Miss. guardsman captures Baghdad’s heart through his lens - Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

Miss. guardsman captures Baghdad’s heart through his lens

When contractors began hemming and hawing about the work they were supposed to be doing on construction projects in Baghdad, Army engineer 1st Lt. David Holland grabbed his camera and took pictures during his daily visits to the job sites.

Once he started showing managers the snapshots of what their crews were missing, things began to turn around.

“From then on, I took my camera everywhere,” Holland says. Soon, he wasn’t just taking pictures of the jobs sites he oversaw.

Holland had braced for the worst when he arrived in Iraq in 2008 to learn that his job would take him outside the wire. Instead, he found himself surprised by the people he was meeting.

“Sure, I met some bad guys, too, but most were just good people, trying to live their lives,” says Holland, a Mississippi Army National Guardsman.

Take the young girl who popped her head out as his team walked to a job site. “She was just one of those rays of sunshine,” he says.

Her picture serves as the cover of his newly published book, “Baghdad Beyond the Wire: Faces from the Fair Garden,” which features scores of his portraits.

Holland hopes the book, available through Amazon for $37, conveys the humanity of the people he encountered in Iraq.

“Above all else, I want this collection to inspire hope,” he says. “Hope for the people of Baghdad as well as for the United States’ families who support our troops.”