In April, 2009, Peter Aaron, a veteran architectural photographer, went on vacation with his family, to Syria. It was about one year into President Obama’s first term, long before the name ISIS was broadly known. That same month, Seymour Hersh would write with a note of optimism, in this magazine, of the “Administration’s chance to engage in a Middle East peace.”

Aaron brought along a Canon 5D that he had modified several years earlier, removing the infrared coating on its lenses. Shooting with this camera would render blue skies in dark black and foliage in milky white, but he would gain a great level of detail and contrast in the gray-and-earth-colored stones of Syria’s buildings. His wife, a writer, professor, and history enthusiast, came up with the itinerary.