Title: Image recreation
Description: This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

"The images here are recreations; they might have been seen on that day. My intention is to provoke indignation and to keep this event in memory. Events such as this can not be allowed to drop away from the continuum of human history."

"I am a photographer of people with experience in editorial and advertising. I'm comfortable working with direction, either from a distance or on site. My portraits are about the subject, they are character studies. They should be fun to look at ... To me each photo session is a social event, and I enjoy the dynamics. Each moment is precious, and is an opportunity to produce significant images. Given all this ... sometimes a meaningful photograph ... is just a matter of pushing the button at the right moment. Most of what I shoot is lighted with electronic flash, all is digital. My studio is located Downtown Rochester NY"--The artist's personal website (viewed July 14, 2015).
Subjects: Violence, Pictorial works, Booksellers and bookselling, Bombings, Iraq War, 2003-2011, Protest movements, Books and reading in art, Intellectual life, Social conditions, Censorship, Terrorism in art, In art, War and civilization, Vehicle bombs, Visual literature, Specimens, Emotions in art, Memory in art, Artists' books, Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Places: Iraq, Baghdad, New York (State), Rochester
People: John W. Retallack (1941-)
Time periods: 21st century