Robert Cunningham brought a camera to a gunfight
by Brittany Slay
If you crept ‘outside the wire’ and found yourself a fly on the wall during the war in Afghanistan, you might see a lot of interesting events. What you may not expect, is to find, sleeping in the dirt next to some soldiers, covered in his own sweat, wearing a full suit of bulletproof tactical gear and an enormous camera is war photography veteran, Robert Cunningham. Having photographed awe-inspiring images in over 24 different countries, Cunningham was foolish enough to bring a camera to a gunfight.
With multiple combat embedments, Cunningham worked throughout Afghanistan, primarily beside the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry, 10th Mountain, and 101st Airborne Divisions. At one point Robert mentioned that he’d been outside the wire for a few days and was moving from one base to another. Upon arriving at a new base, he announced he was heading to shower off, describing the large sweat ring that had formed from wearing a bulletproof vest. The struggle was real, he found, when they laughed at him and said that their post had not had water in months, but they could make shift a shower concept using water bottles.
Following the infantrymen through a painted, barren wasteland as they completed their journey, Cunningham shot alongside the men, only he didn’t have bullets. Instead, he captured images of the battle, spoke with local civilians, dressed and undressed in their gear, and spent time at their camps before and after the fight.
Because he was medically disqualified from serving for Fibromyalgia, Cunningham was unable to join the service. He attempted many times to get waivers to cover his condition but was ultimately denied. Instead of giving up, he supported those who have our backs overseas by ‘painting the picture’, so to speak, of what it is our military does and financed the entire trip on his own, even providing his own body armor and helmet. He started photographing the war after friends pushed him into it, noticing the disconnect between the media and what actually happens in the day-to-day fight. The hardest part was going through and calling body armor companies for custom gear, dealing with the response of representatives who scoffed or took shock from, as Cunningham puts it, “a cameraman who is running away to Afghanistan.”
On the more dangerous parts of his job, Cunningham let on in an ‘AMA’ post on reddit.com recently, “I think back to a vehicle I was once in, in a small country in Africa, where there was only one person who spoke the language of the driver. We had explained to the driver where we were going, and he drove us most of the way there. As we got close, about 10 miles from our destination, the driver began to accelerate, well past our turn, heading to the country’s border, only a mile or so in that direction. I knew that if we hit border, I would most likely not be coming back to the US. As my interpreter was yelling at the driver frantically, as we saw the border coming up, I grabbed my cameras, unbuckled my seat belt, placed my cameras tightly against my body, and began to curl up in a ball. I had already told the driver I was not, under any circumstance crossing that border. As the car raced towards the border, I told the interpreter that I was going to exit the vehicle. He relayed that to the driver, who only accelerated. So at well over 75 miles per hour, the border in sight, I opened the car door, prepping to leave, knowing in my heart I would rather jump than cross. At this point, the driver slammed on the brakes, and began to turn the car around. Needless to say, we did not employ his services after that.”
Upon arriving to his unit, Cunningham was taken under the wing of two guys who helped him obtain his gear and get rid of what he may not need. From there, he was placed into a combat unit who would be taking him with them outside the wire. Says Cunningham, “You’re standing there with 20–25 other people who are wondering, ‘Are you risking my life? Are you going to do something to jeopardize the lives of my men and women?’, and it becomes quite an interesting exchange of getting to know the guys. Usually that time period is about 5–10 minutes before you roll outside the wire. They will then get to choose how much they let you do.”
“There was one group of people that locked me in the truck all day, and had I been CNN or somebody like that they would’ve have heard about it, but I chose to let it go. They chose that route whereas others chose to let me see more of the interaction. We did get into situations were bullets were flying. I was told that I had reacted differently than most people — some throw up, some panic. And so the next day I told them I wanted to go back out. To this day, one of my camera lenses has a serious ding because we were riding in a Chinook and I ended up going a bit ‘airborne’ and slamming into the side of a wall. Certainly I took some scrapes and some bruises but I was lucky not to get hit.”
Cunningham was fortunate to suffer only minor injuries, which were, according to him, “mostly because of [his] own stupidity”, during his time abroad as he photographed his surroundings for the newly-released book, Afghanistan: On The Bounce.
AFG:OTB is an in-depth, unique and breathtaking look at what actually happens in the day-to-day lives of those who protect us. It is intense, emotional and unmatched in its ability to evoke compassion from its readers. The book is meant for service members to be able to show their loved ones what war looks like without having to explain it. Cunningham mentioned that its purpose is not to make a profit, “The lack of understanding or base knowledge sometimes inhibits the ability for service members to share their experiences, and the questions that come from it may hurt the feelings of the soldiers who were involved. And now with this book, the family can get a basic understanding of what goes on over there before asking questions. This opens the line of communication for both the soldier and their family.”
Having been to war and back, Cunningham has photographed multiple presidents, both current and former, actors, musicians, governors, prime minsters, heads of state, race car drivers and more. Cunningham expanded on what he sees behind the lens, “Yes, there have been times that have been heartbreaking, where I had to do nothing more than photograph. Times in the hospitals, in fights, in meetings that were maddening to watch, where you just want to scream. There are many things I have photographed that no one will ever see. When you look through a lens, your peripheral vision becomes degraded. Your focus becomes restricted to only that which you see. The general public has only seen a small percentage of my photos.”
For more on Robert L. Cunningham, please visit robertcunningham.com or find him on Facebook at facebook.com/RLCunn.
By Brittany Slay, Editor, American Veteran Magazine
Brittany Slay is the Editor of American Veteran Magazine and a US Navy veteran, completing a 9 month deployment to Bahrain in 2014. She’s a fan of dark humor and enjoys writing, visiting breweries, and meeting people.
