PHOTOGRAPHER YOUNES MOHAMMAD
Younes
Mohammad
Open Wounds
Erbil, Iraq · Kurdish fighter portraits · Sensegraphy
Photographer, former translator, war survivor. His series Open Wounds documents wounded Kurdish fighters and their families against black fabric voids — forcing a reckoning with the human cost of conflict. He calls his practice sensegraphy, not photography.
"As someone who spent most of his life as a refugee, I can say my life began from the moment I started photography — and before that I was just trying to live."
You wanted to pursue photography, but the war in Iraq prohibited this. What was that period like?
"I was more interested in people's stories. As I was beginning to learn how to use a camera, war came to our land and that became the predominant story of everyone's life. I began covering the war, knowing I was living through history and had to do my best to understand what was happening and show others."
"It was a situation I was not prepared for and every day I found myself in the middle of fire and pain. Ultimately, I wanted to pursue photography to tell a long-term story about war, how much I hate it, and how much I long for peace."
You worked as a translator during the conflict with ISIS. Do you see photography acting in the same way — as an act of translation?
"I do not have an academic photography background, but I followed my own vision with my own understanding of the medium, in order to talk about painful things."
"Showing the truth simply and in a clean frame was always my first step. I always want to respect the audience and their points of view and not push anyone into seeing and accepting my own approach. One has to feel free inside the frame."
"A good image for me is one in which I am able to capture the purity and raw essence of what it means and feels to be human."
"I care about light and composition and colour, but not as much as I care for pure, human sense. I call my work sensegraphy for this reason and don't view it as just photography."
"I am influenced by my life: the impact of war and being a refugee for years. Any step of my life now is like a mirror of my past. I have always wished for and dreamt of worldwide peace. This is my first guide."
What do you hope we learn from the stories of these fighters and their families?
"Simply, I want to show that people, life and peace are beautiful — unfortunately, there is a shadow that lingers over such beauty. We must stop war everywhere and let beauty dance freely. We have to accept each other as we are."
"I want to show this old, beautiful nation which wars have overshadowed and caused pain for centuries. We have to venerate their beauty and allow them to breathe."
How do you balance art and pain in your work? Can they be balanced?
"I am always trying to use artistic elements indirectly and express pain in a more straightforward way. I believe we understand art with our knowledge and with our eyes we understand pain."
"I respect people and my work likewise has to respect them and their sensitivity, and yet I am also expressing a painful message. As much as we care about the balance between art and human sensitivity, our work as artists should live and linger in people's minds."
What do you hope viewers experience with your work?
"Photography is the medium I use to improve my understanding about myself and others. I can only hope that viewers share that kind of human understanding — not only from their own perspective but with compassion and empathy for others."
"Art can and must be used for us to be better and act better, and I hope my work will grab the attention of others to do so."
"We must stop war everywhere and let beauty dance freely."
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Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Documentary PhotographyDocumentary photographer whose work confronts difficult realities with the same commitment to human truth that runs through Younes's practice.
Read on Antakly Projects ↗ PhotographyA conversation with photographer Rafael Trapiello from the Antakly Projects archive.
Read on Antakly Projects ↗Antakly Projects — originally Ninu Nina — has been in conversation with photographers, artists, activists and creatives from across the world since 2003. Younes Mohammad's work — honest, human, patient — is exactly the kind of practice this platform was built to hold.
Explore his work at younesmohammad.com and follow at @younesagha
And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for, and the occasional existential spiral: follow me on Substack.
We have to accept each other as we are. ✦
