Spent

Long hollow metal cases lie across one another at many angles. Near the camera, their open mouths appear as dark circles among muted tan and gray bodies. Several cases stand more upright in the middle-right area. Short concrete fence posts a few feet from the camera provide a rough scale reference.

The cases become smaller and more densely repeated toward a pale strip in the middle distance. Beyond it, low land and tiny indistinct structures or trees meet the horizon. Pale sky occupies nearly the upper half, bluer on the left and brighter toward the center and right. No people are visible.

Open case mouths are broad dark circles near the camera and become small repeated marks toward the horizon. The crowded metal field is held against an unusually open sky.

Thousands of large artillery propellant cases cover the ground and recede toward the horizon.

Spent reaches beyond the field of shell casings. Ammunition was spent. Machinery was worn out, abandoned or destroyed. Bodies, years and futures were spent. Every casing points toward force delivered somewhere and a life affected on the receiving end.

Photograph by Kenny Bass.

Photograph 15 of 15.

• Ammunition Containers / Ordnance, Ammunition Bunker Interior and Spent place contained ammunition, bunker storage and discarded propellant cases in visual dialogue.
• Spent closes the fifteen-photograph sequence.

Their form is consistent with Soviet-pattern separate-loading field artillery. A 130 mm M-46 or 152 mm D-20 class system is plausible, but the exact caliber and artillery system remain unresolved.

The photograph does not establish when, where or by whom the ammunition was fired.