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On the 26th of June
2003, I embarked on a passage that less than 1% of the population
of America will ever experience. I joined the United States
Army in order to serve my country in its time of need. My
greatest accomplishment prior to this date was graduating
high school only a day earlier. I knew that given my Military
Occupational Service (Airborne Infantry), the chance that
I would fight in combat was eminent. The excitement and
utter terror I felt not knowing what the future would bring
is what drove me to document my experience, so that I may
never forget it. I was deployed three times, and each time
with a new camera. In the late months of 2003 I was deployed
in Kirkuk, Iraq, toting a disposable camera in an extra
ammunition pouch. March of 2005 our unit was sent to southeastern
Afghanistan. This time I had a low level canon point and
shoot digital camera. It was small, light, easy to carry
and even easier to use. Two years later in May of 2007,
I was lugging around a Sony Alpha 100 DSLR camera and nothing
but the kit lens it came with; my element deployed for a
second time to Afghanistan, this time to the most treacherous
part of the country.
The mountains in the Northeastern areas of
Afghanistan are extremely precipitous and smothered with
lofty desert vegetation, making it nearly impossible to
spot the enemy at a distance. The provinces that border
Pakistan are where most of the Taliban fighters are operating.
The fighters would attack intermittently from across the
border, sometimes simultaneously launching multiple direct
and indirect fire attacks against many of the remote Coalition
Forces outposts. Following these attacks, the insurgents
would egress back across the border into Pakistan knowing
that we had no ability to pursue them onto Pakistani soil
due to the rules of engagement. A few kilometers west of
the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan lies the Korengal
Valley, in the Konar province of Afghanistan. For the 15
months between May 2007 and August 2008, our outposts in
the Korengal were the most attacked U.S. installations in
the world.
It is in this very small part of the country
where, what I deemed to be my best works to date, were recorded.
On a patrol or any down time we had between engagements
with the enemy, I was taking pictures. It was very restorative
to get lost behind the lens of a camera and capture the
epitome of the American soldier in Afghanistan. From continuous
mountain landscapes, living circumstances, and just the
every day life of common American people fighting an enemy
half a world away from home. At the time it seemed that
I was taking these photos exclusively to document my experiences
in this peculiar and stunning country. In the summer months,
the mountains are enclosed in a deep green with the pervasive
abnormal rock formation reaching out to form a ridge line
or a place to hide. In the lower areas, the ancient terrace
gardens are abundant and calm. The mountains are infinite
and rugged stretching beyond the horizon, the eternal peaks
of grueling terrain. In the winter months, the clouds will
consume the very area around your habitat, and continuously
drive snow to the earth in blankets. An entire mountain
landscape covered in an aesthetic barren white. It was never
difficult to find a subject to photograph in the ever changing
atmosphere of my surroundings. I believe I was able to capture
a lifestyle that most media crews covering the “situation”
in Afghanistan are never truly able to experience. At the
end of our 15 month deployment, I had over 2,000 images;
the photos hanging in the gallery are what Cerulean Arts
and I have decided best portray this unusual and ever-present
subject.
Thank you to Cerulean Arts for allowing me
to display these works, and to help the general public better
understand that the frontlines of combat truly do exist.
Tom Hunter
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