The shot that shows the absurdity of war: Peter van Agtmael’s best photograph

‘US soldiers would look for “suspected terrorists” in Iraqi homes and usually find nothing. This could be my grandma’s living room – it shows that insane violence can continue amid normal life’ I took this picture during my first time in Iraq, 20 years ago. It was the first entry in a body of work about the US post-9/11, at home and at war, which has occupied a good chunk of my professional life for the last two decades. I had turned 25 the week before and it was a formative journey on a pers...

By Interview by Charlotte Jansen