Creative: The Awkward Pause, Hawre Khalid

There are many places where you can spend your photography dollars. You could purchase that sealskin soft release or that camera strap made from Mongolian horsehair, but ultimately there are better ways of making your dollars, Euros, or Leks count. One of these ways is to support good publishing projects. Publishing a book is a solid way to add a degree of permanence. I routinely look at library books that date back fifty or sixty years. I’m not sure where Instagram will be in fifty years, but I don’t hold out much hope for it’s relevance.

I was fortunate to meet Hawre Khalid while working with Raw Society in Spain. Hawre is shy until you start playing music and then he comes alive with dance and vocals. I didn’t know his life story until we began viewing his images. All I can say is “Wow.” What he has lived through, and what he has documented is simply astounding. From the American invasion of Iraq to the al-Queda War and the ISIS War that began in 2014, Hawre has experienced war and displacement. He spent the last ten years documenting everything possible.

As of the end of January 2025, the full written story has been completed and edited with the help of the very talented writer and journalist Kayla Green. The photos are currently being selected by the one and only Sarah Leen, former Director of Photography for National Geographic Magazine, and the foreword is being written by American/Iraqi award-winning photographer Ed Kashi. By the end of February, the design will begin, at the hands of former president and founding member of the Australian Book Designers Association Zoë Sadokierski. This is what you call a power team, something essential for making the most of what a book can be. If you choose to back this project you can follow the link here. You can see a selection of this work in the latest edition of the Raw Society Magazine. Hawre has the cover. I’m not here to tell you how to spend your money. But I am telling you this is a high-level body of work being crafted by some of the industry’s best. This work is a testament to war, bravery, endurance, and one man’s participation in documenting the reshaping of world history.