Submission

I spent many months with various British military regiments during several embeds in Helmand Province, Afghanistan between 2003 & 2010. At the start of each embed I was always told that it would be different 'this time' as they had learnt lessons from previous tours. There always seemed to be a new 'bad guy' or 'bad village' on each tour and if they could take them out then things would improve for themselves and the local population. In my experience on each occasion lessons were never heeded and the same mistakes were repeated time and time again which resulted in the deaths of 454 British soldiers with over six thousand seriously injured. British politicians promised to bring peace to Helmand but didn't give the British military enough resources to undertake their task which resulted in fairly small forces trying to cover large terrains which left them vulnerable to attacksas they didn't have enough boots on the ground to contain the Taliban. In these images I try to convey the sense of dread, the dry mouthed apprehension of being attacked from the loathed and feared I.E.D.s The terrain seemed so big for such a small force and at times seemed overwhelming as if the very ground would swallow them leaving no trace. Everywhere one had a sense of being watched even in a remote desert plain miles from anywhere or any living soul and always at the back of your mind the ultimate fear of death. Over 70 thousand Afghanistan civilians have been killed in the fighting since 2001