Peter van Agtmael

Peter van Agtmael was born in 1981 in Washington DC and graduated in History with honours from Yale University in 2003. He spent a year in China on a fellowship photographing the environmental consequences of the Three Gorges Dam. In 2005 he covered the Asian Tsunami, then relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa and photographed the AIDS epidemic by following the story of Holly Moyo, an HIV-positive Zimbabwean refugee. He travelled on assignment throughout Africa.

Since the beginning of 2006 he has documented the consequences of America's wars, at home and abroad. A monograph of the work, 2nd Tour Hope I Don't Die, was recently published. Van Agtmael has received a number of prizes, including a World Press Photo Award and the Photo Lucida Critical Mass Book Award. In 2008 he helped to organize the exhibition Battlespace, presenting the largely unseen work of 22 photographers working in Iraq and Afghanistan. Peter van Agtmael joined Magnum Photos as a nominee in 2008.

The portfolio presented in Foam Magazine #20 TALENT combines his images from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the United States. Based on his personal experience of the war, van Agtmael follows the experience of recovering wounded soldiers and the families of the fallen.