Each person has a story to tell

Over the some of the previous blog posts of 6 days in the sand, I told the story of how we lived whilst deployed out on operations in Afghanistan, what it was to live, fight and survive in the wastelands and desert plains in Helmand Provence, during those 6 days I worked and lived alongside the men of the Afghan National Army (ANA), these men are true warriors fighting in a country that has known only war, pure breeds of war as I see them. These men have no fear, they know the risks involved and are prepared to give their lives for the right for freedom in a country that has been ruled by fear for far to long, these men want freedom, want to live a life of no fear, but they are breed to fight, it’s in their blood, engraved in their history, it’s all they know and it’s why they now join the ANA, to fight for freedom.

I also had the chance to encounter with the people of Afghanistan, the local population, the men and children that live their lives from fear of the Taliban, these are the people that we’re out here fighting for, working for and protecting each day with our lives. Although the language is different and mostly spoken through an interpreter, you can see through their eyes the years of war ravaged on their faces, each line, crease, wrinkle tells a story, tells a tale, each has it’s own history and stories to tell.

So with the chance to be with the local population and the ANA, I decided to use the time not only to practise my photography skills of portraits, but to let you see the stories through their eyes, the history in their faces and to be more connected to why we the British Army are here, it goes back to the saying ‘The people are the prize’, without them this country is nothing and we are here for nothing also.

So each photo, each person has their story to tell, the language as I said might be different, but by hearing them speak, through their mannerisms and by looking at them in their eyes, each story is told, each moment lived throughout the years of war, their life’s pain is felt. You then get to live their life through the sand etched wrinkles of time.

I hope you enjoy, feel and see what I wrote about as you view the following images of the people of Afghanistan, from child to men and Soldiers.

Regards Project Afghan.

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