Marketplace

A dense crowd fills the street in front of low brick shops. Sergeant Contreras stands near the center with his back to the camera, wearing a helmet and camouflage uniform. Around him, adults and children face different directions, compressing the gathering into a shallow band of people.

A handcart lies diagonally across the lower center, its wheel and long shafts cutting through the crowd. A boy in a teal shirt stands near the shafts on the right. Low shopfronts, Arabic signs, loose wiring and dark open doorways form the background. Blue crates are stacked at the left. The visible upper edge of the Humvee from which Bass photographed the scene obscures part of the lower edge; a dark projecting element intrudes from the upper right.

The cart shafts point from the lower center toward the right-hand crowd. Faces occur at several depths, but the helmeted back near center interrupts direct eye contact and becomes the visual hinge between the camera and the gathering.

A crowd gathers before neighborhood shops. Sergeant Contreras stands near the center with his back to the camera, and a handcart crosses the foreground. Bass photographed the scene while standing in the turret of a Humvee.

We came to markets for chicken, local dishes and other supplies, and sometimes bartered with local people. At one point we obtained an air conditioner for one of the damaged buildings where we were living at the weapons complex.

I remember finding a secluded pool hall on the second floor of a marketplace, up a hidden set of stairs. It had three pool tables and flat-screen televisions playing American music videos on the walls. It seemed completely out of place.

Photograph by Kenny Bass.

Photograph 3 of 15.