Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars

This video looks at the operation of journalistic conventions – and the role of corporations and consumerism – in the context of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combining footage and still images from amateur, government and journalistic sources, this powerful work explores the ethics of reportage, the staging and manipulation of images, and the changing role of photojournalists in the era of consumer digital imaging. It focuses on the brands and products that have appeared in news and photojournalism in Afghanistan and Iraq since the mid-1980s, including Osama Bin Laden’s various models of Casio wristwatches, M&Ms in aid convoys, the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad, and the Taliban’s preference for Toyota utility vehicles. It also relates how increasingly soldiers are replacing journalists as the source of images.