january 2007 - Professional Photographer Magazine

After a couple of decades on the job. Dave
Honl still tries to learn something new every
day. It’s a worthwhile approach to anything,
but in Honl’s area of expertise, it’s no less
than a matter of survival.
Based in Istanbul, Turkey, the United
States-born photojournalist has been
making regular forays into Iraq to photograph
the human side of the ongoing war.
Recently in Baghdad, Honl encountered a
group of Iraqis living in poverty in a
building that was once the personal theater
of Saddam Hussein. His images of these
Iraqis speak of the human consequences of
a conflict that has torn a nation apart.
Professional Photographer: How did the project
at Saddam Hussein’s old theater come about?
David Honl: I initially made this trip to Iraq
to photograph female police officers in Irbil,
in northern Iraq. When the fixed-wing aircraft
I was to take from Baghdad developed mechanical
problems, the trip was postponed. When
you have downtime in a war zone, you have to
kick into networking mode. I contacted every
PAO [military public affairs officer] I could
think of, and was able to get an embed with the
International Zone (Green Zone) Police Force.
One day, while on patrol, an IZ police officer
asked me the magic question: “Do you want
to see the other side of the Green Zone?” In
this case, “the other side” was a community
of 50 to 60 displaced Iraqis, mostly children,
who found themselves caught inside the
concrete walls that surround the Green Zone.
They live in Saddam Hussein’s old private
theater, where the former Iraqi President
All images ©David Honl
Portraits of Iraq
David Honl focuses the human
side of one of the world’s most
violent places
INTERVIEW BY JEFF KENT
28 • www.ppmag.com
once summoned actors and musicians to
perform. The theater is literally a shell of its
former self. What’s left is a series of bare
rooms that a handful of families have taken
over for living spaces. They sleep on rugcovered
floors and tap into existing power
lines for electricity. There is no running
water, so they carry in bottles from neighboring
taps and stay sheltered from the 120degree
heat during the daylight hours.
From a photography standpoint, what have
you learned from the project?
Patience! There’s a lot of sitting around waiting
for something to happen, much like working
on a movie set.
Flash photography is prohibited in this
area. The only flashes soldiers are accustomed
to are the flares from bombs, guns
and rockets, and no photographer wants to
be mistaken for one of those. There are a