. by James Oatway The controlled detonation of an IED discovered on a patrol near the Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Eight Marines had passed within inches of the device before Staff Sergeant Tyler Perkins spotted some wires protruding out of the ground. A US soldier guards two men detained for questioning during a raid near Chaparhar in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. US Marines fire a mortar at a Taliban position near the Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The vacant gaze of a heroin addict under the Puli Sokhta bridge in Kabul. The path to Sparrowhawk West Observation Post. FOB Zeebrugge, Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Rice and potatoes for lunch at a Afghan National Police (ANP) outpost near the Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Marines react as US Himar GPS guided missile strikes a compound during a prolonged gunfight with insurgents near the Kajaki Dam in Helmand Province. A brickmaker works his kiln on the outskirts of Kabul. Commandant Abdul Hamid of the Afghan National Police (ANP) fires an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) at Taliban fighters in the Green Zone, Kajaki. Hamid, a former Mujahudeen fighter led a joint operation with the US Marines, pushing deep into the Taliban controlled Green Zone and along Route 611. A child watches a US Marine patrol pass by in the village of Shabaz Kheyl near the Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Heroin addicts congregate under the Puli Sokhta bridge in Kabul. In 2011 I visited Afghanistan to document the war and it's effects on the population. I did two embeds, the first with the US Marines in Helmand and the second with the Army in Nangarhar Province. After that I travelled to Kabul where I spent a further 10 days. It was my first visit to Afghanistan and I was struck by how thirty years of warfare had manifested itself both on the faces of the people and on the land itself. This is a collection of my images from Helmand, Nangarhar and Kabul. MAY 2013 BACK ISSUE Back to current issue