Buzzing at the Sill

Buzzing at the Sill is Peter van Agtmael’s work about coming home from years of covering war in Iraq and Afghanistan and trying to understand his experiences and his country. A student of history at Yale during the September 11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq, his sheltered life was uprooted by the realization that he needed to cover the wars. The work is a stew of reflections on war, memory, militarism, identity, race, class, family, surrealism and the landscape. It is both about the limitations of photography and an homage to its power.
Buzzing at the Sill is a sequel to Disco Night Sept. 11, van Agtmael’s previous book on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that was shortlisted for the Paris Photo/Aperture Book Award and was named a Book of the Year by The New York Times Magazine, Time, Vogue and American Photo amongst others. Peter van Agtmael (b. 1981) is a member of Magnum Photos. He has won many awards, including the W. Eugene Smith Award, the ICP Infinity Award and two World Press Photo awards for his work in Iraq and on the war at home.