Hellmet

The Iraqi photographer Hussein Atshan was born between the Tigris and the Euphrates in the south of Iraq, two years after the start of the first Gulf War. He was in Baghdad during the second Gulf War and also the 1991 uprising, which was brutally suppressed. He later had to give up his studies before he was twenty to serve in the army. When America invaded in 2003 he became both fighter and victim. In the end he fled to Belgium, where he has been living for seven years.

The helmets in his exhibition date from the First and Second World War period and belonged to soldiers, officers, policemen, etc. They remind him of his own helmet and represent a whole history of violence: helmets have been worn ever since man decided to kill his fellow men and are thus a symbol of life and death.

The Iraqi photographer Hussein Atshan was a soldier in the 2003 Iraq War. His photos showcase military helmets from the First and Second World War. They represent a history of violence and suppression.