You hit the ground with such conviction and energy. The better of us sustain this for several months. The best of us tell the cynics that ‘to power forward despite setbacks’ is the absurd* gesture that just might penetrate the Afghan psyche.
I try to be somewhere between the better and the best of us, but the twilight days of this deployment have really tried my cultural sensibilities and motivation.
Film exposed in Afghanistan takes about a month to reach the states. Then there are a few weeks to process and develop, and about a month for me to find the time to write up a post. When it’s all said and done, I look at the pictures taken way-back-when and I realize how much my attitude about Afghanistan has changed. Demeanors have changed, the ‘hey, would you like to be in a picture?’ doesn’t quite work like it used to. But these few images still capture the light-hearted playfulness of those early days.
I introduced the time-wasting obsessions that soldiers dream up on deployments in an earlier volume. SPC Holz’s compound bow obsession happens to be one of my favorites. With nothing to shoot, he still gets incredible joy just holding and looking at his bow. This set also features some of our interpreters—each a wealth of information and fascinating stories.
I try to be somewhere between the better and the best of us, but the twilight days of this deployment have really tried my cultural sensibilities and motivation.
Film exposed in Afghanistan takes about a month to reach the states. Then there are a few weeks to process and develop, and about a month for me to find the time to write up a post. When it’s all said and done, I look at the pictures taken way-back-when and I realize how much my attitude about Afghanistan has changed. Demeanors have changed, the ‘hey, would you like to be in a picture?’ doesn’t quite work like it used to. But these few images still capture the light-hearted playfulness of those early days.
I introduced the time-wasting obsessions that soldiers dream up on deployments in an earlier volume. SPC Holz’s compound bow obsession happens to be one of my favorites. With nothing to shoot, he still gets incredible joy just holding and looking at his bow. This set also features some of our interpreters—each a wealth of information and fascinating stories.
You’re seeing Ektar 100 and Portra 400 here. So far, Ektar is my favorite daylight color negative film, but it seems my camera may be having shutter issues that affected my Portra rolls. The next batch will be exclusively Portra, so I’ll hold off my judgments until then
*‘Absurd’ is a sincere term of endearment to me.
*‘Absurd’ is a sincere term of endearment to me.
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