Photo Stories
Look at the USA, a book on post-9/11 America by Magnum Photos’ Peter van Agtmael, is a compelling meditation on war and society. Peter Dench talks to him
As American photographer Peter van Agtmael (born 1981) explains: ‘There’s something that’s inherently awkward about the interview process and being asked the questions and talking the whole time.
‘I always feel awkward, like shit, am I talking too much and I haven’t even started talking. You can see my neurosis on full display.’
Perhaps it’s necessary for the 2003 Yale University graduate, who has a degree in history, to be this way to produce the photographs he does. His latest book, Look at the USA (Thames & Hudson) is fuelled by ideology, insecurity, ambition and a deep fascination with war. Peter began with documenting America’s war in Iraq in 2006, a photographic odyssey that would span nearly two decades. The work grew from a deep need to understand and peel back the layers of his troubled society. ‘I’ve done five books before this one and each of those books has a component in this book,’ van Agtmael explains. ‘It’s this story of America and its conflicts abroad and its conflict internally since 9/11, as well as their origin in history. The connective tissue is both their history and these events, but also myself moving through those events.’
The 190 photographs and illustrations examine the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their consequences back home: Jennie Taylor is pictured choosing a headstone for her husband Brent, who was killed by an Afghan soldier in an
insider attack; Bobby Henline swims in a pool and poses with his son. Bobby received over 40% burns to his body when the Humvee he was travelling in through Iraq was destroyed. The photographs explore race, class, nationalism, militarism, displacement and the events leading up to the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. They are taken with medium-format cameras, full-frame cameras, Micro Four Thirds cameras and an iPhone. From ten megapixels to 40. Many are lit with a Sony HVL-F20M flash.
Consistent style
The kit may be eclectic, but Peter manages to pull the book together with a continuity of style and vision.
‘I’ve always found photography to be at its best when it’s constantly surprising and challenging in a way,’ he says.
‘I guess I’ve always tried to find a balance of tension between something recognisable but something that’s also open and loose and unexpected, and both things probably compromise. The looseness gets compromised by the fact I’m trying to be a little bit styled,
