Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brad Miller | Courtesy photo: Sgt. Gary Kendall, a British Army photographer with the Army News...... read more read more
As the roar of aircraft passing overhead dissipates, another group of iron birds approach from the horizon. The blue, cloud-free sky is freckled with hundreds of parachutes carrying soldiers and military equipment to the drop zone below. On the ground, mingling among the U.S., Polish and British paratroopers gathering their equipment, is a trio of British soldiers carrying nearly their own weight in camera equipment. They are the British Army photographers.
These soldiers are three of roughly only 40 soldiers in their career field within the entire British army, with only 17 being field photographers. Established in 1915 to fill the need to promote what was happening on the front lines, they support the British Army as a whole, as opposed to being assigned to a particular unit. When on a mission, they are broken into Army News Teams, which are typically comprised of two enlisted photographers and a military police officer serving as their commander and force protection.
Sgt. Gary Kendall, who has served with the Army News Team for the last seven years, hurriedly totes his large video camera from location to location across the drop zone gathering video footage of the air drop mission during Exercise Anakonda 2016 in Torun, Poland.
Exercise Anakonda 2016 is a Polish-led, joint multinational exercise taking place in Poland from June 7-17. This exercise involves more than 31,000 participants from more than 20 nations.
Kendall said working with soldiers from other nations always provides new experiences and new ways to perfect his craft. Each mission takes on a new set of challenges, and he gets to see how photographers from other nations operate.
“We’re putting pieces together quite quickly, so events like this help to hone our skills with time sensitive matter,” Kendall said. “I’m always refining my skills and topping up my camera skills and my technical skills. If I shoot something that is complete rubbish, I think of a way to do it better or a different avenue to take to get the shot I want.”
Kendall feels he is also always improving his military skills by seeing so much variety within the army; from watching the paratroopers jump to seeing how soldiers conduct missions in the jungle of Brunei to bomb disposal. Since he’s been a part of the ANT, he feels he is always learning and craving more knowledge about what the other people in the military are doing.
“When you’re out there, you always want to look professional, so I’ve refined my skills as a soldier more since I’ve done this job than I ever did when I was a driver,” said Kendall. “I think it’s the need to look professional in front of infantrymen and every other trade that look at you as though you’re just a cameraman. Well, I’m not. I’m a soldier, too.”
While a photographer by trade, Kendall believes that building and maintaining basic soldier skills and an integral part of being in the military.
“I’m always a soldier first, without a shadow of a doubt. I’ve been in Afghanistan and at the end of the day, I’m there to do a job. The question I often get, ‘Would you pick up a rifle or would you pick up a camera?’ To be honest, it depends on the situation,” Kendall explained. “I trust that the guys around me are professional enough to deal with it, so I just focus on what I’m doing. If it gets bad enough that I have to pick up a rifle, generally, it’s getting a bit hairy. But, I’ve never been in that situation.”
Kendall will soon kick off his boots for the last time, as he will retire after 22 years of service. He takes a deep breath as he speaks of the times he spent deployed to various parts of the world, gaining experiences that most people may never have the opportunity to encounter.
“It’s going to be a shame to give it up. As much as I’m looking forward to being out of the army, I’m not looking forward to being out of this job, because this a pretty cool job, and I love it,” said Kendall. “This job allows me to go from place to place filming, for instance, what these Polish soldiers are doing. This group of guys are going to do nothing but a jump and that group is going to do nothing but build a bridge and other guys are going to do nothing but train infantry skills but I get to see all three of those, and I’ve had the chance to film it.”
Telling the story of the service members he encounters is what Kendall feels is the most important part of his job. While he had a good career as a driver for 15 years, it wasn’t until he joined the elite army news team, did he realize what he really wanted to do.
“Showing people back in the U.K. what these guys are doing, some say, ‘Sure, that’s a great top line,’ but it’s not. These guys are doing a tough job while civilians are back home just doing their everyday business,” explained Kendall. “It’s important to show what the guys are doing and how arduous it is.”
Discussing some of the deployments and experiences, Kendall’s eyes widen with enthusiasm. He says his time in Afghanistan was the most enjoyable and rewarding. He would go out on up to three patrols each day in search of the striking images that would tell the stories that he wanted to tell.
“There are images that stand out to me emotively, and I can picture one in my head right now, actually,” Kendall said with a smile. “There is an image with one of our MPs carrying her rifle in one hand and with the other, holding the hand of an Afghan child with a lollipop.”
With the support of his wife and children, he jumps on nearly every opportunity to visit another part of the world and tell the stories of the British military.
“The bit that I love more is that I film all this now and as much as it probably isn’t as important right now, I think in years to come, seeing my footage again as an old man. When people are talking about the conflict in Afghanistan, my images that were in the Imperial War Museum will probably come up somewhere,” Kendall said. “I think it’s that sense of pride that you’ve made more people aware of things that have happened. There are people in the past that have taken pictures and you say, ‘Wow! It must have been mental being there,’ but I’m doing that now. Years from now, I’ll probably be reaping the benefits of that and be able to say, ‘I remember this or I was a part of that.’ I have the worst memory, but the pictures will always be there.”
| Date Taken: | 06.07.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2016 11:31 |
| Story ID: | 200501 |
| Location: | TORUN, PL |
| Web Views: | 249 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Royal Photographer Captures News for the Crown, by SFC Brad Miller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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