Living with the troops

by Charles Fox

Before coming to study at the London College of Communication, Sean Power, 27, was a Marine Commando with five years in the Forces, with tours of duty in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

Sean recently returned to the war torn country of Afghanistan as a photojournalist to cover the conflict through the eyes of the soldiers on a brief from The Royal British Legion to show: "What our boys are doing when they are not fighting."

Sean, now in his second year of the photojournalism degree, had never considered photojournalism as a career before a chance meeting.

He explains: "While in ‘gunners. (Afghanistan) we had Times photojournalist [Anthony Loyd] with us, he spent 10 days with the troops and we got chatting…I have always enjoyed photography and wanted to make it into a career but did not know how to achieve this. I was getting annoyed with people not really knowing what was going on out here [Afghanistan] and the lads were getting portrayed badly.”

Sean applied to be a photographer within the Marines. The course was a nine month paid study programme with training in a wide variety of skills.

Sean waited a year to hear back but after no news, he decided to move on and handed in his notice. Three days after committing to life in ‘civvy-street’ the confirmation of the course in the Marines came through: "It was a bit unlucky really," says Sean with a rye smile.

Tough ride

After leaving the Forces, Sean went backpacking round India before returning to England to start life all over again. After a one-year photography access course at Tower Hamlets College, Sean enrolled at LCC. "I had an idea about what uni would be like, but I just wanted to focus as I knew what I wanted to do. I have always worked hard and played hard but it’s been tough really."

Things were about to get worse for Sean. While adjusting to life out of the military, he faced further troubles when his house in the Haygate estate at Elephant and Castle was robbed weeks before Christmas last year.

"They took four grand’s worth of equipment including all my cameras. My insurance did not cover it due to a technicality. I was beginning to think I would have to quit uni.”

Sean approached The Royal British Legion to see if he was eligible for support as a former Marine and after a few months, they sent him a cheque to cover the cost of the stolen equipment, allowing him to continue his studies.

"I was so grateful that I said to repay them, I would do photography for them when they ever needed it…They came up with the idea of sending me back out to Afghanistan to photograph the soldiers on the front line… something the Legion had never done before.”

However, to make it to the front line and be embedded with the troops involves a lot of red tape and the odds of being granted a place were quite low, “The first time the Legion applied I was rejected. They must have just seen me as a student. So the Legion went and got some high up member of the military to back the proposal and got the MOD on side and it finally got passed through," he explains.

Sean then embarked on a three-week tour of Afghanistan with different regiments. These were front-line operations and about as real as it gets for most people.

For Sean it rekindled the buzz of the job he left: "It’s like an addiction, nothing is ever as good as your first contact (exchange of fire) and you’re always looking for a better contact. They say the job of a solider is 95 per cent boredom and 5 per cent exhilaration."

Down with the troops

The brief from the Legion was to capture how the troops dealt with this down time. Sean believes his past experiences gave him an advantage over other photojournalists.

He explains: "I speak the language, there is a colloquial language and I have been there, I know what they are going through, I can swap stories with them. I even went on sentry duty. I had to be one of them, not a journalist poking my nose in.”

Despite forming bonds based on previous experiences in the field, there were new experiences to be discovered and the realisation of the wider aspects of the war.

Through the help of a Times journalist, Sean was able to organise a fixer (interpreter and helper for a journalist) who arranged a visit to an Afghan refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabal: "They have nothing there, and it's coming up to winter and it gets really cold. I was able to speak to them through the fixer and this family from Sangin Valley down in Helmand, an area which I served in. They told me of the death of family members due to air strikes. It was hard to see it from the other side."

Sean pauses to reflect: "My belief is that in war we rely too much on airpower and we are not gonna win when we force people back to the Taliban. To stop this we need more troops on the ground. Until we do that we are gonna drive them (Afghans) away and to the Taliban."

The reality of returning to the UK has been different this time. Media attention from the BBC, The Times, The Sun and spots on breakfast show sofas have followed.

The real purpose of the trip is the exhibition organised by the Legion in a bid to raise money for British troops serving in Afghanistan and raise awareness.

So what happens for Sean once the exhibition is over? "Well if someone offers me a job I might take it, but then I would like to finish my degree.”

And to those who want to be a war photographer? Sean is more than happy to offer some advice: “You need balls and to put yourself in danger and stay modest because the troops will pick up on any funny behaviour and nail you for it.”

The exhibition opens to the public from the 18-20 November 2009 at Gallery 27, 27 Cork Street, Mayfair.