Into darkness: the art of troop life in Afghanistan: Watching the solemn parade of special forces soldiers climb into their trucks, blessed by a priest, and drive into the grey Afghan night, Australian artist Ben Quilty wondered if they would ever return.
Quilty, winner of Australia's prestigious Archibald portrait prize, spent 24 days embedded with troops in Kandahar and Tarinkot as the nation's official war artist, sketching, photographing and filming life as a modern soldier.
It is an "often very mundane existence, spiked with these extremely horrific, terrifying moments all the time -- much more than we hear in the press, they're all engaged constantly," he told AFP.
"People say 'So tell me what it was like', and it's an impossible question to answer. (For the soldiers) after eight months of driving out there into the desert and being engaged by an enemy, being involved in deaths so directly, there's no answer."
The embed in 2011 led to a collection of works titled "After Afghanistan" that is currently touring Australia after being exhibited in Sydney's National Art School this month.
