Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery Presents Photographs by Magnum Photographer Moises Saman

A new solo exhibition examines the conflicting narratives central to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the aftermath, and the limits of documentary photography in reporting on a war — one still ongoing for many Iraqis.

“Who has the power to narrate a conflict? Who determines the parameters of the frame? Which crimes or victims will be visible, and at the expense of what?” asks Magnum photographer Moises Saman. “Who and what will be remembered and how?” 

From Oct. 25 to Dec. 14, Haverford's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery presents a selection of more than 40 prints by Saman, as well as a new video work commissioned by the gallery. The Ghosts of History highlights the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq by exploring the construction of competing narratives of war through the interaction of images and language. 

The exhibition draws from Saman’s photographs taken in Iraq over the past two decades and is interspersed with U.S. military maps and charts, lists of Iraqi dead, redacted transcripts, satellite images, quotes, and pop culture references all tied to the war in Iraq. The pairing of Saman’s images with these materials exposes the dissonance between the photographer’s portrayal of war and official rhetoric, raising deeper questions about how narratives are crafted in war and how memory is shaped.

Through this interplay of image and language, Saman draws attention to what American philosopher Judith Butler has called “the framing of the frame.” That is, the political and social biases that govern the act of “bringing an image into focus on condition that some portion of the visual field is ruled out.” The intention of the exhibition is not to create an objective account but to invite viewers to actively and critically engage with all narrative frames, including Saman’s, who grapples with his own role, bias, and power as a narrator. Some of the frames the work contends with are courtesy of state power, the kind of frames that determine “which lives count as human and living, and which do not.”

An extension of Saman’s book Glad Tidings of Benevolence from 2023, the exhibition is titled after the book’s introductory essay by Iraqi poet, novelist, scholar, and literary translator Sinan Antoon. The piece begins:

Two decades later, the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, and the chain of catastrophic events it triggered have, by and large, receded from global public memory. This is particularly evident in the United States of Amnesia, the primary perpetrator of the war, where if mentioned at all, it is a “mistake” or a “blunder.” In the U.S’s master narrative, the war’s victims are not the Iraqi civilians, who bore the brunt of the damage, but rather the soldiers who waged it. The war’s architects have been rehabilitated and appear in public before fawning audiences who forgave or forgot their past misdeeds (read: war crimes).

Meanwhile, people outside the U.S., particularly those living in Iraq “are left alone with the war. They have to live with its afterlives and afterdeaths. They have to coexist with multitudes of ghosts. There is a case to be made that wars don’t end, not for everyone involved at least.” This truth remains a pervasive feature of the Iraqi landscape, along with that of countless countries worldwide haunted by the legacy and continuing contributions of western imperialism. Saman’s work, with its vast web of photographs and documents, resists the ready-made frames of empire and provides a space for active remembrance — where survivors and the ghosts of history can reclaim their own narrative.

“The Ghosts of History is a critical and timely exhibition offering a haunting visual record that contrasts the official accounts of the invasion and occupation of Iraq as provided by U.S. politicians and journalists in mainstream media over the past two decades,” says Zainab Saleh, associate professor of anthropology and director of the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities. “This dissonance came into sharp relief during the commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the invasion in 2023 in the United States. The occupation was discussed only as a past event that offers few, if any, profound insights beyond a superficial review of the winners and losers. In this context, the reality of the invasion—in terms of its human, environmental, and political costs—was mainly erased and glossed over. The powerful historical ghosts in this exhibition make their presence known in order to beckon and to bear witness to this forgotten tragedy, revealing the ongoing afterlives of the invasion and the precarious and dystopian conditions under which Iraqis have been living.”

The Ghosts of History is a traveling exhibition organized by Magnum Photos in collaboration with the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. Support for the exhibition has been provided by Haverford’s John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, Magnum Photos, and Haverford College's Distinguished Visitors Program. There will be a talk with Moises Saman and Sinan Antoon followed by a reception on Thursday, Nov. 14, from 4:30–7 p.m. in Whitehead Campus Center. Learn more.