Sentinels of War: The Pillbox as Camera Obscura

The corollary between sight and military control has been explored by numerous contemporary photographers. In an intriguing and multi-layered addition to the field, Martin Newth’s Sentinel (2011) depicts older constructions that are no longer in use, yet which remain embedded in the British landscape. Pillboxes are primitive and paradoxical structures: hastily erected to serve a temporary purpose, yet of necessity built to withstand bombardment; constructed without aesthetic considerations, yet functionally flawed, for they would have potentially trapped soldiers under attack. Newth employs a systematic photographic approach to his subject, mapping and recording the structures through consistently repeated viewpoints. His combination of photographic methodologies (black and white typological studies, and colour negative prints made via camera obscuras) explicitly foreground questions about the materiality of photography, whilst suggesting how we might photograph war and its legacies.