractors were prohibited by their US issued contracts and their insurers from being armed, unless they were security companies. Many outside the wire contractors still armed themselves the same way I did. The international shipping of arms is really the only problem; within a country like Iraq it really isn't a big deal. I did end up learning to do armorer level maintenance on the AK and Hi Power platforms while there, and made friends with a gunsmith.
- morsch 9y agoFor what it's worth, you can buy prints at their website: http://www.kainoalittle.com/prints/ http://www.kainoalittle.com/prints/
- electic 9y agoThese are amazing images. Images aside, photographers like these put their lives in danger everyday to get images like these. I would gladly donate. Also, would be neat if they also took Bitcoin and Ethereum as a donation option.
- radicalbyte 9y agoMe too; I've dropped him an email to see if he has a paypal or patreon or something :) I don't think that we're the only ones here who want to send him some cash.
- radicalbyte 9y agoMe too; I've dropped him an email to see if he has a paypal or patreon or something :) I don't think that we're the only ones here who want to send him some cash.
- hajderr 9y agoI hope this thread doesn't get hijacked with political discussions. I'll spare my comments at least. Let the story be told through the images...
- mrkrab 9y agoWhat else should we talk about in this thread? About how sad it is that nobody wanted to buy her photos, or about how great it is that she's giving them away?
- jchw 9y agoTo be honest, sounds like a plan, because I'd like to know the former and I agree with the latter.
- comboy 9y agoIt's just my personal opinion, but I think these photos are poor quality. Many of them were not in focus and post-processing was used to make them look better. And that's based on the really small versions available. So I don't think it's surprising they were not accepted by some newspapers (especially that we don't know the asking price). Still, it's great that the author decided to share them for free. They have great value even without being top quality - it's just that many publications want to keep the photos quality top notch.
- superflyguy 9y ago"But the soldiers had fed me and given me a seat in their Humvees, and the refugees had tolerated my presence on some of the worst days of their lives. They very rightly expected that I would tell their story." You could have explained a little about the death of newspapers and other media outlets, and how much existing footage/photography there is of conflict in Iraq (to say nothing of Afghanistan, Syria etc). They should have been under no illusions as to the likelihood of any particular photographer getting their work paid for and published. It's like the Simpsons joke about space missions. The first guy landed on the moon and it's the story of the century. The 12th lunar mission though? Meh - what else is on. Trying to get a western, especially an American, audience excited about another batch of photographs about fighting in the Middle East seems like something of a tall order. Even outside of the news photography has died a death. Anyone can take an adequate photograph nowadays with cheap, simple equipment so few people are willing to pay a professional.
- thinkloop 9y ago"death of newspapers and other media outlets" decreases supply of such images - armchair bloggers have less means, infrastructure and connections to do it.
- raverbashing 9y agoBut they are free to misattribute some video on youtube as something different or exaggerated and build their "news" on that
- philipkglass 9y agoThe proliferation of mobile devices that record videos and pictures has IMO made up for it with sheer documentation volume from people on the spot. The Syrian civil war is far more thoroughly documented than the first Gulf War even though the first Gulf War took place in an environment where Western news-gathering organizations were in a much better financial state. You can see combat recorded from the the Syrian Arab Army, the foreign military powers intervening in the war, and the rebel factions. Not just combatants, either; the aftermath of attacks on civilians gets recorded/uploaded as well. They're all uploading stuff for the world to watch. The vast majority of this footage is admittedly uploaded in service of one agenda or another, but that's just a lateral move from the status quo ante of the 1991/2003 Iraq invasions. The critical Western press coverage of war in the Vietnam era did not seem to endure. (And that was itself a bit unusual; American press coverage of WW II and Korea was by-and-large aligned with the aims of the American government in those wars.)
- HearMeRoar 9y agoWhy would no one buy these amazing photographs? Either OP is bad at finding a buyer or photography is one tough job.
- deepnet 9y agoPerhaps these photos do not 'fit the current narrative' or go against the editorial policy of the news outlets. Ownership of traditional mainstream media is cloistered in few hands and those hands have agendas for editorial policy and friends in high places. Chomsky's Manufacturing consent well demonstrates how this is achieved bottom up: i.e. one isn't so much told what to think but hired because of ones views and worldview.
