Eye of the Storm - A Patriot's Journey
Something that never ceases to amaze me is the level of photographic talent shown by our military combat photographers, particularly those serving or who have recently served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides giving us a first hand, front line look at what our fighting men and women do and see, some of their work has to be be described as fine art.
During two tours in Iraq, one of the best was Staff Sergeant Russell Lee Klika (he goes by “Klika” - gotta love that name). In 2004, he accompanied the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, serving as a member of the public affairs staff. In 2006, he returned, this time with the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment of the Tennessee Army National Guard. During that second tour he worked with the 101st Airborne’s 3rd Division Rakkasans, a unit in which his 21-year-old son, Zachary, now serves. He occasionally sent photos of what he saw and I posted them on my old AFP website and later reposted them here.
Klika believes military photographers should not only document wars and battles, but also preserve and humanize historical events. So in capturing images in war-torn regions, he endured the same hardships and experienced the same risks as the warriors he photographed.
“The units that go outside the wire are not obligated to take me with them,” he explains. “These guys go looking for, and find, trouble on a daily basis. I have to earn their trust and prove myself, because they have to give up a seat to take me along…”
When his service ended in February, Klika became a contract employee for the National Guard in Smyma, Tennessee, where he supervises civilian photographers assigned to the National Guard. Since his return, he’s won numerous awards for his work and, along with eight other combat photographers, is part of the current (through July 5) “Eye of the Storm” exhibition at the Reform Gallery in West Hollywood, California, supporting the Wounded Warrior Project.
I’ve seen some of Klika’s “civilian” work since his return and it reflects the same journalistic style he exhibited in Iraq. Few of his images are posed - rather, he waits for them to happen, a style I try hard to emulate. He knows when to pull the trigger and his recent images reflect that same keen eye and intuition. But his combat images, at least for me, set him heads above many of his contemporaries.
This is a Patriot’s Journey post. You may also enjoy visiting the other journeyers: Drumwaster, Larry at The Bastage, the folks at The Line Is Here and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason…
Doug
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Reader Comments (15)
Wow, these are amazing!!! I really like the images of the Iraqi civilians, especially the elders and the children. An impressive body of work. I would be interested in seeing his "civilian" work.
Nice work! I remember seeing these on your old site, but the ones on Klika's site are new to me. All very nice although they would show better in larger sizes.
Not to split hairs but these aren't exactly combat photos. More 'walking around' photos.
Before Doug jumps all over you, allow me.
If you mean that no one was shooting at our soldiers at that moment and no bombs were going off at that moment, and to you that means there was no combat, then you are a victim of msm brainwashing. The msm doesn't print anything except death and destruction. There is plenty of that in Iraq and Afghanistan, with moments of quiet like these. I bet Klika has plenty of the death and destruction photos. And I am sure that, at any second in any of these photos, a bomb could have gone off and killed some or all of the people in the photos. Don't you enjoy the respite? And what about the photos of the old people and the children of war? Didn't they move you? And aren't you at least a little impressed with the photography?
I know all that, I just think of "combat" photography as pictures of the mayhem of war. I guess this is a war more like Vietnam, where we didn't know at what minute we would be fired on or take mortar fire. The pictures are great and the black and white ones especially. Sorry, I guess I didn't think before I spoke.
Wonderful pictures! Why doesn't the news ever show this kind of picture? To them it isn't newsworthy unless somebody died. We could use more pictures like this!!
The American soldier is a fighting machine!! Look at these guys!! Impressive doesn't begin to describe them!! Awesome is more like it!!
Thanks to all of you that are on the Patriot's Journey together. I read them all last year and was happy to see the exercise repeated this year. God bless you all and God bless America!
Very nice post Doug. SGT Klika certainly got some wonderful shots that give us a whole new perspective of what things are like in Iraq. I wish our newspaper would include such pictures! But they only want to print disasters and crime, the things they consider newsworthy. Too bad it has come to that. The tv isn't musch better.
What is that in the picture? Pink sky?
Thanks Hook, but I'm quite mellow today. Nice to know you've got my back, though :)
Doug
Kermit: Here's how Klika described it at the time:
"Pvt. Shane Irwin and Pvt. Zachary McDaniel of Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division walk along a contaminated canal as they provide security for a U.S. hired forensics archaeology team searching for Saddam-era mass grave sites. The water color is due to years of contamination at the land fill."
Yuk!
Doug
Thank goodness there are photographers over there who take positive pictures. Otherwise we would only see the doom and gloom from the media. The problem is we don't see these good pictures enough except in books and shows like the one in LA. Most people never see them at all, just the ones the media prints which are all negative. Thank you for sharing these.
Great pictures!!! God bless our troops!!!
Beautiful pictures!! It helps to see what our soldiers see!!