Jeff Wall, "Dead Troops Talk"- Caterina

“Dead Troops Talk (A Vision after an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986)” is a monumental installation made by Jeff Walls in 1992. The artist used the technique of the Cibachrome to create a massive picture of seven and a half feet high and more than thirteen feet wide, mounted on a transparent light box.

The title tells that the image documents a conversation among Soviet soldiers after an attack in Afghanistan. Groups of wounded soldiers in winter uniforms lie in a devastated landscape. A couple of soldiers on the left are grieving: one is staring with his head resting on a hand, his pale-face being stained by a gush of blood. The soldier who faces him is screaming while looking at his hand. He looks like if he is terrorized by his own actions, scared to death by what his hand just did. They both lost his helmets. In the centre, a soldier is leaning on a comrade without a leg, his remains being shown dramatically below the figures. In the right corner, slaughtered soldiers are reacting differently to the cruelty of war. They seem to have post-mortem expressions and feelings: one of them is trying to recover from the shock that opened his eyes and mouth open, while the comrade behind him seems thoughtful and tranquil. He is lying with dignity and pointing a temple with his finger, in a gesture of reflection and meditation. He might have been thinking of the horrors of war or waiting patiently to be buried. His controlled and dignified reaction contrasts with the pathetic scenes on his right. Maimed bodies of soldiers are grouped together and left unburied: one of them is kneeling with his brain in his hand, as if he has just grabbed the organ from the uncovered skull. Behind him, a legless soldier, still wearing the helmet, turns his head to the left with a disturbing smile, sneering at the group of soldiers at the very heart of the composition. The three soldiers are fooling around on high ground, surrounded by destruction and death. They are playing with their own slaughtered bodies. One of them is plunging his hand in the deep wound in his stomach while riding his comrade as a horse and dragging him by the head. The soldier beneath is sticking out his tongue with a disturbing grimace. He is waiting for his friend to feed him with a piece of flesh, presumably taken from the wound of the riding soldier. The scene is macabre and pathetic, and represents the most disturbing element of the composition. 

The Afghan presence is still visible in the soldier on the right in the middle ground. He is dressed with the typical Afghan military uniform and seems to have just laid his weapon to dedicate himself to inspecting a paper bag. In addition, the unusual cropping of the photograph reveals the presence of a group of Afghan soldiers who are presumably descending into the valley.
“Dead Troops Talk” represents a made-up event staged by the artist in his studio in Canada. The artist is reflecting on the qualities of the medium by emphasizing its artificial nature and its possibilities of manipulation. Furthermore, he is questioning the role of photojournalism and documentary photography by creating a “visionary photowork”that looks extremely real, but is actually staged and composed just as a painting. Documentary photography, photojournalism and fine arts are manipulated by the artist and mingled in a powerful, coherent, passionate statement of the horrors of the war. The final image is simultaneously fantastic and disturbingly natural.

Jeff Wall, Dead Troops Talk (A Vision after an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986), 1992.