Turner-prize winner's true portrait of war

It is an image of war that the Ministry of Defence never wanted to see published: an intimate family photograph of a British soldier killed in Iraq which, taken with nearly 100 others, forms the official portrait of the conflict by the Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen.

As the finished work, For Queen and Country, was unveiled in Manchester last night, McQueen said it had been completed in the face of two years' opposition from the MoD, which had offered only a limited glimpse of the conflict, refused him access to the families of British casualties and asked why he could not produce "a landscape" portrait instead.

To the astonishment of the 98 bereaved families who have worked on the project with McQueen, the Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton has also declined the artist's personal request that the stamps be turned into a real commemorative issue, to mark the lives laid down in the conflict.

Carol Jones, the mother of Sgt John Jones, whose image is reproduced in The Independent with her permission, said she was astonished that McQueen had been discouraged from approaching her. "It's wonderful, such a tribute, and it makes me feel so proud," she said. "We will always remember our sons and husbands but I don't know about the public, once this conflict is over. How wonderful it would be to receive a letter through the post with John's face on it. I wish the Royal Mail would co-operate while the conflict is still remembered."

McQueen says he was deeply moved by the reaction of 200 families who attended a private view of the piece, a pre-commission for this summer's Manchester International Festival.

"One little girl came up and said, 'do you want to see my daddy' and pulled out the drawer," he said. "The physical contact with the drawer seems special to people and so does the multitude of images. The images make it neither pro nor anti-war. To those against, they are victims. To those in favour, they laid down their life in a just cause." (McQueen does not profess himself either for or against the occupation.)

Though invited by the Imperial War Museum in 2003 to apply for the commission, McQueen claims he felt "deflated and defeated" after the MoD allowed him just six days in Iraq to make observations from which he was asked to produce a work of art.

"I was nannied throughout and shown around school rebuilding projects. What did that mean and what could I possibly do in six days?" he said.

Instead, he made his own plans to go back to Iraq. Martine d'Anglejean-Chatillon, a director of London's Thomas Dane gallery which exhibits McQueen's work, made direct contact via the Pentagon, with Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of allied forces in Iraq at the time, who agreed that McQueen should join US troops in Baghdad for two weeks.

McQueen planned to move from there to Basra, engaging two former SAS officers to accompany him and arranging hostile environment training in Scotland in readiness. But then the hostage-taking in Iraq began and, in late 2005, his plans were abandoned.

McQueen concedes he was becoming filled with "a sense of panic" about his commission when, while placing a tax return into an envelope at his home in Amsterdam, the stamps idea hit him. "I looked at a Dutch stamp with Van Gogh's image and I thought 'wow'," he said. "I knew that the only people on stamps were either from the Royal Family or dead. From the start I had the idea of these stamps being in circulation. I wanted to give the piece some functionality - not just to have it sitting in a gallery in London."

McQueen says it then became clear that the MoD, which was consulted by IWM about his idea, were not in favour. "It took us three months to get a meeting, at which there were 16 people on their side and four on ours," he said. "We were told it was a non-starter as these people were traumatised and in a state of great grief. They said why couldn't I do a landscape portrait?

"Three months after the meeting we were told to leave the families alone and we have since heard nothing from the MoD since."

Struggling to see through his project, McQueen encountered Alex Poots, director of the Manchester International Festival, in London and it was he who has provided the energy to kickstart the project. He encouraged McQueen to employ a researcher to begin the task of writing to the families, which provided the first sense of how much they wanted to be involved.

Of the 115 families contacted and asked for photographs, 98 wanted to be involved, four did not and 13 did not respond. The result is a piece of art which is both shocking and moving. McQueen is desperate for the Royal Mail to make real stamps out of his replicas. "The idea of bending down to pick up a letter and that those who have died who look out at you seems immensely powerful. It seems we can have stamps to mark winning the Ashes - but not this," he said.

Royal Mail said it was aware of McQueen's approach but had no immediate plans to take it up. "We plan five years in advance," said a spokesman. The MoD had no comment.

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