David Cotterrell  Gateway

After two years of negotiations between the Wellcome Trust, Imperial War Museum and Ministry of Defence, David Cotterrell was invited to observe the Joint Forces Medical Group at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He underwent basic training, was taught the rudiments of battlefield first aid and was issued with body armour. In November 2007, he flew in an RAF C17 from Brize Norton to Kandahar, the sole passenger in a plane loaded with half a million rounds of palletised munitions and medical supplies to join Operation Herrick 7.

This series of photographs documents 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.
 
 
David Cotterrell Ramp Handover at Kandaher   David Cotterrell C130 exit from Bastion

Gateway 1   2009
C-type print, 37 x 50 cm
Edition of 25

£250 + VAT (unframed)

 

Gateway 2   2009
C-type print, 37 x 50 cm
Edition of 25

£250 + VAT (unframed)

     
David Cotterrell Waiting strategic CCAST team    

Gateway 3   2009
C-type print, 37 x 50 cm
Edition of 25

£250 + VAT (unframed)