Them - Hardcover

by Sean Hemmerle (Author), Sean Hemmerle (Photographer), Julian Sander (Text by (Art/Photo Books))

Them is a body of portraits of Iraqis and Afghans, all shot in a similar fashion. Each subject is portrayed frontally with no direction from the artist, allowing the individuals photographed to (re)present themselves. The portraits depict average people in dire circumstances, a person in a hostile landscape. New York-based Sean Hemmerle travelled to both Afghanistan and Iraq following the events of September 11, 2001. Having witnessed the World Trade Center attacks, Hemmerle felt that another response to these events was necessary. His resulting images are compassionate studies of people under attack by his own government.

Author Biography

Sean Hemmerle was born in 1966 in Tempe, Arizona, USA. After serving in the U.S. Army (1984-1988), he attended the University of Miami and earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1997. He quickly established his reputation as a sought-after architectural and urban landscape photographer, and since 9/11 has turned his eye toward documenting the effects of war in New York, Afghanistan and Iraq. His conflict images span a tumultuous decade, from the World Trade Center to Kabul, Baghdad, Gaza, Juarez and Beirut. Closer to home, Hemmerle has created award-winning photographs that reflect the pathos and poetry of the American Rust Belt, including work from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Gary, and Albany. He collaborated with the Columbia Journalism Review on the "Media Nodes" project, a photographic survey of more than seventy American newsrooms, examining their functionality and proxemics.