Frontlines

Working both independently and embedded with the US and British military, Sean Smith has compiled a shocking and unparalleled portrait of modern combat and its aftermath. These pictures take us right into the midst of contemporary warzones and offer a unique insight into the reality of life in the crossfire. Frontlines begins with violence on the streets of Bethlehem in 2000, as Palestinian youths clash with Israeli soldiers. Smith catches fascinating glimpses of life in Afghanistan before the US-led invasion, as well as the faltering attempts of Afghan police and the US military to maintain a fragile peace in the face of Taliban insurgency. He shows us the utter devastation of Lebanon in the wake of Israel's brutal bombardment in 2006, and how thousands of refugees struggled on the edge of survival and civilian bodies littered the streets of Kiwanja in the Congo, amidst bitter clashes between the government and Tutsi renegades. But it is to Iraq, the most divisive conflict of modern times, that his work constantly returns. Smith's photos reveal a society nervously holding itself together under the shadow of US assault in 2002, and occupying troops on operations to suppress resistance and root out insurgency. The images follow a crescendo of violence through the Sunni Uprisings of 2007 and the consequent surge as the US army attempts to regain control over an increasingly desperate and violent rebellion. Smith's pictures are both a vivid contemporary document and a worthy contribution to the great tradition of war photography, laying bare the reality of modern conflict with a clarity that is impossible to ignore.