Australian photojournalist Adam Ferguson recalls a tense moment in Afghanistan’s notorious Korengal Valley.
I made this photograph in the notorious Korengal Valley, a six-mile stretch of rugged terrain in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar. Between 2008 and 2009 the Korengal Valley was home to some of the deadliest fighting between insurgents and US forces in Afghanistan. I was embedded with Bravo Company, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division of the US Army on
assignment for Time Magazine.
Nearly eight years after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, the Korengal Valley epitomised a convoluted fight. Local insurgencies took root in a climate of poverty and unemployment while warlords and Taliban preyed on these grievances and insular Afghan tribes resisted the US occupation of their valley.
In the photo, Sergeant Carl Baker is providing a security cordon while his fellow infantrymen talk to local villagers in Loi Kolay, a village where troops had regularly encountered hostilities. In anticipation of an ambush the patrol leader made the decision to wait until it was dark before walking back to base, so we were essentially burning time. The troops knew we were going to get into a firefight and Sergeant Baker’s hesitant look as he gazed up the valley epitomised this imminent danger.
As the patrol ascended from the village, moments after taking this photo, piercing gunfire sounded through the valley from different positions on the surrounding hills. We were indeed ambushed and I huddled in a frantic group with the soldiers as groups of two of us made the hectic 200 metre dash for cover. The US troops returned a barrage of fire and soon military air support furiously bombed the surrounding hillsides in an attempt to suppress the insurgents.
Time Magazine had already laid out the cover story that would close the following day, but after reaching base I filed this photo and it become the opening double page.
CANON EOS 5D WITH EF 35MM F1.4L LENS. EXPOSURE: F8 @ 1/125S, ISO 800.
