Capturing solid change in the Iraqi marshes

Change. As America prepares for its arrival next Tuesday when the very man who coined the term takes the Oval Office, it seems there is no better time than now to witness the change Iraq has already experienced over the past few decades.

Running through March 22 at the Fowler Museum, the exhibit “Iraqi Marshlands Then and Now: Photographs by Nik Wheeler” veers away from those depictions of Iraq most familiar to us, away from the desert, oil and ravages of war. The subject here is the marshes of the southern part of the land, which were once considered the largest wetlands in western Eurasia.

“The south of Iraq is what I call the Land of Eden. It is where Abraham was born. … The marshes are very connected to the root of Western civilization,” said Azzam Alwash, director of the Eden Again/Nature Iraq restoration program and contributing photographer to the brief modern-day portion of the exhibit.

Most of the work on display ““ three of four walls that surround the courtyard ““ date from 1974 and 1975, when English-born, now Santa Barbara-based photographer Nik Wheeler paid his first visit to the marshlands. Some of these prints are sharp and lushly, saturated in greens and blues, while others appear somewhat grainy, pale with just a slight cool tinge. They evoke at once a sense of timelessness and ““ perhaps because the times do change ““ nostalgia.

Wheeler made his first trip during an assignment for National Geographic, the published result of which at the time made an impression on Roy Hamilton, a curator for Asian and Pacific collections at the Fowler Museum and coordinator of the exhibit.

“I remember I had subscriptions to National Geographic, and I always looked at the photos. Like many people, I was very interested in the photos,” Hamilton said. “But that article really stood out as one that I remember.”

Along with writer Gavin Young, Wheeler returned to the marshlands a year later to collaborate on a book, “Return to the Marshes: Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq,” published in 1977.

“You know when you’re a freelance photographer, you do a lot of things for money,” Wheeler said. “But I was really keen to go back; I was inspired by the uniqueness of the place.”

This time, the Iraqi government provided him with an Iraqi-piloted Russian helicopter, which allowed him to take aerial shots that gave a better impression of the geography of the land. These shots are included in the exhibit and show the individual islands and the distinctive reed houses that top them, surrounded by green marshes.

“He had an opportunity that was very rare for outsiders to get into this area. … He had extraordinary access,” Hamilton said. “There really is no other body of photographs showing this way of life that’s anywhere near as extensive as this one.”

The times do ““ and did ““ change.

In the ’80s, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began constructing massive canals to drain the marshes, allegedly to develop the area and control the population. Following the 1991 Gulf War, Hussein ordered the destruction of the marshes. Explosives were placed in the water, inhabitants driven out, their livestock killed ““ an essential genocide of the Marsh Arabs took place.

Restoration efforts began almost immediately after Hussein was toppled in 2003. Locals sabotaged drainage canals to restore water flow and reflood the area.

“I am by no way supportive of the situation now (in Iraq),” Wheeler said. “But I think (the exhibit) will point out there was some justification for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.”

The fourth and last wall documents the marshlands as they appear today. Most photographs date to 2005 and are credited to Alwash and Mudhafar Salim.

These shots attempt to capture life in similar locations to those portrayed in Wheeler’s photographs so that viewers may get a sense of the draining that has occurred and the subsequent rehabilitation that is now apparent. Scenes of men fishing and the return of wildlife, including one of native flowers with bright yellow centers, point to a rejuvenating environment.

“The purpose is to show a positive fight, some continuity with the traditional way of life that I showed,” Wheeler said. “They may have ignored the uglier side, but that’s because it’s not necessarily photogenic.”

Both Alwash and Hamilton agree that the exhibit intends to deliver a hopeful message for improvements to come. Nature Iraq’s Eden Again Project estimates that 65 percent of the marshlands have been reflooded, with 80,000 inhabitants returning home to resume traditional life. According to Alwash, the project’s goal is to achieve 75 percent restoration.

“I view the restoration as a phoenix rising from the ashes, coming from the ashes of destruction,” Alwash said. “I also want (viewers) to see this as an emblem of the restoration of Iraq, the human beings of Iraq.”

Exhibit-goers must navigate the four walls counterclockwise so it seems like the change that defines restoration also strives in the same way.

Wheeler has not returned to the marshlands since 1975.

“In some ways, I don’t really want to change that, to see what happened,” he said. “It’s one of those magical pristine places that you prefer to remember as they were.”

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