Photographer Marieke van der Velden captured the above shot, titled "Love," for her project on everyday life in Iraq, “Baghdad Today." Michael Kamber reflects on her work:
The Iraqis seem ordinary in many respects, strikingly so. Yet a sense of off-screen danger permeates the photos. One young man sits smiling on bed, one of his hands missing. In a revealing diptych, several children peer out from an open doorway. The second photo — with the door closed — reveals an AK-47 propped against the wall. Yet it is the photos from Baghdad’s sidewalks, amusement parks and ceremonies that are most revealing. The Iraqis hold one another, laugh, photograph their children and look lovingly into one another’s eyes. The sense of danger is largely supplanted by joy.
The Dish 