From Creative Time: "October 7th marked the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Afghanistan, the longest war the US has been engaged in. While US troops in Afghanistan have been reduced to 8,400—down by over 90% from the 2010 peak of 100,000—little by little the Taliban are taking more territory, inflicting terrible losses on the Afghans.

Artist Steve Mumford reflects on his time in Afghanistan and on his work:

When the United States began their invasion of Iraq I became particularly interested in the work of Winslow Homer, a renowned 19th-century American painter and printmaker who had spent some time on the front lines of the Civil War. Winslow’s war paintings were humble scenes that spoke to the universal qualities of war—capturing, in vignettes, his impressions of the lives of soldiers off the battlefield. It was this universality of his work that inspired me to do something similar in Iraq, and later Afghanistan.

In the beginning I wasn’t able to get embedded with the U.S. military. So, I flew to Kuwait and got a ride with a couple of French reporters who were on their way to Baghdad, and was eventually able to embed with Army troops in Iraq. After a few trips, I became more comfortable drawing events in a war zone in real time, drawing whatever they did. Combat happens so quickly that it’s more of a photographer’s or photojournalist’s realm. Drawing doesn’t really lend itself to out-and-out combat; it’s better for capturing what happens in between the time the bullets are flying..." (For the full story and more images, click here)

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