Tim Hetherington's Sleeping Soldiers Video Essay
Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya on Wednesday, was committed to depicting the reality from the front lines of battle. He leaves behind Sleeping Soldiers, a haunting video essay that offers an intimate portrayal of a single U.S. platoon stationed in Afghanistan.
Photograph of Tim Hetherington by Balazs Gardi
From 2007 to 2008, Tim Hetherington followed the deployment of a group of U.S. soldiers stationed in the remote Korengal valley in northeastern Afghanistan. “Everyone had this fear that they might be overrun in the night. During my time with them, 70 percent of the platoon was taking some kind of mood-enhancing or sleep-affecting medication,” says Hetherington. “Cut off and in an extreme situation, these men welcomed me into their lives. I worked, ate, and slept among them—slowly gaining their trust and access into their lives. These images are a result of that intimacy.”