jan 1, 1963 - US Travel - solo exhibition
Description:
I landed in Philadelphia to stay there overnight before continuing to Washington. I went for a walk on the afternoon of my arrival and suddenly heard a woman calling my name, “Latif, Latif!” It was Yvonne Niman, the secretary of Mr Stocks at the IPC in Baghdad. She had emigrated to the United States after 1958. It was such a coincidence. Poor thing, she got a traffic ticket because of me, having parked her car in a wrong place to catch me.
My US exhibition tour was arranged by the Mid-dle East Friends of America. It started in Washington, DC, then went to Chicago, San Francisco, Boulder, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and New York. I was met in Washington by a Mr Roth who worked for the ME Friends, and the first thing he asked me was: “Are you a drinker Muslim or a Muslim?” He was happy with my reply.I chose 105 images reflecting life in Iraq: nature, faces, industry, landmarks. I wanted to show Iraq as I saw it, a mixture of an old heritage and a modern present. I felt a great responsibility representing Iraq through my images. It took me a lot of time to select the images. I wanted to transmit the artistry in my photos, to show the beauty in what I saw. In fact, the local Boulder paper, the Daily Camera, wrote that Iraq had sent an “ambassador with a camera”.
On the flight from Istanbul, I was sitting next to an attractive woman in the window seat who was pointedly ignor-ing me, reading a book. So I dropped something on the floor to get her attention. She reacted, and asked me where I came from. I told her “Iraq”, and she replied “Oooh, the land of the thousand and one nights!” I thought that was a good start. She lived in San Francisco and gave me her card to get in touch when I got there. She was an oriental-dance teacher. I called her when I got to the city and we went out to dinner in Chinatown with a girlfriend of hers. She told me: “We are your harem.” They sat me between them in their convertible car. I wanted some Iraqi to see this great sight!We had a wonderful eight days together. She took me around everywhere and wanted me to stay, but I wanted to go back home. I could have stayed.
Added to timeline:
Timelines Iraq & Latif al Ani
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