047 - Peter Van Agtmael
© Peter Van Atgmael
Peter van Agtmael was born in Washington DC in 1981. He studied history at Yale University, where his interest in journalism led him to take a photography course, during which he had an almost mystical experience and realised immediately that he'd found his calling.
His work largely concentrates on America, looking at issues of conflict, identity, power, race and class. He also works extensively on the Israel/Palestine conflict and throughout the Middle East.
He has won the W. Eugene Smith Grant, the ICP Infinity Award for a Young Photographer, the Lumix Freelens Award, the Aaron Siskind Grant, a Magnum Foundation Grant as well as awards from World Press Photo, American Photography Annual, POYi, The Pulitzer Center, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, FOAM and Photo District News.
Peter joined Magnum Photos in 2008 and became a full member in 2013.
His book, Disco Night Sept 11, is a chronicle of America's wars in the post-9/11 era from 2006-2013. The photographs shift back and forth from Iraq and Afghanistan to the USA, unsparingly capturing the violent, ceaseless cost, but also the mystery and the madness, the beauty and absurdity at the core of each conflict. The narrative is complemented by nineteen gatefolds which elaborate on places and individuals. The book was released in 2014 by Red Hook Editions, a Brooklyn-based publishing venture of which Peter is a founder and partner.
Disco Night Sept 11 was shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award and was named a ‘Book of the Year’ by The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, Mother Jones, Vogue, American Photo and Photo Eye. You can still order a copy direct from Red Hook Editions.
Peter's most recent book, the sequel to Disco Night..., is Buzzing at the Sill, a book about America in the shadows of the wars and about coming home from years of covering conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and trying to understand his experiences and his country. The work is a stew of reflections on war, memory, militarism, identity, race, class, family, surrealism and the landscape.
Buzzing At The Sill was released by Kehrer Verlag in October 2016 and is available here in the UK, or here in the USA. You can also buy a copy from Fishbar Books, London (though it may not be listed on the website), or direct from the publisher in Europe here.
In episode 047, Peter discusses, among other things:
The journey to full Magnum membership
The 'mystical' experience of discovering photography
The factors that led him to war and how he prepared for it
Dealing with the consequences of his conflict experiences
HIs book, Disco Night Sept 11
Co-founding Red Hook Editions with Jason Eskanazi
His latest book, Buzzing At The Sill
Bonus Link: In A Dark Time by Theodore Roethke
“I was already a photographer nominally. I was already obsessed with it... I’m not a very mystical person necessarily but it was a mystical experience. This sort of feeling of deep understanding that I’d kind of found my path in life. And that was a feeling that was almost instantaneous. At least the way I remember it...”
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