An Afghan soldier seen warming his henna stained hands from EID worship on the front lines in Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press), from the book, Front Towards Enemy

One of the highlights at the Click Photography Festival was the opening keynote lecture by Canadian documentary photographer and filmmaker, Louie Palu. Louie is a rare combination of artist and war photographer, able to stand present for horrific human events and then synthesize those moments into something artful, poetic, and powerful. His Click Festival installation was set was  in the woods of Battle Park on the UNC campus, where he exhibited large scale banners of his portraits of Garmsir Marines. This unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was formed 100 years ago to fight in WW1, where they famously took part in the Battle of Belleau Woods. This unit is based in Jacksonville, NC.

©Louie Palu, U.S. Marine Joshua Wycka age 21who is part of Alpha Company of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Battle Landing Team (BLT) 1/6, after a patrol in Garmsir District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan at Forward Operating Base Apache North.

At the event, Louie presented his new book, Front Towards Enemy, published by Yoffy Press. This new monograph is a remarkable artful compilation of the affects of war, presented as a deconstructed photobook showcasing the different ways that Louie documented the war in Afghanistan over the course of five years. It comes in a cardboard slipcase with four components: accordion fold image set, soldier portrait cards, newsprint publication, and staple-bound zine. The entire publication can also exist as a pop-up exhibition and it can be pre-ordered here.

©Louie Palu, Cover of Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, Front Towards Enemy, opened

©Louie Palu, Components of Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, One of the elements in Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, element of Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, spread in Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, portraits in Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, element in Front Towards Enemy

©Louie Palu, Viewing suggestions for Front Towards Enemy

Louie Palu, is a 2016-17 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a Harry Ransom Center Research Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin.

Louie is an award winning documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in festivals, publications, exhibitions and collections internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Grant, 2011-12 Bernard L Schwartz Fellowship with the New America Foundation and Milton Rogovin Fellowship at the University of Arizona. He is well known for his work which examines social political issues such as human rights, conflict and poverty.

Louie’s work is currently hanging in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in the exhibition Face of Battle which will be on display until January 2018. His work has been exhibited at the Sheldon Museum of Art, the photojournalism festival Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, France nine times (2004-11, 13), Internationale Fototage in Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, George Eastman House, Ping Yao Festival, Fotografia International Festival of Rome, Centrum for Fotografi (Sweden), New York Photo Festival, Canadian War Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Annenberg Space For Photography, The Walter’s Art Museum and many others. His work is in numerous collections including the Harry Ransom Center, National Gallery of Art (U.S.), Library and Archives of Canada, Center of Creative Photography, Portland Art Museum, George Eastman House, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, National Gallery of Canada, Library of the U.S. Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections Branch (Quantico, Virginia), Southeast Museum of Photography, Australian War Memorial, Imperial War Museum (London), Museum of Fine Arts Boston and many others.

He is the recipient of numerous accolades including a National Magazine Award, National Newspaper Award nominee, Pictures of the Year International (POYi), Critical Mass Book Award, Hasselblad Master Award, NPPA Best of Photojournalism Award and multiple awards from the White House News Photographers Association, Aftermath Project Grant, Canadian Photojournalist of the Year, Alexia Foundation Photography Grant for World Peace and Cultural Understanding. He was also part of several online multimedia awards including two Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) in 2013-14. In 2015 he was awarded a Ross Munro Media Award and Milton Rogovin Fellowship from the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Louie has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and the Peter Reed Foundation.

Louie’s work has been featured in the El Pais, La Republica, BBC, Al Jazeera, Der Spiegel, Al Arabiya, PBS NewsHour, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Daily Mail, Foreign Policy, Paris Match, TIME, Newsweek, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The Economist, NPR, VOA, Huffington Post, CBC, The Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, Sunday Times Magazine and many others. His work has been featured in numerous books and catalogues on photography. He was selected for the Critical Mass Book award (2006) resulting in the book “Cage Call: Life and Death in the Hard Rock Mining Belt”.

Medics treating wounded Afghan civilians in a frontline trauma room in Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press), from the book, Towards the Enemy

The shadow of a US Army Medevac helicopter is seen in a field as it prepares to land in a field to evacuate a casualty who was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press) , from the book, Front Towards Enemy

Purple smoke marks Afghan and Canadian soldiers positions while a drone strike takes place nearby on insurgents in Panjwa’i District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press) , from the book, Front Towards Enemy

An Afghan soldier wounded by an explosion during a night raid illuminated by a Medevac helicopters blue cabin light as he is evacuated out of the Taliban stronghold of Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press), from the book, Front Towards Enemy

A soldier seen in the dust after a blast from an improvised explosive device while on a combat operation in Panjwa’i District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press), from the book, Front Towards Enemy

An Afghan soldier plays a flute while others peal potatoes on the front lines in the Howz-e Madad area a day before a combat operation against Taliban insurgents in Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press) , from the book, Front Towards Enemy

An Afghan police officer who was injured by gunfire sings to birds at an outpost on the front lines in Pashmul, Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press) , from the book, Front Towards Enemy

An Afghan soldier eats grapes during a patrol through the agricultural District of Zhari, Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Credit Image: © Louie Palu/ZUMA Press) , from the book, Front Towards Enemy

Canadian soldiers shelter a casualty outside a field hospital from a helicopters dust before moving him to a Medevac for transport to Kandahar Airfield in Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. ©photo Louie Palu/ZUMA Press, from the book, Front Towards Enemy