shadow of paradise

"Shadow of Paradise" consists of 97 photographs depicting my family who are alive, dead, or missing in Iraq. As an Iraqi immigrant displaced, and living in the United States, this project is dear to my heart as I come to terms with the country I grew up in being slowly eroded and redacted from history. ​The photographs began from a tiny image posted on the Internet. Imagery has been appropriated from Instagram for photos of my uncles and cousins, brothers and sisters, as I blindly search for accounts bearing my last name. Unearthing images of my family through social media as an act of ethnoarchaeology gives me hope that these young girls still live on as my beautiful cousins who adored Barbie dolls and Disney princesses when we lived in Iraq. I do not believe their fathers and brothers were so lucky to survive. In each photo, the male figure and background setting is void of color - as a symbol of anonymity as well as annihilation. I digitally manipulate the details on the female figures depicted in the photographs, breathing color and life back into their visages. Before the memories of my loved ones fade, I have constructed "Shadow of Paradise" as a photo album capturing the obscured image of the fragile life that exists in Iraq. I have currently self-published the book - comprising 183 pages, hardcover, linen bound in a limited edition print. Copies are printed by request and include a hand painted image from the book.