Peter van Agtmael: Disco Night Sept 11

Peter van Agtmael: Disco Night Sept 11 by Aline SmithsonJune 29, 2014

Disco Night Sept 11 is a book about more than the brutality of conflict. It is an intimate and personal meditation on modern warfare from the perspective of a young American photographer who came of age in the confusion of a post 9/11 world, and who saw many others of his generation sign up to fight towards abstract ends and unpredictable fates.

Simultaneously, Peter charted the creeping disconnect of the American populace as the wars dragged on with no climactic end in sight. During a time when we have become accustomed to imagery of death, pain, and destruction, Disco Night Sept 11 awakens us to the stark and enduring realities of war.

Peter van Agtmael has an incredible body of work on war that has been made into a book, Disco Night Sept 11, published by Red Hook Editions weaves together photographs Peter took in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2013, often embedded with the U.S. military, with images taken in America during the same period bridging an unreal and painful divide.” Peter’s sensitive and well seen photographs of small and large moments that surround conflict make this book something truly special.

Peter graduated from Yale University in 2003 with a degree in History. Following graduation, he spent a year in China on the Charles P. Howland fellowship photographing the effects of the Three Gorges Dam. He became a freelance photographer at the end of 2004.Since the beginning of 2006, he has documented the consequences of America’s Wars, at home and abroad. A monograph of the work, ‘2nd Tour Hope I Don’t Die’ was published in 2009. In 2008, he helped organize the exhibition and book Battlespace, a retrospective of unseen work from 22 photographers covering Iraq and Afghanistan. He is represented by Magnum Photos.