I think a lot of the work I've done and a lot of the work I'm going to do in the future still ties to 9/11 and the fallout from it.
Peter van AgtmaelSometimes the picture is more interesting than what is going on. Sometimes the picture is suggestive of greater things in society or the history of what might be connected to the theme in the pictures and those are worth exploring.
Peter van AgtmaelThe travel ban that was imposed by the [Donald Trump] administration is a very direct reverberation of 9/11.
Peter van AgtmaelI went out to cover the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fundamentally [in Buzzing at the Sill] because I was interested in war as a notion and in experiencing it. I was interested in history and how societies form. I was interested in the recent history of what had provoked these wars. So when I finally got out there, I was really seeing the wars through the American perspective, much more than through being embedded with American soldiers and Marines.
Peter van AgtmaelYou find [reverberations from 9/11 ] in them most unexpected places, like graffiti on a wall. Sometimes it's a faded picture; sometimes it's a newspaper tacked to a wall. Sometimes it's weird paraphernalia related to it, home constructed paraphernalia. It resonates through society and continues to resonate today.
Peter van Agtmael