Sleeping Soldiers

Sleeping Soldiers is an interactive video installation co-created with Tim Hetherington. The piece premiered at the 2009 New York Photo Festival and toured around the world.

“A GENUINE PIONEER OF PEACE PHOTOGRAPHY”

– Josh Cunliffe, photographer, on Tim Hetherington

Viewers at the Photo Festival were instructed to stand close to a set of three large video screens. The three-channel work features layered images of soldiers from a U.S. Airborne Infantry platoon based in the Korengal Valley during periods of combat and while at rest. Intimate photographs of soldiers sleeping are paired with video footage depicting their often violent day-to-day work. Detailed editing and sound design by Magali Charrier help echo the surreal and brutal realities of war—realities these men all too often carry into their only moments of peace. Sleeping Soldiers’ unique format allows viewers to engage in their own dreamlike, immersive experience, evoking critical consideration of the strains of war placed upon the men engaged in the conflict.

Tim was killed in Libya on April 20, 2011.
He will be missed.

Tim Hetherington always aimed to captivate the largest audience possible with his life’s work documenting humanity affected by war. His multifaceted talents are seen through the varied roles he’s played in his career. The magazine photographer. The director who co-authored the Oscar nominated documentary Restrepo with Sebastian Junger. The television journalist for Nightline who captured very rare footage of a platoon losing a fellow soldier in a firefight.

A Decade Later, Tim Hetherington’s work lives on,”

an Op-Ed piece by Peter Bergen

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