Lens Blog Focuses on John Moore’s Work

June 23, 2004: A detainee at Abu Ghraib was visited by his daughter. (John Moore, The Associated Press)

The work photographing detainees in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan by 2008 Fellow John Moore is featured in a pair of New York Times Lens blog posts, ”In American Custody.”

The photographs document the management during war of prisoners and their military keepers and the ability or inability by both sides to maintain their humanity.  The transcript of an August interview with Moore describe the complex ethical, professional and psychological dilemmas he faces in making and presenting these images.

Moore began the project, “Detained,” as a photographer first for The Associated Press and now with Getty Images.

In their interview with Moore, James Estrin and David Furst ask about the meaning of the work. Here’s Moore’s response:

“These wars that the U.S. have been fighting since 2001 have not been traditional wars. They’ve been insurgent wars. Oftentimes, they have not even declared war at all. The prisoners are enemy combatants most of the time. And the U.S. has entered uncharted territory in terms of the legal rights that they give these detainees and the rights that they don’t give them.

“It’s important to show, over time, how that treatment has evolved; how the facilities have changed, possibly improved; and the dilemma of how the U.S. deals with these people.

“Because every one of them is a person with families and history, how America deals with these captives is a problem that’s not going away. Obama said Guantánamo Bay would be closed — no one has figured out what to do with these people. Some of them are hostile to the U.S. Others are perhaps not guilty, but no one wants to take them back. It’s a historical issue in terms of how America and the American government treats our enemies.”