Yanni, Irak État des Lieux
Both war and peace are generally incomprehensible for both those who live through them and those who observe and illustrate them. Since 2006 a young Frenchman has visited Iraq on a regular basis, starting off in Kurdistan, with the aim of coming to grips with a particular situation: he needed to comprehend the reasons why undocumented migrants whom he used to see in difficult circumstances in a square near his home in Paris decided to go into exile in Europe; and, at the same time, he wished to experience the day to day life of a country at war,experiencing the life of civilians and the military. His concern never was although he returned to Iraq to work in 2013– what has come to be known as breaking news; the succession of spectacular or emblematic events that attract the communications media. He recounts his ordinary life experiences, his encounters, emotions and doubts in portraits, in landscapes, in small moments of action. But the official periods of peace are scarcely any different from the times of war. And the complexity of the situations is impossible to disentangle on the ground and be summed up in images. Parallel to the photographs, the moving image has enabled him to better express these confused and painful sensations for both civilians and young soldiers.
