Gateway

A series of photographic images and tryptichs depicting the handing over of casualties as they pass from Camp Bastion to Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Transferred from one plane to another in the middle of the night on Kandahar’s airstrip, the wounded are sedated and virtually unaware of their journeys. The grandiose scale of the planes belies the absolute fragility of their human cargo, soldiers who may take years to recover from wounds sustained in the fraction of a second.

Cotterrell’s work, originally produced for the exhibition, Aesthetic Distance, reflects on a brief period of time in Helmand Province, in which two British soldiers died, 29 were wounded in action, 74 were admitted to the field hospital, 71 Aeromed evacuations were recorded and an undisclosed number of civilian, insurgent and Afghan National Army soldiers were treated.

The series consisted of one single image and two tryptichs. Each individual image was hand-printed at 99 x 149cm and mounted on Aluminium.

The series was produced in a limited edition of three plus one Artists' Proof.

Materials:

C-Type photographic prints mounted on Aluminium