Photographer Nikita Teryoshin pulls back the curtain on the global arms business

In today's world, we are constantly bombarded with images of war and destruction, and this is in no small part due to the global expenditure on arms increasing year on year. Perhaps surprisingly, the global arms business gets very little media exposure – which makes the new photography book by photographer Nikita Teryoshin all the more striking. 

Nothing Personal: The Back Office of War by Nikita Teryoshin is a new release published by Gost, and turns what little knowledge we do have about the arms business completely on its head. Teryoshin traveled to 16 arms fairs across each continent between 2016 and 2023, to investigate what happens before wars take place. The resulting body of work is presented in the book and provides an insight unlike any before. 

The scenes presented in the book are as far removed from a warzone as one might imagine, with exhibition halls filled with the rich and important seemingly window shopping for their preferred tools of destruction. 

"Nothing Personal shows the back office of war, which is the complete opposite of a battlefield: an oversized playground for adults with wine, finger foods, and shiny weapons," says Teryoshin.

"Dead bodies here are mannequins or pixels on screens of a huge number of simulators. Bazookas and machine guns are plugged into flatscreens and war action is staged in an artificial environment in front of high-ranking guests, ministers, heads of states, generals and traders." 

Teryoshin intentionally obscures faces, leaving the attendees anonymous, which acts as a metaphor for the cloak-and-dagger way in which the business operates.  

The photography in the book is outstanding. The use of composition, color and form all come together to highlight the message. Flash is used to enrich this further, shining a light on the shadowy underworld and adding saturation and hue to a dim and dull theme. 

"The casual nature of his observations combined with the bright innocent color palette which runs throughout the imagery is a sinister contrast to the goods on sale," states the publisher.

What Teryoshin manages to capture is the sense of the ridiculousness of the arms fairs and the characters in them, all with a humorous touch. Humor is not in the sense of subject matter, but in the observed normality of the shows. Much like any other trade show, attendees wander around with global political tote bags, missiles are carried from the stock room to the show floor so they can be handled by prospective customers, and demo areas showcase the destructive power of some of the goods available for order. 

Yet after the initial impression of great photography and storytelling, the humor fades and you're left with a sense of realization of why these people are at such a show. The juxtaposing nature of the work to its message is an effective one, and makes you question how such a 'trade' exists and how the attendees can be so blasé about what it is they are doing.  

This has been one of my standout books of the year so far, both for the photographic quality and the effective way the message is delivered. 

Nothing Personal: The Back Office of War by Nikita Teryoshin is published by Gost and is available now in the UK for £45, and will be released in the US on April 16 2024 for $60. Order and pre-order links can be found below. 

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