- deepnet 9y agoThe correspondence of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and the practice of "culture-fit" in Hiring Practices should be a note of caution to growing companies. Over constraining your hiring, ( i.e. the aspect of "culture-fit" that is antonymical to diversity ) can lead an organisation to blindness to the true state of things ( i.e. not having diverse perspectives on customers due to a lack of diversity in employee backgrounds ). This is why diversity is not just about fairness but also highly pragmatic. Diversity makes for wiser corporations which makes them anti-fragile and gives them new edges in competition. It is also why the subtle method of subverting democracy outlined in Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent as a practice to create an organisation ( or newspaper ) that outputs a world view concurrent with ones own makes for fragile democracies and administrations. That it can happen "unconsciously" because it is easier to recognise competence in those who are like you means organisations and democracies must be vigilant against entrenched political and journalistic class evolving. In short: critics are better friends than an echo chamber. Or contemporaneously: firing scientists does make climate change less true.
- deepnet 9y ago[edit] Or contemporaneously: firing scientists does NOT make climate change less true.
- zdkl 9y agoWildly off topic: this site redirected my mobile chrome to some advertisement with a screen blocking scammy alert and closed all other tabs. What the hell?
- LeoNatan25 9y agoSome really good photos. War is tragic, but it sure allows for people to capture amazing photography. What does this say about us?
- tomxor 9y agoGood shots Kainoa, I really wish I could read the story that goes with them. I can see it being hard as a news photographer of any sort these days, as papers are going through a very hard transition that may see them completely vanish at the other side of it. Have you considered finding some writers on Medium? Their new concept is to be the platform without the paper, readers select writers more organically and writers get paid more directly, photographers don't fit directly into this model yet but you could at least sell to writers there. Maybe medium will come up with a way to have multiple contributors to articles that photographers could be a part of too.
- tomxor 9y agoTo clarify with the Medium thing, I guess what I mean is when you sell to papers you don't consider it your job to find the writers that your photos go with, but maybe now that is part of the job.
- wfunction 9y agoApologies for the confusion, this isn't by me -- I was merely sharing the page and wasn't sure what else to title it than what it had originally. I just posted a note to that effect.
- tomxor 9y agoThere seems to be a few more photos in the collection on his site too: http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul
- NicoJuicy 9y agoI suppose you mostly tried US papers? I see a better audience for this in Europe
- wfunction 9y agoApologies for the confusion, this isn't by me -- I was merely sharing the page and wasn't sure what else to title it than what it had originally. I just posted a note to that effect.
- Nanite 9y agoThey're decent pictures, but not "GREAT" pictures. Even in warzones photojournalism is a highly competitive field. Editors at Reuters, AP and other news agencies get tons of sets offered every day. Whining about it in an extremely passive aggressive blog post really isn't going to help his career along.
- strawcomb 9y agoI'm sorry, but where is the whining? He simply said that no-one would buy his work, and that he felt he owed it to the people who kindly shared some of their lives with him to try and get their story out there. The headline 'no one would buy my photos...' is catchy, truthful, and has obviously been effective at drawing attention.
- andmarios 9y agoThese shots capture the harshness of human conflict and how we (human beings) change in the face of it. Thank you. I disagree with people saying these are good shots. In the collection another user posted ( http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul ) there are better shots technically and artistically. Yet that the photographer chose these shots for the article speak tons. These aren't photographs to make you feel better, these are photographs to make you understand (even a tiny bit) what real war looks like and it is ugly.
- ux 9y agoI always found disturbing the way a mixing "art" with this kind of subject. It's giving a much more positive feedback, as in "it looks cool" or the feeling of emotions you get in a movie (because it doesn't look real). Let's not forget war is freaking horrible and there is nothing worth idealizing one way or another about it. That's my personal belief, but I don't think art has its place here. Any form of heroic spectacle are truly misleading about what the people and soldiers truly endure.
