Endgame: Afghanistan

I have been working in Afghanistan for the better part of four years, documenting the American experience there through photography and writing. Rather than taking a strictly hard news-oriented approach, I have sought to read between the war’s lines and there I have found relentless absurdity and alienation. This 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 Arab Spring drew almost every western photographer away from Afghanistan, and I am one of very few who has stayed with this story. Working for the nonprofit GroundTruth Project, I have not worked in service to an advertising-driven news cycle, and have never tailored my coverage to please the military’s strategic messaging experts or guarantee my own future access. I find the quiet moments of this war are more often revealing than the loud. The existential folly is laid bare, the catch-22s more apparent, the tragic comedy marking everyone.