Peter van Agtmael

Peter van Agtmael (born 1981) is a documentary photographer based in New York. Since 2006 he has concentrated on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their consequences in the United States.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} He is a member of Magnum Photos.^[6]

Van Agtmael's photo essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine,^[7][8] Time,^[9][10] The New Yorker^[11] and The Guardian.^[12] He has published three books.^[13][14][15] His first, 2nd Tour Hope I Don't Die, was published by Photolucida as a prize for winning their Critical Mass Book Award.^[16][17] He received a W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund^[18] to complete his second book, Disco Night Sept. 11. His third, Buzzing at the Sill, was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2016.^[19] He has twice received awards from World Press Photo,^[20][21] the Infinity Award for Young Photographer from the International Center of Photography^[22] and a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting,^[23]

Life and work

Van Agtmael was born in Washington D.C.^[24] and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland.^[25] He studied history at Yale,^[24] graduating in 2003. He became a nominee member of Magnum Photos in 2008, an associate member in 2011, and a full member in 2013.^[6][26][27]

After graduation he received a fellowship to live in China for a year and document the consequences of the Three Gorges Dam.^[28] He has covered HIV-positive refugees in South Africa;^[3] the Asian tsunami in 2005;^[3] humanitarian relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina's effects on New Orleans in 2005^[28] and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake,^[29] the filming of the first season of TV series Treme on location in New Orleans in 2010;^[12] the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010,^[9] Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and its aftermath,^[11] Nabi Salih and Halamish in the West Bank in 2013^[8] and the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict^[7] and its aftermath.^[10]

Since 2006 he has concentrated on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their consequences in the United States.^[1] He first visited Iraq in 2006 at age 24 and has returned to Iraq and Afghanistan a number of times, embedded with US military troops.^[1] Later he continued to investigate the effects of those wars within the US.^[13] In 2007 his portfolio from Iraq and Afghanistan won the Monograph Award (softbound) in Photolucida's Critical Mass Book Award.^[16][17] As part of the prize Photolucida published his first book, 2nd Tour, Hope I Don’t Die. With work made between January 2006 and December 2008,^[30] this "is a young photojournalist’s firsthand experience: the wars’ effects on him, on the soldiers and on the countries involved."^[1] The 2012 W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography provided $30,000 to work on his second book,^[30] Disco Night Sept. 11, which "chronicles the lives of the soldiers he has met in the field and back home."^[13]

In 2025, rapper Kanye West reportedly used a picture Van Agtmael took in 2015 of Ku-Klux-Klan members for the album cover for Wests upcoming album WW3. The use was not authorised by Van Agtmael, who confirmed to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that he was pursuing a legal case.^[31]

Publications

Publications by van Agtmael

• 2nd Tour Hope I Don't Die. Portland, OR: Photolucida, 2009. ISBN 978-1934334072.
• Disco Night Sept. 11. Brooklyn: Red Hook, 2014. ISBN 978-0984195428.
• Buzzing at the Sill. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer Verlag, 2016. ISBN 978-3868287363.
• Sorry for the War. Mass, 2021.^[32][33][34]
• Look at the U.S.A.. Thames & Hudson, 2024. ISBN 978-0500027028.^[35][36]

Publications with contributions by van Agtmael

• 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers, Volume 2. New York: powerHouse, 2008. ISBN 978-1-57687-192-8. Edited by Iris Tillman Hill, preface by Lauren Greenfield, introduction by Tom Rankin.
• A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive. Munich: Prestel; New York, Paris, London, Tokyo: Magnum, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7913-4435-5.
• The Contact Sheet. Pasadena, CA: Ammo, 2012. ISBN 9781934429082. Edited by Steve Crist.
• Photographs Not Taken. New York: Daylight, 2012. ISBN 9780983231615. Edited by Will Steacy.
• Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. ISBN 9780292744080. Edited by Michael Kamber, foreword by Dexter Filkins.
• Photographers' Sketchbooks. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014. ISBN 9780500544341. Edited by Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals.

Awards

• 2006: 25 Under 25: Up and Coming American Photographers, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Duke University, Durham, NC.^{[citation needed]}
• 2007: Second prize, General News stories category, World Press Photo Awards, World Press Photo, Amsterdam,^[20] for a series depicting night raids in Iraq.
• 2007: Monograph Award (softbound), Critical Mass Book Award, Photolucida.^[16][17]
• 2008: Grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Washington, D.C.^[23]
• 2011: Infinity Award, Young Photographer category, International Center of Photography, New York.^[22]
• 2012: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.^[18]
• 2014: Second prize, Observed Portraits category, World Press Photo Awards, World Press Photo, Amsterdam.^[21]
• 2020: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation^[37]

Exhibitions with others

• 2009: Battlespace, Prix Bayeux-Calvados, Bayeux, France, 5 October – 1 November 2009.^[38] Named after the military term Battlespace.
• 2010: Bringing the War Home, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, England, 17 September – 14 November 2010. Curated by Pippa Oldfield. Also included photographs by Sama Alshaibi, Farhad Ahrarnia, Lisa Barnard, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Edmund Clark, Kay May, Asef Ali Mohammad and Christopher Sims.^[39]