The Circle is an immersive sound and image installation about displaced individuals and communities within Iraq made between 2013-2016. It is based on an innovative mixture of documentary photography, video testimonies and location sound recordings recorded in Iraq over several years.  This work was made in collaboration with documentary photographer Agata Skowronek.

Since the invasion in 2003 we had felt strongly that Western media representations of Iraq had failed to show the impact violence was having on people’s everyday lives. The words of ordinary Iraqis were rarely heard over the clamour of political posturing, military campaigns and acts of terrorism. Iraq had been reduced to a body count with little meaning attached to the lives lost. To counter this we travelled across Iraq, interviewed and photographed a wide variety of different people and communities. We looked for ipeoplewhose stories exemplified the situation of the many who have fled from one part of the country to another. We saw how the process of being displaced had imposed a ceaseless uncertainty on lives of the people we met. For this reason we wanted to create a circular form to our work that would simultaneously repeat and alter over time. To do this we created different looping videos alongside a separate audio loop of a different duration. Over time image and sound drift apart - producing fresh interactions between sound and image with every cycle.

These are a selection of my portraits of people we interviewed and met which were exhibited as part of installation.

Young girl, North East Iraqi Kurdistan
Couple, Al Qosh
Widow of man kiiled by sucide bomber, Kirkuk
Brother and sister, ICP camp Sulimayeh
Former prisoner outside Al prison in Erbil
Boy, Iraqi Kurdistan
Kurdish Teacher, in village in North East of Iraqi Kurdistan
Boy from the south, Erbil IDP camp
Boy working at Gas Station, Kirkuk
Christan women in fields, Ninewah Plains
War crimes investigator, Halabja
Coptic Christian Woman and Child, Ninewah Plains
Young girl, North East Iraqi Kurdistan
Couple, Al Qosh
Widow of man kiiled by sucide bomber, Kirkuk
Brother and sister, ICP camp Sulimayeh
Former prisoner outside Al prison in Erbil
Boy, Iraqi Kurdistan
Kurdish Teacher, in village in North East of Iraqi Kurdistan
Boy from the south, Erbil IDP camp
Boy working at Gas Station, Kirkuk
Christan women in fields, Ninewah Plains
War crimes investigator, Halabja
Coptic Christian Woman and Child, Ninewah Plains

The Circle is an immersive sound and image installation about displaced individuals and communities within Iraq made between 2013-2016. It is based on an innovative mixture of documentary photography, video testimonies and location sound recordings recorded in Iraq over several years.  This work was made in collaboration with documentary photographer Agata Skowronek.

Since the invasion in 2003 we had felt strongly that Western media representations of Iraq had failed to show the impact violence was having on people’s everyday lives. The words of ordinary Iraqis were rarely heard over the clamour of political posturing, military campaigns and acts of terrorism. Iraq had been reduced to a body count with little meaning attached to the lives lost. To counter this we travelled across Iraq, interviewed and photographed a wide variety of different people and communities. We looked for ipeoplewhose stories exemplified the situation of the many who have fled from one part of the country to another. We saw how the process of being displaced had imposed a ceaseless uncertainty on lives of the people we met. For this reason we wanted to create a circular form to our work that would simultaneously repeat and alter over time. To do this we created different looping videos alongside a separate audio loop of a different duration. Over time image and sound drift apart - producing fresh interactions between sound and image with every cycle.

These are a selection of my portraits of people we interviewed and met which were exhibited as part of installation.