Atlantica - 01.10.2006, Page 11

AT L A N T I CA 9
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Accounted For
As of press time, 2,609 American soldiers
have been reported dead since the United
States invaded Iraq on 20 March 2003. Almost
20,000 Americans have been wounded, and at
least 40,500 Iraqi civilians have been killed by
military intervention in Iraq. The entire human
death toll is uncertain.
This photograph, dubbed “Know War,” was
taken by award-winning American photographer
Zach Gold, and aims to depict a fraction of the
human cost of the Iraq War by transforming the
American casualty number into a visible reality
– in essence, to bring death to life.
Gold, 33, shot the photograph on 3 June at
Mystery Mesa, a desert plain located less than
an hour from Los Angeles where scenes from
War of the Worlds and Hidalgo were filmed. The
photograph illustrates the number of American
soldiers killed so far in combat, and is digitally
updated as casualty numbers rise.
Gold, who was recognized by the late American
news anchor Peter Jennings as “one of the leaders
in creative image making” and was a recipient of
the International Center of Photography’s Young
Photographer of the Year award, has undertaken
the ongoing non-profit Know War project, of
which the photograph is the first part, to personify
the abstraction of war and to prompt dialogue on
how people relate to the human cost of war.
“People have a choice: either ‘Yes, this is okay
with me,’ or ‘No, this needs to stop,’” Gold says.
“If this is the cost of war, what exactly is the
benefit?”
In addition to the photographic memorial,
Know War’s mission is to generate an archive
of personal testimony and reaction to war.
Many people, Gold believes, feel fundamentally
disconnected from the reality of combat. “For
those of us who haven’t lost someone close to us,
war seems unreal,” he says. “And it seems much
is being done to keep war as unreal as possible.
If we all knew firsthand what combat was like, I
think fewer wars would be waged.” SB
For more information or to submit to the project,
visit knowwar.com.
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