Kurdistan, From a New Angle
Christopher De Bruyn brings photos from northern Iraq to Berkeley, SF State
Text SizeAAABy Aaron Glantz on February 16, 2011
Christopher De Bruyn is an unlikely international photographer — least of all a photographer with a new exhibit of pictures from Northern Iraq. The 27-year-old native of Grand Rapids, Mich., said he’s never taken any formal photography classes.
But after graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in Spanish, De Bruyn decided to leave the Wolverine State for a tour with the Peace Corps in Mongolia. Three years later, he’s found a new gig teaching English and photography at the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani.
A collection of his photos from his year and a half in Iraq’s Kurdish north will be on display at UC Berkeley’s Doe Library until March 1, when they’ll move to San Francisco State University.
The Bay Citizen spoke with De Bruyn before he hopped on an airplane to return to Iraq.
The Bay Citizen: Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and go to Mongolia? It seems like a long way from Michigan State.
Christopher De Bruyn: I kind of came to the realization that it’s a really big world and I wanted to see more of it. I wanted to be a global citizen. Some of it might have stemmed from a good friend of mine, growing up, who was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up in Senegal until he was 13 and moved to Grand Rapids. From the time I met him in middle school I saw there was a world larger than just Grand Rapids or just Michigan or just the States.
TBC: But Mongolia and Kurdistan are certainly interesting choices when you have the whole world at your disposal.
De Bruyn: I find myself drawn to places that are off the beaten path and I feel compelled to go to those remote places and find a sense of what life is like there, learn the language, respect the culture and share that culture with others.
TBC: After being in the Peace Corps in Mongolia, how did you decide to go to Kurdistan?
De Bruyn: I didn’t want to work in a typical developing country. I wanted to do something off the beaten path. I found the information about the teaching job [at the American University of Iraq] online and it was exactly what I was looking for.
TBC: You had never thought about Kurdistan before that?
De Bruyn: No. I knew next to nothing, but after I saw the ad I started to do research. The more I read about it, the more it seemed really promising. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to go over there.
Now I’m teaching and working on my MBA at the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani. Things have been going one step at a time. I’ve had some good opportunities.
TBC: What is it about Kurdistan that you’re trying to share in your photographs?
De Bruyn: Before I started to do research and moved there, I knew nothing about the place. Everything in Iraq was bombings and terror, everything you tend to see on the BBC and CNN. Once I realized that there’s this large area that’s not like that at all, I wanted to share some of the experiences I had.
In my photography classes, I teach to my students how to submit their stories to CNN’s iReport and BBC’s yourpics, so people can have a voice in the global media, so the world knows that there are problems but there are really good things going on on the same time.
TBC: Besides the fact that there’s not a lot of bombings in Kurdistan, what else did you want to share through your photographs?
De Bruyn: That there’s a rich culture and very generous. About half the time I have to be assertive just to pay for my taxi. The Kurds have been through pretty tough times — 200,000 killed in the Anfal campaign [by Saddam Hussein], the gassing of the Kurds at Halabja, the civil war between the two Kurdish parties in the mid-90s and now there is finally peace. The Kurds do not take that peace for granted at all.
The area is definitely up-and-coming. I’ve only been there for a year and a half and there is so much economic development. When I first arrived, there were no movie theaters and shopping malls, now there are two of each. That’s not neccessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but there’s so much potential and it’s just on the cusp of really good things if handled correctly.
TBC: How did it come to pass that these photos are on display in the Bay Area?
De Bruyn: Dr. Nicole Watts, a political science professor at San Francisco State. We had a meeting in Sulaimani. She was doing some research and one of my colleagues was working with here. We had a meeting, she looked at my photographs. She teaches at SF State, and she has contacts at other universities.
It’s a pretty amazing opportunity. I take pictures just kind of for my own edification, and once in a while I get the opportunity to share them with other people.
For full story please go to http://www.baycitizen.org/visual-art/story/kurdistan-photos-berkeley-sf-state/
Tagged in: adventure tourism, adventure travel, KRG, Kurdish culture, Kurdistan, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Kurdistan Regional Government, Kurdistan tourism, Kurdistan travel, The Other Iraq
