Facing The Blues – Saddam’s Picture-Makers Out Of Work

Iraq’s official portraitists are out of work. “In a good year, 20 portraits of Saddam Hussein could earn an artist £1,200 – a small fortune in a country crippled by two decades of war and economic sanctions. But now that the best-paying customer in town is fresh out of commissions, his absence is leading to a plummeting market in presidential iconography; what is a Saddam portraitist to do?”