Best Overall Image: Army Photography Competition 2009

Downtime

Backround

The image ‘Downtime’ was taken on my birthday whilst I was on the Combat Camera Team in 2009.

In the final stages of Op Panthers Claw, The Light Dragoons Battlegroup had taken objectives around the town of Babaji in the Gereshk district. A Company 2 MERCIANS had taken up residence on at a location where voting registration could now take place for local Afghans. The CCT team went in to cover the voting registration and I was busy filming and gathering and footage.

Once finished I asked my photographer colleague, Sergeant Dan Harmer RLC, for his camera so I could get some images.

The Image

The image itself was part of a wider portfolio of how soldiers spend their ‘downtime’, the time that is their own and they are not on duty.

The soldiers of A Company had made best of their surroundings and had moved into a half built subterranean dwelling.

I was originally brought into the scene by the light coming through a small window and the meagre setup of the soldier who was just making the best of it. Doing exactly what he may do at home, having a brew and reading the paper.

I set about trying to emphasise the light and his existence with the boots and the mess tin, his tea is in a cut down water bottle.

I was tempted to crop the rifle but chose not to as I feel it adds the sense of the nature of Operations in Afghanistan.