The US invaded Iraq 20 years in the past. That is what life seems to be like there now

Up to date 12:44 AM EDT, Solar March 19, 2023

By Christina Zdanowicz, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Will Lanzoni and Brett Roegiers, CNN

A shopkeeper squeezes contemporary orange juice. A person sits whereas his cat sunbathes on a bike. Two women play with their new umbrellas.

These avenue scenes paint an image of how life has modified in Iraq within the 20 years since the US invaded the nation in 2003.

A 12 months after the beginning of the Iraq Battle, Michael Itkoff — an American learning images on the time — had an concept. He despatched 20 disposable cameras to a photojournalist working in Iraq and requested for the cameras to be distributed to residents.

He wished to seize what life seemed like by the eyes of Iraqis. The immediate was easy: Present the American public what you need them to see.

“We had been in search of to counter among the mass media depictions of the battle that had been portray with a broad brush this concept of the insurgency the place each Iraqi may very well be the enemy,” stated Itkoff, who printed the pictures in Daylight, a visible storytelling platform and guide writer he co-founded.

This 12 months he repeated the disposable digicam experiment. And this time, the photographs present a return to normalcy regardless of the presence of outdated wounds.

“Whereas the scenes of on a regular basis life sign life has modified and are available again to a extra peaceable existence within the pictures from Baghdad, among the pictures from Falluja and Mosul paint an image of seen scars and cities left in disrepair,” he stated.

CNN spoke with a number of of the Iraqis who took this 12 months’s pictures. Lots of them expressed wanting to indicate their nation in a brand new mild.

“I need the world to have a unique picture of Iraq, relatively than seeing scenes of destruction and killing,” stated Tariq Raheem, 50. “I need to ship a message to the world that Iraqi folks love peace and need to stay in peace.”