Saddam Mania at Think Tank 3

People are constantly asking us why we run Think Tank 3 out of a storefront. Since no answer has ever been sufficient for those trying to rationalize it, I did indeed, look forward to the day when anyone could walk in to our space, and simply experience something other. Saddam Mania is one of the first opportunities for that. Our first photo exhibit at 447 Hudson Street for Teun Voeten, a photojournalist, whose images captured a piece of war time Iraq in a way that no one else has, can or will at this point.

Unembedded, independent, and wandering the streets of Baghdad in 2003, Teun instinctively began documenting the posters, statues, and murals of Saddam; in various states of desecration. Saddam Mania is inherently political, but that's not what drew me in. It's the intersection of ART and JOURNALISM that resonates with me. Perhaps the only thing that consistently resonates with me.

Saddam, built himself, essentially as an imposing brand, through these images to a level that requires more than taking them down to take his power away. He is, whether we like it or not, part of our collective history.

- Sharoz Makarechi

Read the NY Sun's review of SADDAM MANIA.

Teun Voeten, who originally studied Cultural Anthropology and Philosophy, is an award winning photojournalist and author who has been covering the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Colombia, Gaza, Liberia, Lebanon and Iraq. His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and National Geographic among others. Voeten is also a contributing photographer for organizations such as the International Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. In 2002 St. Martin's Press published his book "How de Body. Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone".

The European Commission honored Voeten with the Natali award (Human Rights and Journalism) and John Hopkins University gave him the Sais-Novartis Award for his work in Sierra Leone. American Photography selected him for their yearbook with the Liberia images he took for Vanity Fair. His widely published Pyong Yang images are currently on a traveling exhibit on the Korean peninsula.

Besides his journalistic work, Voeten also operates a one man NGO that supports a high school in Sierra Leone.

Learn more about Teun Voeten here.

Think Tank 3 is A MODERN DAY THINK SHOP; our idea of what a modern ad agency should be. We work with clients including Comedy Central, The Coca Cola Company, and TiVo out of a storefront in NYC where our creative director curates exhibits based on cultural relevance, historical value, and quality.

Learn more about Think Tank 3 here.

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