THE “IMMENSE LANDSCAPE THAT WAS SADDAM’S BACKYARD”: ASSOCIATION COPY OF TURNLEY’S BAGHDAD BLUES, SIGNED BY HIS BROTHER

TURNLEY, David. Baghdad Blues. New York: Vendome, (2003). Quarto, original photographic paper boards, original photographic dust jacket. $250.

First edition of this close-up view of the 2003 Iraq War by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Turnley, this association copy signed on the half title by his twin brother Peter Turnley who, like David, was covering the war and has “photographed almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” (New York Times), with 60 double-page color plates.

On assignment for CNN during the 2003 Iraq War, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Turnley recalls that he traveled “to the region first to do human stories in the border states, Syria and Turkey. And then as the war ensued, the task was how to get into northern Iraq to cover the war. We couldn’t get a visa into Iran, so we ended up being smuggled across rivers, took us about six days, and it was really very harrowing just to get into the northern part of the country to start to cover the war. As this was happening, I started to write a diary really very much for myself, and at some level for my nine-year-old son who I wanted someday to be able to know a little bit about what I do and how I feel when I do it” (CNN). With 60 double-page color photographic illustrations and numerous in-text photogravures. From the library of David Turnley’s twin brother, fellow photojournalist Peter Turnley, and signed by him on the half title. The two brothers have “separately or together… photographed almost every important international news event of the last 15 years,” and seen their work showcased in a 1996 exhibit at New York’s International Center of Photography (New York Times). In his diary David speaks of meeting up with Peter in Baghdad and “sharing our war stories” (36).

A fine association copy.