Unexpected Iraq

War often reduces people to a single identity: refugee, victim, survivor. The complexity of everyday life disappears behind these labels. Yet life rarely follows such narratives. People continue to fall in love, laugh with friends, celebrate birthdays, worry about work, and dream about the future—even when war unfolds nearby. Conflict shapes life, but it does not completely define it.

In 2016, I spent time with internally displaced Iraqis in the Kurdistan Region. Rather than documenting war itself, I photographed the ordinary moments that persisted around it: portraits, family life, streets, conversations, and quiet routines. The title, Unexpected Iraq, reflects the distance between mediated images of a country and the lives of the people who inhabit it. The photographs invite viewers to question not only what they know about Iraq, but how easily any place or person becomes defined by a single story.