Rosie Snell

This project aimed to explore how the Cold War impacted on the local community of East Anglia and the significance of the region’s role in the conflict.

My trip to Greenland began from the simple research premise of documenting its sublime icescapes. I’ve always had a fascination for ice and snow formations, in particular the potential power for the dramatic – avalanches, calving icebergs, the flow of a glacier.

My interest in the landscape and military hardware naturally lead to an interest in camouflage, not just in terms of disruptive patterned material but also in term of disinformation and mimicry

I have long had an interest in militarised landscapes, but these images have always been from a period of relative peace. I needed a research trip to see a battlefield first-hand. My research took me to the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II: the Hürtgen Forest in Germany.

Between 1938 and the end of the Cold War, the Swiss army built dozens of fake chalets. These camouflaged bunkers have the outward appearance of normal houses, their true function hidden behind the architecture and construction style of the region.