Between Duty and Downtime in Afghanistan

Time.com has some wonderful photo streams on nearly every topic. The above is from Between Duty and Downtime in Afghanistan by Marco di Lauro, a photojournalist for Getty Images who documented "the daily life of British soldiers deployed in the battle against the Taliban."

I've always been amazed at the ability of photojournalist to capture the pain, fear, brutality and beauty of a war zone in a split-second shot.

It was not easy, and I had the distinct feeling of violating his privacy. I had experienced the same feeling the day after the attack, when I went to the various hospitals to photograph the survivors, some of whom were in critical condition. It was painful to approach the families, trying to be as discreet as possible, and ask them, while they stood vigil at the deathbeds of their loved ones, "Good day. Would you mind if I took some photographs?"

There are times when I feel like a jackal feeding on the pain of others. Yet it is my hope that, by telling the stories of people who, quite often, might otherwise never be heard from, my work can serve as a lesson, heightening the awareness of those sitting comfortably in their chairs throughout the rest of the world, reading their newspapers.

That is Marco di Lauro's own words from a report he did covering the hotel bombings in Jordan nearly 3 years ago. To Die at Your Children's Wedding