Guerrilla postering, like graffiti,
randomly appears at the whim of
anonymous scribes. In Louie Palu’s project,
guerrilla postering also evokes the
chaos of a war zone. Palu’s photographs
of graffiti were taken in Afghanistan’s
Southern provinces of Kandahar and
Helmand while he was embedded
with Canadian, British and American
troops in 2008. From commemorative
memorials etched by soldiers into concrete
barriers, to renderings of artillery
drawn by civilians on the walls of abandoned
houses, Palu’s work highlights
the enduring consequences of naïve
expression. It also draws attention to
the force of the photographic medium,
transposing cave-like drawings from a
war zone to a city across the globe.

Far from Kandahar, Palu’s images
infiltrate the relative peacefulness of
Queen Street West and serve as cunning
reminders of Canada’s present
involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
The Bovine, with its
post-apocalyptic style synonymous
with graffiti, is the project’s ground
zero. Palu redeploys army latrine
scrawl from Afghanistan in the club’s
washrooms, and in the back alley he
lines up a regimented display of the
full series of images. Contextualizing
his images of grafitti, Palu’s combat
videography represents some of the
most unique, in-depth, front-line coverage
of the fighting since Canada began
operations in Afghanistan. His coverage
of Canadian military activity in Zhari
District (considered to be the birthplace
of the Taliban) feeds the worldwide
desire for instantaneous video footage
that is challenging the future of still
photojournalism.

Palu was born in Toronto and is currently
based in Washington. His work
has been exhibited extensively internationally,
and published in sources such
as The New Yorker, The New York Times,
Newsweek, the Washington Post, The
Walrus, MacLeans, The Toronto Star and
The Globe and Mail. Palu is represented
by ZUMA Press.

Map for Walking Tour of Louie Palu’s
War Zone Grafitti Guerilla poster’s (PDF
133KB)

• Louie Palu, a Canadian documentary and photographer, examines socio-political issues such as war in his work. For over 30 years, he has explored human rights conflicts, poverty and strife, both nationally and globally. Born in Canada to Italian immigrant parents who witnessed the violence of the Second World War, Palu grew up hearing their stories of trauma and poverty, later shaping his voice as a documentary photographer. Throughout his career, Palu has created twelve series that examine the humanity within conflict, affording his subjects agency while challenging stereotypes associated with conflict photography. His work also draws on the tension between the photograph as a document and as an art object.