Adam Ferguson

Photographs: Looking Home, at War

On a recent embed with US Army Infantry troops in Afghanistan’s Paktika Province I found myself challenged by how to tell a story. Patrols had been short and infrequent, interaction between soldiers was sparse and didn’t translate into revealing pictures, and there was little engagement with Afghan civilians. Here I was four kilometres from the volatile and strategic Afghanistan/Pakistan border and I couldn’t conceptualise a visual story.

Amid the down time I sat in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Room where I would watch the soldiers use the Internet to connect to the outside world. I’d hear soldiers have softly spoken arguments with wives or girlfriends, tones of longing in their discussions, plans were forged, laughter, as well as love and friendship being both exchanged and broken.

After being privy to this, it occurred to me that this phenomenon was the story itself. It wasn’t an obvious narrative about war- the angst and boredom in longing to be home- but that is war.

The faces of young men gazing into computer screens using Facebook and talking on Skype epitomised this sense of boredom and longing, so I went about capturing the expressions of soldiers distracted through a technology that connects them to something abstract, yet affords them the comfort in looking home, at war.

US Army Lieutenant Andrew Addis, Platoon Leader of 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Specialist Fred Ferguson from the mortar team of Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Private First Class Jeffrey Drake from 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
     
  
US Army Specialist Nathaniel Taylor from 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Private First Class Charles Sellick from 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Sergeant Joshua Hadley from 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Skype and Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
     
  
US Army Private Peter Klem from the mortar team of Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Private First Class Stephen Slaughter from the mortar team of Charlie Company 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Private First Class Clayton Carson from 1st 256 Air Defense Artillery sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
     
  
US Army Specialist Ryan Michael Penix from the mortar team of Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Specialist Anthony Inzitari from 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Sergeant Matthew Kurtz from Headquarters, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
     
  
US Army Private First Class Patrick Cork from 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.
   
US Army Sergeant Nathan Tomshak from 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-28 Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade sits using Facebook in the Morale Welfare and Recreation room at Combat Operations Post Margah.