war through the lens of american combat photographers in afghanistan + iraq

This page: Photo by U.S. Marine Cpl. Samuel Corum. The Marines of 3rd Platoon, E Company, after a long night building the new observation post and Iraqi Police Station in the Sanaee District of Fallujah, Iraq. The job was so grueling they didnt bother setting up barracks, but slept alongside the building materials instead. Opposite: Photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Klika. An Iraqi cemetery across the street from a Christian church.
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Photography: U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock, U.S. Marine Cpl. Samuel Corum, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Klika, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Bailey. Associate Curator: Micki Meng.

Opposite: Photo by U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock. A U.S. Army sniper guards the perimeter outside Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan, March 2002. Just down the street is the Taliban training camp, where the ubiquitous scenes of black-clad trainees practicing military exercises were captured on video. This page: Photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Klika. This was taken of Pvt. Zachary McDaniel and Pvt. Shane Irwin of Charlie Company of the 101st Airborne Division as they walked along a contaminated canal outside Sadr City in Baghdad, providing security for a U.S.-hired forensic archaeology team searching for Saddam-era mass gravesites. Located in a landfill, the waters unnatural hue is the result of years of pollution from trash, human bodies, and animal carcasses. After a twelve-hour day in the fly-infested dump, the soldiers headed back to camp for food, fuel, and sleep. Several hours later, they were out patrolling the streets of Sadr City. Ten minutes later, the second truck in our convoy was struck by an EFP [or explosively formed penetrator]. The round entered on the passenger side through five inches of armor, taking off the legs of the passenger and then the legs of the driver, then exiting five more inches of armor. The soldiers of the 1-33 reacted very quickly and had the injured back on base within eight minutes. Both of the wounded are still recovering and are medically retired.

The stillness at the center of a storm is a reminder of past chaos and a harbinger of violence still to come. And in this momentary calm, the wreckage is surveyed. There is joysome things have been saved. And there is dreadsome things may be lost. In Eye of the Storm: War through the Lens of American Combat Photographers, life goes on amid the fighting and occupation: a family lives in a trash heap, a young child sleeps undisturbed as soldiers search the home for weapons, two U.S. soldiers stand guard on a canal with an unnatural hue. With all proceeds from the show going to the Wounded Warrior Project, a Jacksonville, Florida00

based not-for-profit organization that provides assistance to injured servicemen and women, curator Dane Jensen assembled more than thirty-five limited-edition prints in this compelling exhibition of work from nine award-winning U.S. combat photographers charged with documenting the quotidian business of war, while serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.xMara Zehler
On view May 27July 5 at Reform Gallery, 816 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069, www.eyeofthestormexhibition.com and www.woundedwarriorproject.org.
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Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Bailey. The platoon I was with had been searching houses for weapons caches in the district of Tal Afar in Iraq. It was a particularly hot day, with the temperature peaking in the 120s. We had been kicking in doors and searching abandoned houses for the better part of the day, when we finally came across one that was inhabited. After a woman let us into the courtyard, the soldiers searched the house from top to bottom, during which time we came upon a child sleeping, oblivious to our presence. He slept on a concrete floor with only bare necessities, and yet he still seemed well cared for and comfortable. There was a sense of peace in that room that I wanted to capture and take with me. He slept right through our intrusion, never knowing we were there.

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This page, top: Photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Klika. An Iraqi soldier during a cordoning drill on the grounds of a brick factory, where a combination of guard dogs and strays live. The area is so rich with oil that the children who work in the factory would siphon it from the ground and add it directly to the fire used to make bricks. The air is so polluted that American soldiers stationed across the street receive an automatic twenty percent disability compensation. This factory is one of 175 in the area. Bottom: Photo by U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock. One of two Iraqi boys held by U.S. forces for breaking curfew, during which soldiers completed a series of raids in the boys neighborhood of Hay Al Tinek, Mosul, Iraq. That day, seven individuals from the Lion terrorist cell, including Aboud al-Braho, a leader of numerous cells under the Ansar al-Sunna terrorist organization, were detained. June 2006. Opposite: Photo by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Klika. An Iraqi family attempts to build a home in the landfill where they hunt for construction material. Snapped through a bullet-proof window, four inches thick, from a vehicle weaving through traffic at speeds in excess of 50 mph, this image so profoundly influenced the photographer that he was compelled to return to the country to document its people. Roughly 1.7 million people of Iraq have been displaced by the violence.
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