David Schulz, The Terrorist’s Handbook

Thanks to David Schulz’s recent self-published book, I discovered that there is actually such a thing as a terrorism handbook. According to Schulz, it is “a document created by an unknown author at an unknown time. It is believed to have been heavily edited over the years, and can be found on several websites and downloaded freely.”

This handy guide gave Schulz the idea to create a self-published book to show “just how easy it is for a terrorist to perform acts of terror”. The book consists of photographs shot in an intentionally amateurish style of sites that could have been shot by an imaginary terrorist: bridges, lots of chainlink fences, apartment blocks, infra-structural details. The images are overlaid with chapter headings from the actual terorrist handbook and excerpts of some tense conversations Schulz had with police and security staff when taking the photographs. In a pretty incredible coincidence, Schulz has the same name as one of the authors of The Counter-Terrorism Handbook which “guides law enforcement as well as industrial and private security personnel through terrorism situations or potential threats such as bomb threats, hostage situations, kidnapping, and negotiations”.

The Terrorist’s Handbook is a provocative idea, one which could have got Schulz into a lot of trouble. However, the execution is problematic at times: I found certain of the images to be overly constructed or simply repetitive, while some of the New York cityscapes chosen seem like pretty unlikely targets. The most fascinating thing about the book are the quotes from his encounters with police and security. In these Schulz is never confrontational, but plays up his naive innocence instead. The responses he gets reveal the extraordinarily suspicious attitude that has developed to photography in New York.

One to display prominently on your bookshelf?