Journalist Lucian Reed Documents the Iraq War Alongside Marines

A freelance journalist risked his life to follow one group of Marines into the Iraq War.

Freelance journalist Lucian Reed risked his life to photograph the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His photos were then published and helped capture the realities of armed combat in the Middle East.

Reed spent over three years photographing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and captured the difficult, intense, violent reality of what soldiers faced. Since Reed didn’t know must about the armed forces, he started out his journey with a company of Marines, one of whom was Representative Seth Moulton.

“You go though one of the worst experiences of your life and see tragedy like you never see here at home in America. And then you come home and you find that you miss it, and trying to make sense of that,” Moulton explained. “We know that was is horrible thing more than anybody else, and yet, the sense of purpose, and camaraderie, and dedication and trust to one another that we had is something that a lot of us miss back here at home.”

While working together, Reed taught Moulton how to tak photos. Moulton says he thinks Reed’s work captures the reality of war and that it helps people process and understand it, while preventing it from, happening in the future.

“The journalists who do it well, they’re real important because democracies only work if you can have honest debates about the truth,” he said “The work that people like Lucian do, it does matter, it is important, and it helps get the truth out, which, you know, even in these terrible political times, the truth still matters.”