6th Rifles

These are some of the portraits from my latest project yet to be titled but this section is called 6th Rifles. The project will go beyond just the 6th Rifles and explore other British Armed Forces Regiment and Corps. Once I have settled down in London I plain on starting the next part of the project. So keep an eye out for the next update.

Armadillo

I have been watching a lot of documentaries films as of late, partly due to the fact I wouldn't mind venturing down the route of becoming a documentary film maker as well as the a photographer. I also have been watching a fair few documentaries on the war in Afghanistan, such as Restrepo which I have talked a little about already, Armadillo was the next one on my list to watch, and I finally got round to watching it today. 

The feature-length follows the men of Guard Hussars Regiment of the Danish Army, on their first mission in Helmand Province, at the Forward Operating Base Armadillo. Instead of showing the day to day chores of the soldiers, it shows the psychological effect on the soldiers after certain events throughout their six month stay in Afghanistan, each having their own reaction and ways of coping with these events. As mentioned before the men of the Guard Hussars are Danish and I think this makes the documentary even more interesting as people relate the war in Afghanistan to America and British armed forces and it is nice to see the war from another countries point of view.

Once again the trailer is available by clicking on the image below.

Dissertation Note #2

Been doing some reading lately for my dissertation, I am still not 100% sure what I am going to be writing about, but I have a good feeling on what direction I want my essay to head towards. Here are few quotes and references that I am hoping to use in the final essay.

In an interview with Joerg Colberg, Benjamin Lowy states 

"what happens in NY and Iraq are separated by vast cultural, economic, and geographic differences, and getting people so disconnected to care about others is very hard." (Colberg, J. 2011)

Broomberg and Chanerin state on their website, 

"Crucially, for traditional photojournalism, is the fact that the three biggest news stories in recent years, September 11th, Abu Graib and the Tsunami, were all recorded by amateurs. Chris Boot made a joke during the Aperture discussion that these days if your photographs aren't good enough, you aren't far enough away. An inversion of Capa's famous quote. This strategy, of stepping back from the event and producing more reflective journalism, is a direct response to this new reality: that armed with a digital camera or mobile phone everyone is a photojournalist, in the traditional sense, reporting from the front line of life" (Lehan, J. 2006)

Colberg, J. (2011). A Conversation with Benjamin Lowy. [online] Available from: http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/a_conversation_with_benjamin_lowy/ [Accessed 17^th September 2011]

Lehan, J. (2006). Interview with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin conducted by Joanna Lehan, assistant curator at the International Center of Photography, New York for the catalogue of ECOTOPIA, the second triennial of photography and video. 2006. [pdf] New York: International Center of Photography. Available from: http://choppedliver.info/pdf/lehan.pdf [Accessed 14th November 2011]

Restrepo

I finally got round to watching Restrepo by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington. The documentary follows the men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the U.S Army and their stay at Out Post Restrepo in the Korengal Valley, showing how the platoon cope with the day to day life in Afghanistan, and in one of the most dangerous areas for the U.S Military to be based. For me this feature-length was a great insight into military life on the front-line, the way the documentary is filmed immerses the audience into the combat, hard labour and chores of the solders, making the viewer feel as if they have been with the men from the start, seeing their blood, sweat and tears, which I think makes this an award winning documentary film. 

The image below has a link to the Restrepo website where there is more information on the film, the solders involved and an extensive selection of interviews to watch over, while you wait for your DVD to arrive in the post.

Dissertation Note #1

So now that I am into my final year I have to do my dissertation, it has been very difficult to think of a strong question that I want to ask, research and write about. I didn't want to go for something that was too easy for me to write about, as that would not teach me much about what I am interested in. I am still in the developing stage of my research but here are some photographers I have been looking at, they are not 100% going to be in my final piece but it shows the sort of work I am going to be looking at for the dissertation.


Each image is linked to the website I found them on, some of them have more of the photographers work or an article about the photographer.

Kevin Frayer

Balazs Gardi

Simon Norfolk

Luc Delahaye