Photo Exhibit_Dreams & Nightmares: Life and Death in Iraq

"Dreams & Nightmares: Life and Death in Iraq"
A Life-Sized Open-Air Exhibit Featuring Photography from NJ-native & Philly-based Photojournalist, Linda Panetta

July 1 - 4, 2006
Independence Park, Philadelphia - across the street from the Visitors Center (between Market and Chestnut streets), on the slate terrace opposite the Liberty Bell pavilion.

The exhibit is free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Dreams & Nightmares - a memorial to Iraqis who have died in the war and occupation - is part of American Friends Service Committee's (AFSC's) widely acclaimed Eyes Wide Open exhibit. Combat boots representing the 122 Pennsylvanians who have lost their lives in this war will be displayed in conjunction with the July 1-4 exhibit (www.afsc.org/eyes/experience-ewo.htm).

Photos and personal stories are vividly displayed on 8-foot-tall free-standing panels which illustrate the often unseen side of the war in Iraq; their hopes and dreams and the tragedies and nightmares that are part of daily life for Iraqis.

The outside color photos that are part of the exhibit were taken by Philly-based human rights activist and photojournalist, Linda Panetta (www.opticalrealities.org/LindaPanetta.html). Panetta traveled to Iraq in 2003 and again in 2004 - joined by acclaimed musician, Bruce Cockburn* (see below).

"As hope of a peaceful resolution began to erode and it became clear that President Bush was going to war, I decided that it was imperative to travel to Iraq. I wanted to document the untold story of the children and families who were going to be the target of Bush's 'shock and awe' campaign. I believed that if Americans could see the faces of the people who were soon to be the recipients of this bombing campaign/war that they would realize that killing hundreds, or potentially tens of thousands of Iraqi's in an attempt to oust one despotic dictator was certainly not worth the suffering, trauma and retaliation that would likely ensue." - stated Panetta

Panetta's photography focuses on war and conflict zones with an emphasis on environmental and human rights. Other regions she has covered includes: Afghanistan, Colombia, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua (for more details visit: www.opticalrealities.org)

Why was this exhibit created? Unlike U.S. war dead, most Iraqis who have died in this war remain invisible to the U.S. public, with their numbers increasing daily. Careful estimates run as high as 100,000-plus. The very fact that there is no way to know the exact number reflects the devastation and chaos that is life in Iraq; a painful contrast to the dreams both Iraqis and Americans had when Saddam Hussein's regime ended three years ago.

"This memorial exhibit reminds us that grieving for our families and friends who have been killed, injured, or traumatize by violence is the same all over the world…" stated Melissa Elliott

Visitors are invited to enter the exhibit, view the pictures, read about Iraqi lives, and reflect on those things that bind us all together.

To view photos of the exhibit when it was displayed last month in DC and Ohio visit:
www.opticalrealities.org/AFSCexhibit/Photos.html

For more info about the exhibit contact Melissa Elliott at the American Friends Service Committee, (215) 241-7166. To contact Linda Panetta please call: (215) 473-2162.

*Bruce Cockburn is currently touring and has a new CD that will be released in a few weeks entitled: "Life Short Call Now." "This is Baghdad," one of the songs on the new CD, contains some of the following lyrics: "Uranium dust and the smell of decay. Sewage in the street where the kids run and play. Not enough morphine and not enough gauze. Firefight in darkness like snapping of jaws... Car-bombed and carjacked and kidnapped and shot. How do you like it, this freedom we brought. We packed all the ordnance but the thing we forgot. Was a plan in case it didn't turn out quite like we thought." For photos of the 2004 trip to Iraq visit: www.opticalrealities.org/Iraq04LPanetta.html; to view additional photos of Bruce in Iraq and Jordan visit: www.opticalrealities.org/BruceCockburnIraq04/Iraq04LPanettaBC1.html Photos of Bruce in Iraq will be on display July 1- 4 at the events table.