are we just birds in a cage?

— We Speak Your Heart

In the summer of 2017, Hervé Jakubowicz was in Mosul, Iraq — at that time, one of the last places on earth that a person would choose to be.

He visited Iraq previously, as a humanitarian, after the first Gulf War in 1991. In late 2016, something drew him back (a fascination for the country, the search for a story) despite the conflict, despite the personal risks.

He entered a maelstrom. The site of the largest urban battle since World War 2. As Herve says, ‘History came to me’. He stayed, because he thought the world needed to see.

The ordinary civilian people of Mosul were there without choice. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, closest friends, first loves, lifetime loves. It was their home.

Herve’s own words best describe the circumstances in which the compelling image, above, was taken.

Mosul was a nightmare. Air strikes, snipers, drones with grenades. The city of two million people was completely destroyed. It was the last days of the war. In the middle of the old town. As soon as the Iraqi army liberated a house or a street, civilians would run for their lives, away from ISIS. This young girl was one of these civilians. She appeared in this wide street, with her cage. I had…