22.02.10

Photojournalist Danfung Dennis on working in Afghanistan with the US Army

The first time I went to Afghanistan, I travelled on my own in 2006. I caught a flight from Dubai to Kabul.

I got a taxi from the airport into Kabul. There were no guide books. When I arrived there was a huge riot going on. An American convoy had driven into a car containing four civilians and killed them. The American soldiers opened fire on the crowd and killed four more civilians. The riot was against all foreigners. I immediately started working, but it wasn’t long before the crowd turned on me. A large mob chased me with rocks, sticks and shovels. I ran as fast as I could until I reached a junction. A car carrying two men drove in front of me and stopped. Our eyes met. I jumped in and we drove off. I didn’t know who they were. They took me to safety. I was 25.

I’m a photojournalist. I started out working for the Associated Press (AP) in Beijing. I’d finished college and had put together a portfolio of images that weren’t very good, and had been ignored by most of the photo editors in Beijing, when one working at AP suggested I string for them. So I’d spend all day trying to find stories and would then go into the offices at the end of the day, hoping they would buy a few images. Now I work in Afghanistan. I applied to be embedded, completed all the paperwork and got accreditation from the New York Times.

I spend time with different units and I choose which units I want to be with on the basis of which are involved in the most fighting. The unit I’ve spent most time with recently is Echo Company in southern Helmand. It’s a big part part of my life, I have spent a good deal of the last three years in Iraq and Afghanistan. You get to know the soldiers and marines very well, you’re in difficult situations, you trust them, they trust you. But there is a sense of guilt when you leave them behind, even though I remind myself I am not a soldier, I’m a journalist. I’m always trying to tell a story.

It was work from previous wars that inspired me, particularly the work of James Nachtwey, that made me follow this calling. I make images that try to portray realities of what’s happening, to make people pause for a second and make them realise that the war is something they are involved in and what the consequences are. I don’t think about the images’ role in history, but I do feel that I am recording the war of my generation.

The situation in Afghanistan is getting much worse year by year and I feel an obligation to show what’s really happening there. I will keep going back as long as the war continues. I’d love to go back after the war has finished. It’s a stunningly beautiful country that I would love to photograph when it is more peaceful. However, I focus on the war in Afghanistan because I want to do it justice and follow it to its conclusion.

It was a natural transition for me to move from the still to moving image when I got the Canon 5D MkII – it only took the press of a button to shoot HD video. I found that, when I showed people my still images, it was hard to convey what it’s really like in wars, whereas the moving image is much closer to home, you really feel what it’s like to be there. I was able to apply my aesthetics from the still to the moving image – it’s a natural progression. I can see myself focusing more on the moving image, I do still jump back to stills, but there is a convergence happening at the moment from so many different industries. The lines are being blurred. So I don’t even think it’s relevant anymore that somebody just does stills or just moving images, because there are fewer and fewer boundaries between the two.

I’m trying to borrow from the tradition of cinema and bring it to reality, and that’s what the camera allows me to do. I want people to forget that they are watching reality and then, at that moment, realise that it is real, which is much more powerful. I feel that I have just started, I’m still learning.

I only started shooting video 10 months ago, I’m still learning the grammar of moving images, sound and storytelling.I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.

I don’t think I could create an image that conveyed the pain and the suffering that people go through in a war, but you still have to try. Even with the moving image, you’re still not there. It’s a window, and I think that is enough to shake people from indifference. Indifference is one of the evils of the 20th century – the crimes that have been committed have been because of the indifference of others. If I can shake people from that indifference and actually think about something and take action, that’s what I’m striving for.

There is an initial period when you become embedded when the soldiers don’t quite know what to make of you – these are tight-knit units. But when you show them that you can keep up and don’t get in the way, trust builds very quickly and you get very close to each other, but I constantly remind myself that I am not one of them, because I have a responsibility to show the good and the bad that they are doing.

I’m always thinking about cover, looking for ditches or walls. After that, I’m working the camera. It’s all calculated risks, whatever situation I’m in, there is always one more level of risk-taking to get a better image, it’s at that point where I have to decide, personally, just how far am I going to take it.

The response to my work has been overwhelmingly positive so far, particulary from the families of Echo Company. I was there when the marines returned to their families in the US, and one after another came up to me and shook my hand. They’re very open to my work being shown, because it shows what they do on a daily basis and they’re proud of what they’ve sacrificed their time and lives to do. The support and positive reaction has been overwhelming.I try to convey the feelings of who I’m photographing and convey my own feelings and put that into my images.

The burden of these wars falls on the soldiers and their families and those caught in the crossfire. My country and your country are at war, but it doesn’t feel like it. I’m just trying to bring the war closer to home.

Danfung Dennis was speaking to Professional Photographer editor Grant Scott.To see Danfung Dennis’s film Battle for Hearts and Minds, visit www.professionalphotographer.co.uk.To see examples of his stills work, visit www.danfungdennis.com.

• Comments (0)
• Print this page
• Send to a Friend

Average Article Rating 0 Stars

Your Rating Login Required!

Sorry - You must be a registered user & logged in to rate this. Login | Register

Back to Categories