Description

Lorenzo Meloni – We Don’t Say Goodbye
Publisher: GOST Books, 2022
Hardcover, 162 pages, English
Size: 28x21cm
New in seal

We Don’t Say Goodbye is the result of 10-years of work by photographer Lorenzo Meloni in Iraq, Syria and Libya. The selection of images in the book were taken between 2013 and 2019 and depict the rise, reign, fall and immediate aftermath of the Islamic State as a territorial entity.

Awards: Shortlisted for the PHotoESPAÑA Best Photography Book of the Year Award 2022 in the International category.

Please be aware that this book contains graphic imagery.

Meloni’s original idea was to explore ways of capturing revolts against totalitarianism and the aftermath of colonial undertakings—such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, which facilitated the creation of the modern map of the Middle East—by linking the history of countries in revolt with their current events. The announcement of the Caliphate led him to focus on the radical fighters who coalesced into the Islamic State, which proclaimed itself in 2014. This focus brought together the different narratives he had been concerned with: rising extremism, the links between history and the present, the continuing impact of the foreign policy of powerful Middle Eastern countries, and sectarianism.

During this time, Meloni instinctively began collecting physical fragments and remnants of Islamic State propaganda, which were usually quickly destroyed by soldiers and militias entering the territory. He photographed and preserved these artefacts for their historical value. In the process of creating this book, Meloni arranged thousands of photographs on floors and walls to think about how to portray this conflict without oversimplifying it, and interspersed these fragments within the sequence of images.