The January Journalist of the Month, Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson, uses his camera lens to capture the local Afghans his fellow troops encounter as members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul.
Some of his best images show... read more
The January Journalist of the Month, Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson, uses his camera lens to capture the local Afghans his fellow troops encounter as members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul. <br />
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Some of his best images show the U.S. military navigating through daily activities of Afghan civilians with photos like “PRT Zabul Visits Shah Joy Bazzaar [Images 2 of 8]” or “PRT Zabul visits Shinkai [Image 2 of 12].”<br />
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Even though the photo is posed, the colors and details come together to make a compelling and informative illustration of the Afghan national police officers in “Mobile diplomacy comes to Mizan [Image 3 of 12].” The photo comes close to making you feel as if you are sitting across from the officers as they cook lunch, and it definitely helps you understand the conditions under which the Afghan police work and live. <br />
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He uses natures’ colors to make the soldiers pop in “Return Halted by tire fire.” One photo in the gallery was front-paged and another has more than 300 hits on Flickr.<br />
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Ferguson creates portraits of the service members he photographs by framing them against local elements like abandoned buildings and a burned out car. <br />
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In the same gallery, he snaps a detailed shot of stacked bread. The small detailed shots like the one of bread provide background information that help to put the other photos in context. <br />
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In addition to the composition of his photos, Ferguson makes his photos timely. Many of his photos are posted in less than 36 hours, which is a fast turn around for his working conditions. <br />
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Ferguson ended up with three of the top six downloaded photos for January. <br />
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Ferguson’s photographs of local Afghans and U.S. troops come together to illustrate the culture, people, environment and challenges the U.S. troops encounter every day when deployed. <br />
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