The photographer and Oscar nominated film-maker Tim Hetherington created work at the forefront of photography and filmmaking with work that encompassed photojournalism, book publishing, wild-posting, video installations, and documentary films. While covering the civil war in Libya in April 2011 he was killed in a mortar attack on the front lines of Misrata. He was 40 years old.
Hetherington and Christopher Wise (WTF Gallery curator/creative director) had planned to exhibit images from his book “Infidel” at WTF Gallery in November 2011 as an installation of the best images and themes from the book pasted directly to the gallery walls, in the same way US soldiers in Afghanistan plastered the walls of their outpost with images of wives and friends, or favorite pages from gun, girly and car magazines.
People who haven’t experienced war inevitably base their understanding of it on the mediated versions of news or Hollywood, said Hetherington. This exhibition represents a universal but underrepresented side of soldiers in any conflict zone – revealing the humor, boredom, and confusion inherent in combat. The images will remind the public not only about their forgotten wars, but also to focus on the young men they ask to fight for them, away from the comforts of civilian every-day life as also, those in uniform in the Red-zone of southern of Thailand.
WFT shows the images from the book “Infidel”, photographed in 2007-2008, which present an intimate portrait of a small battalion of US soldiers, posted in the remote and dangerous Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, one of most violent postings in the war against the Taliban. Rather then focusing on the high level of fighting Hetherington examines the lives of the young soldiers. He observed the daily rituals and crushing boredom and the brotherhood and male vulnerability as much as he shows bravery and horrors of war.
The Bangkok exhibition includes also a 3-screen video installation, “Sleeping Soldiers,” which creates a dream/nightmare episode of soldiers asleep by combining still images from the book and video shot while on assignment in Afghanistan, and the single-screen video, “Diary,” edited and sound designed by Magali Charrier, this is a highly personal and experimental short film that reveals the subjective experience of Hetherington’s work .
During the exhibition time (check the WTF website to see venues and dates) it is possible to see also “Which Way is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington,” a documentary film tribute to Tim Hetherington directed by his friend Sebastian Junger. Premiered at the Sundance Festival early this year, it is a moving film about Hetherington’s unique way of looking at combat and insistence on telling stories involving true human interaction and never allowing the neutral, objective journalist’s “code” to get in the way of connection to his subjects —
Eliseo Barbàra
MoST Artists
INFIDEL – Photography and Video Exhibition
Tim Hetherington
April 4 – June 2, 2013
WTF Gallery
51 Sukhumvit
Bangkok
Thailand
