Soul Loss

• Prize
• Photographer
  Mark de Rond, United Kingdom

"Soul loss", formally known as PTSD, is one of the most critical challenges facing society. "Jay", pictured here, was blown up twice. A suicide bomber came close to killing him in 2005. A land mine sought to finish the job in 2008, tearing off a leg, hand, eye, upper lip and nose. Yet the real damage is on the inside.

Like so many others, "Jay" risks being left to his own devices. As media coverage of the war in Afghanistan gives way to new thrills, people like Jay become an embarrassment, a reminder of what was but is best forgotten as we move onwards and upwards to a different future. We repair to the shallow comforts of the ordinary. In doing so, we (prefer to) forget that the ordinary is, for guys like "Jay" an impossibility, the signature of war scratched too deeply onto his remaining retina.