Captain S, after Afghanistan

In 'Captain S, after Afghanistan', Quilty has posed the soldier in what resembles a traditional deathbed portrait. Deathbed portraits were historically part of the Western mourning and memorial process. They were an act of consolation or an acceptance of the reality of death on the part of the deceased person's loved ones. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the deathbed portrait has come to be viewed as morbid: people typically do not like to be reminded of their own mortality. Many of those serving in the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan face death daily during their deployment. Quilty's use of this pictorial tradition thus forces us to confront death and to feel compassion and respect for all those who contend with it in these war zones.