Selections From “In the Light of Darkness”

Immediately following the destruction of the World Trade Center, photojournalist Kate Brooks made a beeline to Pakistan, where she secured an ideal vantage point from which to view the military and geopolitical repercussions of the 9/11 attacks. Over the next ten years, Kate tirelessly documented the mess of related insurgencies, wars, and revolutions throughout the region. Her travels brought her to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Lebanon, and other countries defined by instability and conflict.

Kate’s surroundings—and gender—required her to be wily and ingeniously brave. Once she preempted trouble at a border crossing by strategically packing tampons and lingerie in her bags, hoping to discourage Egyptian customs officials from carefully inspecting or seizing her camera gear and images. Her work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, the New Yorker, and many other places, and her forthcoming book, In the Light of Darkness (out this fall from Schilt Publishing), collects some of her most striking shots along with a series of personal essays describing her journey from turn-of-the-millennium Pakistan to the still-in-progress Arab Spring uprisings. Lebanese teens watch Israeli airstrikes from a hilltop overlooking Beirut at the start of the 2006 Lebanon War. An estimated 135 people were killed as a result of a car bomb at the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf. The attack targeted a prominent Shiite cleric and occurred as the faithful were leaving after Friday prayers. Blood flows through the street at the tomb of Imam Ali after the bombing. Evidence from various bombings is collected and held at FBI headquarters in Baghdad. American forces fire flares as they fly across southern Afghanistan. Afghans scale the walls of a stadium to catch a glimpse of the first public soccer match after the collapse of the Taliban regime. The Taliban used the stadium for public executions. An acid-burn survivor at a shelter in Islamabad. Acid is typically used to disfigure and kill women in disputes related to honor. If convicted, a man typically receives a sentence of no more than a few months. The wreckage left behind after Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut. Lebanese soldiers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike. Throughout the 2006 Lebanon War, the Lebanese military was instructed not to fight. Lebanese TV journalist May Chidiac survived a car-bomb attack on September 25, 2005. She lost an arm and a leg in the bombing. General Khatol Mohammadzai, Afghanistan’s first female parachutist, was the highest-ranking woman in Afghanistan’s air force when the Taliban forced her to take a leave of absence with severance pay of $13 a month. Suspected mercenaries are detained at a rebel checkpoint on the road between Benghazi and Tobruk. Libyan revolutionaries make posters in one of the rooms of Gaddafi’s former internal security headquarters in Benghazi. “We welcome you in the free land of Libya” is written on the walls of a building in a military compound, along with the names of individuals and tribes.