- jszymborski 9y ago"Art" obviously means different things to different people, but I know that in my case, and likely in the grandparent post's case, "good art" is a form of expression that effectively evokes emotion, feeling or idea, be they positive or negative. We might respond positively to the efficacity and skill with which that feeling or emotion is conveyed, but still be disturbed by the message that it represents.
- cobbzilla 9y agoDoes there exist any acceptable mixing of art + war in your view? What are your thoughts on Picasso's "Guernica" [1] ? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)
- notspanishflu 9y agoWhen I think about Guernica I think about opportunism. The painting was commissioned before Guernica's air raid. After the bombing Picasso remade the paint. This is the true history. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Felpais.com%2Fdiario%2F1983%2F03%2F05%2Fopinion%2F415666809_850215.html&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev... https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Flaverdadofende.blog%2F2014%2F04%2F26%2Fel-guernica-de-picasso-nada-tiene-que-ver-con-el-bombardeo-de-guernica%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev...
- wfunction 9y agoNote: Just to clarify in case anyone misinterprets, these are not my photos! I merely copied the title from the page. If there's a better way to title pages like these, please let me know, since I was confused as to what title I should put while avoiding it being misleading.
- Denvercoder9 9y agoIt'd probably work to prefix the name of the author before the title, so something like "Kainoa Little: No One Would Buy My Photos, So Here They Are For Free: Mosul 2017".
- wfunction 9y agoOoh, that's a good idea, thanks!
- JCDenton2052 9y agoVery nice, but could have used higher resolution.
- smallhands 9y agoAs a foolish man that had not experienced war.these pictures remind me of Call of Duty a lot!!???.I am kind of wonder the magics advance VR can do in training of soldiers?
- onetokeoverthe 9y agoHis website won't load. No wonder they're not sold.
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoThe article has received both the Reddit and HN hugs of death, it might be a traffic problem. And it loads fine (quickly, even) for me... Try the author's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isawgold/ https://www.instagram.com/isawgold/ or personal website: http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul if the Petapixel link is not loading for you.
- skywhopper 9y agoThese are great pictures, and makes me realize that while we hear a lot (though not enough) about these conflicts around the world, its usually just accompanied by a photo or two or a few seconds of video capturing a firefight or an explosion. But such things are cliche at this point and don't hit home. Seeing real soldiers taking a break between firefights, and real families fleeing their homes with their children and a few belongings really makes the reality of the situation much more graspable. I think we need to see a lot more of these candid photos (and video too) of the real people whose lives are being devastated by these conflicts.
- dsego 9y agoThere is a great short film about the yugoslav war that depicts this really well. You can find it on youtube, type in "10 Minutes, a short film".
- aphextron 9y agoThe recent drone footage from Mosul is some of the most mind blowing, surreal stuff imaginable. God help anyone trapped in that city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_F2ntQOcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_F2ntQOcQ
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoI was there in 2010 and it was pretty peaceful. Now it's a total disaster, along with most of Iraq.
- e40 9y agoA consistently excellent place to view photos of this sort, though not exclusively about war, etc, is the Atlantic "In Focus" page: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/ https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/ I visit them once a week and go through the photos. Quite amazing.
- notacoward 9y agoI'd never heard of the Free Burma Rangers before, and these photos helped me learn. I guess that means the author has succeeded in his admirable mission to tell others' stories.
- rmason 9y agoI too had never heard of the Rangers and their work. Here's their site: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/ http://www.freeburmarangers.org/
- thekid314 9y agoFor photos by a pro check these out: www.asmaawaguih.com/albums/liberating-mosul/
- anonu 9y agoCurious why the photographers pictures didn't sell? Is there an oversupply of stuff material? Is the source questionable?
- jokoon 9y agoIt's weird because I've read several times over that violence in the world is decreasing on average, so it would seem the middle is the last violent place. Still quite violent...
- nyolfen 9y agoyou see all those weird straight lines when you look at the political boundaries on a map of the middle east? those are lines drawn by former colonial masters. they look inorganic because they aren't natural. this alone is a seed of conflict: unnatural borders that don't reflect a social reality. throw in prized resources to compete over, and it's incredibly fertile ground for violence. now, look where else you can see these national border geometries for a glimpse into the future...