BlackFive

A Different View:  DJ, Doura, and Arab Jabour is now published, and can be purcased at CreateSpace (an Amazon company).  You can also get it on Amazon proper and Kindle.  I will note that the Kindle version has a bunch of blank pages added in odd spots, but it's a small price to pay to have the photos actually show up as I wanted.   

I want to thank former Playboy staff photographer (and amazing mentor) David Mecey (warning: link may or may not be work safe) for the foreword, and author Sarah A. Hoyt for her incredible introduction.  Below are some cover/promo blurbs you may enjoy: 

“Blake Powers is an experienced combat photographer, and this is not his first trip to Iraq. He has an observer’s eye and can bring great meaning to what at first looks like an ordinary snapshot. If you want to understand our soldiers’ day-to-day existence in a foreign war, these photos do it in a way impossible for any other medium.”

Larry Bond, bestselling author of Shattered Trident , Red Phoenix, and co-author of Red Storm Rising 

“What Powers has done in his most recent work is impossible to convey into words. Now more than ever, this book is a must read. The photos timelessly convey the struggle of valor and the American nobility of service at war. From the soiled faces of war weary civilians, to the bone tired appearance of the Warrior Class; these photos present every aspect of a deployment. The mission. The sector. Duty. Sacrifice. Fidelity. Holidays away from home. And the unsung service of those often times forgotten. If it is true that pictures are worth a thousand words, consider Blake Powers to have completed the complete annals of the true sacrifice of the Iraq War.”

David Bellavia, U. S. Army veteran and author of House to House: An Epic Memoir of War

“Blake Powers captures tender moments between troops and local Iraqi citizens in a dazzling array of clothing, uniforms, foods and the ever-present smiling, grubby faces of Iraqi children.  In these photos and the accompanying descriptions, Powers deftly delineates the difference between citizens of Iraq who desire peace, against the face of insurgents who only want terror and violence.   This is a brilliant effort to take us to a distant world, the land of Iraq and the people, citizen and soldier, who dwell there.”

S.D Kent, author of Firework, The Training of an American Firefighter