Ben Brody

I have been working in Afghanistan on and off since 2010, documenting the American experience there through photography and writing. Rather than taking a strictly news-oriented approach, I have sought to read between the war’s lines and there I have found relentless absurdity and alienation. The war is personal for...
I have been working in Afghanistan on and off since 2010, documenting the American experience there through photography and writing. Rather than taking a strictly news-oriented approach, I have sought to read between the war’s lines and there I have found relentless absurdity and alienation. The war is personal for me, both as an American citizen and as a former soldier who fought in Iraq for more than two years. I believe this gives me a unique perspective and authority on my subject. The past twelve years of American war have been marked by a doctrinal shift away from massive, mechanized invasions (as in Iraq) and into a realm known as counterinsurgency. It is a poorly defined strategy, a loose doctrine of maxims and presumptions, yet many military leaders praise its virtues with almost religious fervor. At its core, counterinsurgency doctrine assumes an infallible US soldier, capable of winning anyone’s heart and mind. I often focus on showing this untruth using the disconnect between American and Afghan cultures, at the points where they collide. The disparate cultures conflict during meetings and joint missions. A heavily armed 22-year-old lieutenant from Boston attempts to coax cooperation from a Pashtun tribal elder living in 13th century conditions in the mountains, but the two simply have nothing to offer each other. The cultures collide in the landscape itself. I illustrate this using aerial photography to show the ways that the war has shaped the Afghan landscape, and vice versa. From the air, monstrous army bases interrupt ancient aqueducts, and a frail ribbon of American asphalt snakes through forbidding mountains. I find the quiet moments of the war are more often revealing than the loud. The existential folly is laid bare, the catch-22s more apparent, the tragic comedy marking everyone.
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Bomb Squad, Kandahar
Guard Duty, Kapisa
Opium Harvest, Kandahar
Abandoned Base, Kapisa
Dog Looking For Food, Kandahar
Musclebound Soldier, Tagab
Prayer, Zabul
Outgoing, Tagab
Incoming, Kandahar
Splash, Jalalabad