Photo Op by kennardphillipps, photomontage: digital inkjet print on paper

This photomontage by Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps - collectively known as kennardphillipps - is a satirical reflection on former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision for Britain to invade Iraq with the United States and an example of protest art made in opposition to the Iraq War (2003-11).

kennardphillipps represent Blair smiling while taking a ‘selfie’ photograph with a smartphone, standing in front of a fiery background in a desert landscape suggestive of a burning oilfield. The artists digitally collaged sections of photographs they found in newspapers, including one from the Labour Party’s 2005 General Election campaign of Blair photographing himself with a group of naval cadets. By redacting the cadets and superimposing Blair’s selfie moment on an apocalyptic background, kennardphillipps suggest his blithe celebration of the war as a photo opportunity. The artists composed the digital image to coincide with the 31st G8 Summit (an intergovernmental political forum of leaders from the world’s most industrialised countries) held between 6 to 8 July 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland, and hosted by Blair. As per successive G7 and G8 Summits, seen by many as failing to tackle economic globalisation and climate change, the event attracted protestors, and around 5000 people marched in Scotland in opposition to the summit. Sharing the image online, kennardphillipps made Photo Op freely available to download and for protestors to use in anti-war placards and notices. In hard copy and digital formats, Photo Op has been widely disseminated for political activism, and kennardphillipps have encouraged users to adapt it visually and create their own versions of it. In 2006 the artist Banksy appropriated it for his ‘Santa’s Ghetto’ installation in Oxford Street, and during a hearing for the Iraq Inquiry (2009-2016) in 2011 the image was projected onto Westminster’s Central Hall. In 2006 Photo Op was first published as an artwork, signed and numbered by the artists, in a large edition of 750 digital inkjet prints, of which this is one example. Subsequent editions were released in 2007. As a well-known image, kennardphillipps’ photomontage may be regarded as both a defining example of their work and a visual shorthand for the controversy around Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War, which the Report of the Iraq Inquiry (2016) regarded as arising from flawed and unchallenged intelligence about Iraq's weapons and a 'far from satisfactory' examination of the legal basis for military action. Art critic Jonathan Jones acknowledged that Photo Op summed up the feelings of many protestors and influenced how the Iraq War was remembered: ‘To many people, this grotesquely comic moment says it all – only Blair would think that's a good photo opportunity. He did not, of course. This is not a real scene ... Photo Op, as their photomontage is called, has become the definitive work of art about the war that started with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 ... this manic digital collage states succinctly what a large number of people feel and believe about Blair's responsibility for the chaos that ensued ... Look, there he is, taking a selfie in front of his handiwork.’ (‘Peter Kennard’s "selfie" Photo Op will have a place in history’, Guardian, 15 October 2013). Purchased in 2025. Copyright: kennardphillipps.