“Fiction is a way to illuminate the realities of our human condition and it helps answer questions I often grapple with,” said civil rights lawyer-turned-conceptual documentary artist Debi Cornwall during a presentation at the sixth Xposure International Photography Festival, which concluded yesterday (Tuesday) at Expo Centre Sharjah.

Showcasing two of her most notable works ‘Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay’ and ‘Necessary Fiction’, she took the audience on a riveting behind-the-scenes journey with visuals from Guantánamo Bay to mock villages hosting immersive, realistic war scenarios for the American military. “Is there something about fiction that makes truth compelling?” she asked, explaining how some of the visuals she presented were just ‘official fictions’ to reveal ‘hidden truths.’

The inside tour of Guantánamo Bay began with photos of a Tiki bar, bowling alleys and an outdoor movie theatre. “The challenge was to take a different kind of picture. We had been accustomed to seeing the same kinds of images – the orange jumpsuit, soldiers in fatigues, and the barbed wires – and I wanted to do something else,” she said, describing how the idea for the project took shape when her military escort at the notorious US detention facility remarked: ‘There’s so much fun to be had here!’

“And so, I decided to show the ‘fun’ – to look at what I was being asked to see,” said Cornwall who documented everything from toddler T-shirts and turkey vulture soft toys to a Fidel Castro radio set that were available for sale at the naval base. “These gift-shop souvenirs depict the commodification of American military power,” she added.

In her attempt to capture “how power operates” and bring to light “state-created realities”, Cornwall’s images also captured ‘comfort items’ that differed from one detainee to another. “Flipflops and toothpaste were common to all, but those in full compliance had towels and cushions – a claim that was refuted by prisoners I met later,” she said, adding, “What I was asked to see vividly brought home the denial of personhood in this place.”

“59 countries have since accepted men from Guantanamo Bay but the many that have been released remain suspects forever,” she said, while narrating individual stories of the 14 detainees across 9 countries she contacted for her project – all of whom had been detained without trial and without charge. In a replication of the Guantánamo rules against photographing faces, she photographed these men with their backs to the camera.

Cornwall also spoke about Necessary Fictions, her second book and multimedia installation. “How are fictions deployed and embraced, and to what end? What happens to a society that cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality?” she asked as she showed photographs of staged desert villages across the US where ‘inhabitants’ play roles of shopkeepers and village elders to even suicide bombers to create imagined realities for military personnel.

“Here, real soldiers are dressed by Hollywood makeup artists in “moulage” – fake wounds – during immersive realistic pre-deployment training scenarios,” she explained, adding:“Is there something about fiction that allows us to see the truth? It is this slip between fiction and reality that intrigues me.”