Being in the fortunate and often unfortunate position to view hundreds of images from the war in Iraq each and every day, I can easily say that visual coverage of these events spans from mundane to surreal.

Peter van Agtmael’s image, although not dramatic when compared to suicide-bomb aftermath or events involving mass death, successfully does one thing.

Most readers and viewers see war through dramatization on television and film. In most cases the reality of these events is sanitized by unfamiliar cultures, imagery, distance or time. Whether it’s an historical image from Vietnam or a live event from overseas today, people in the West, safe in their homes, are as far away from what they are seeing as can be.

Who could possibly imagine the experience of a suicide bomb exploding outside their home? Most cannot. But we can imagine our privacy violated, our possessions disrupted and our lives put on hold. What van Agtmael’s photo successfully does is relates the absurdity of war to the sanctity of our own lives, in a way we can all understand.