“Our imagination has limitless potential if we exercise it. Images of subjugation and the stories that accompany them can cap our imagination. This is dangerous and needs to be resisted. Imagination activates the whole body and elicits a whole body response. This is where the role of image making becomes critical towards that resistance.

My own associations with the postures started to change as I worked with them. I realized that the images of Iraqis flailing also share a posture with Iraqis dancing. When crying, the people in the images kind of look like they're singing. Extracting the body posture initially felt like a further act of violence, another layer of de-contextualizing. Then, that lack of context seemed to free the body in my imagination and let me see another possibility to the stories they hold. By imagining more for the people in these photos, I can imagine more for myself.”