My work is a reflection on the experience of being an eye-witness to the aftermath of conflict. Spending time observing casualty treatment in Helmand and subsequent visits to the northern provinces of Afghanistan and care-pathways in the UK presented a challenge to my perceived understanding of mediated truth. My initial responses to casualty chains in Helmand led to later work focussing on the profound challenges of transcending superficial engagement with exoticised experience and landscape. For the past five years my work has been influenced by my first unsettling experience of observing conflict.

Our familiarisation with the standard methods of portraying and documenting  conflict makes us vulnerable to an inadvertent failure of empathy. I am intrigued by the fact that in a world saturated with photography, film and audio representation, that war is still palatable to contemporary politicians and their electorates. As we in the Europe continue to watch televised armed struggle, it seems incredible that we are able to intellectually isolate ourselves from the tragic reality of violence. My work reflects on the distance of the observer to the observed and the empathetic failure that enables organised violence to perpetuate.