Flavorwire

Civilians can find it difficult to relate to soldiers who have seen combat, who have pointed and a fired a gun at their predetermined enemy, who have witnessed their mates killed or returned changed. Photographer, journalist, and filmmaker Lalage Snow has photographed and interviewed soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland before deployment, three months into their service, and days after their return home for a stunning new photo essay in The Telegraph. As you see their faces weathered, hardened, shaken, you can literally read the psychological toil of war. It gets particularly heartbreaking when a teenager who eagerly joined the force as a kid talks of crying every night. It gets you thinking about the war, its alleged purpose and its realities. It’s a heavy insight.