While many photobooks concern themselves with weighty philosophical issues, the most successful can be appreciated on many levels. It would be difficult to find a recent photobook with a subject as quirky as Martin Parr's Saddam Hussein Watches (2004). Even the pun in the title makes you laugh, for this is not immediately about the overseeing eye of the dictator. Rather, Martin Parr has turned his eye toward the wrist watches that Saddam Hussein allegedly dispensed to favoured party members and dignataries, and to the satiric versions that proliferated soon after he was toppled in 2003. The face of each watch is the face of Saddam. The concept and execution doesn't come any more Parr-esque than this.

Parr, we are told in the end notes, had his Magnum colleagues collect the watches from Iraqi markets whilst on press duty. Others were apparently purchased on eBay. Each bares a portrait of Saddam, looking presidential, menacing, grinning, and at times a little camp. Each of the 34 watches collected has been photographed (not even by Parr, I hasten to add), and presented on a cream background as if a full page advertisement in the New York Times. The tabloid sized book is loose leafed, resembling a newspaper, and comes in a gold mylar foil bag. The extravagently kitsch packaging perfectly matches the content.

This curiosity of a book was given away to the first 1500 visitors at the annual Rencontre D'Arles Photography Festival 2004 in France which was guest curated by Parr. It is said a further 500 copies were released for public distribution. It is difficult to guage the circulation of many photobooks, this one does not even have an ISBN.

Saddam's regime altered expensive Rolex watches and other prestigious watches with faceplates depicting the leader. Amazing as it sounds, these symbols of Western power and affluence were greatly admired by members of the anti-Western Ba'ath party, so the story goes. But is there any truth to the tale? I can find little evidence, but have a hunch it is accurate. History is written by the victors, and the victors here are the Iraqi's peddling the souvenirs. The Swiss watch companies are hardly going to verify the trade, but it seems equally unlikely that such a tale could be invented.

There is a chronology to the series of watches. After Saddam was defeated, parodies were created to mock the ousted leader. One says "Let's go get the butcher of Baghdad", another commemorates the moment he was "Captured like a rat" by the US Army. Between pre- and post-fall watches lies a single timepiece with Osama bin Laden's face looking back.

Time is a central aspect of how we record the story of these despots. Newspapers once trumpeted that time was running out for Saddam, the clock is ticking we were told, and then once he was ejected, they said it was only a matter of time before he was caught. We watched the story unfold on the 24 hour television news channels. And in the remote hills of Pakistan Osama appears to be biding his own time. As trivial and tasteless as these timepieces may appear, it is interesting to note that similar trinkets appeared at the site of the World Trade Center soon after September 11th, 2001.

Parr has made a career out of highlighting the unseemly side of the capitalist consumer. He shines a spotlight onto what is rather tacky, lurid, and kitsch, yet it is central to our society. He is also an obsessive collector, of boring postcards, photobooks, and even Saddam Hussein watches. Non-commercial artist books are important for the fact that they allow the photographer to explore subjects without concern for the marketability of the book. There can be few better examples of this than Saddam Hussein Watches.

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