Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq

One of this book's blurbs calls it ""apolitical,"" but this seems misleading: there's no dearth of subtext embedded in these images, taken by four photojournalists traveling independently through war-torn Iraq. Phillip Robertson, a journalist for Salon.com, describes crossing battle lines to cover the insurgent Mahdi Army. The street fighters ""took us in, and there was an innocent, human quality in this moment that I cannot describe over a year later."" Clearly, the book is not designed to make anyone feel comfortable: Pictures of blood-stained hospital floors, children being prepared for burial and excavated mass graves are morbid (and expected) images of war, but what makes this collection so wrenching is the gray area it covers. Photographer Thorne Anderson, the veteran of the group, was present at the toppling of the Saddam statue, yet ""there were also chants of 'Down, down, America!'"" Iraqi-born Ghaith Abdu-Ahad has compiled the most grisly of images, many of which resulted from an American helicopter attack on a crowd celebrating around a burning U.S. armored personnel carrier. Woven in are photos of everyday life-fashion shows and men playing dominoes-a contrast that serves the photographers' intention to ""humanize a conflict.""