Image 0451 was chosen from thousands of photographs that were just as inadequate in describing the conditions of war, and just as banal as living under war actually is. It is a fairly ordinary picture of “normal” things people do to each other in times of war and repression.

This image was taken a few months ago by a young Israeli photojournalist named Albert Sadikov. It shows Palestinian prisoners being led to an Israeli military base near the Gaza Strip, against the backdrop of the Separation Barrier still being build between the two countries. However, this image is typical not just of the Israeli occupation, but of war and military oppression around the world. It is not much different from the goings-on in Iraq, in Darfur, in Mexico, in Somalia, and in so many other places.

In this image, the prisoners are handcuffed with zipties and blindfolded with flannel strips used to clean rifles, common materials that I, too, used when I was a soldier in the Israeli Army. A decade since my military experience, I have invited nine artists to contemplate and think about war and oppression, using this photograph as a shared source of inspiration.

-Chen Tamir