E d i t o r i a l | 1

A new Contemporary Art

in Afghanistan

network, working consistently with artists from

I feel that the global environment must be

Turkey, India and France. This was an important

looked at with certain circumspection. With a

exception, but of late there has been a resurgence

Rahraw Omarzad

second wave of development in the Modern art

drive to establish themselves and fullfil their

in the profession, not only as a consequence of

of Afghanistan, suddenly stalled with the invasion

liberal agendas, many international festivals

international media reporters, but as a tool in the

hands of the resident population.

silent. Photography as a medium of the public is no

If modernism is about how cultures adapt to

of Soviet Union between 1928-1992. Subsequent

use Afghanistan as an excuse to establish their

and absorb from one another, and how they

restrictions on the freedom of speech and

own reputations but end up being self-serving

develop a distinct language with time, the golden

propaganda art at the service of socialism and

through a misdirected sense of tokenism. The

accidental society of photographers, there is

age of art in Afghanistan can be allocated to

realism. changed the dynamic withi the country

detrimental effect this creates is in terms of

historically, good reason to believe that an archive

the 16th century. Herat, then the capital city of

for time to come.

an inseciruty to be seen as successful in the

of images existed from the early days. After the

eyes of a European community we must emulate

pioneering work of British war photographers, John

Afghanistan, was a prominent centre in the east

In 1996, after collapse of the Russian

Though the digital age has created an

an important trade route for India and China along

government in Afghanistan, the civil war became

contemporary trends emerging from the west.

Baker and William Burke in the 19th century, at a

the Mediterranean Sea. The country witnessed

very intense, having a debilitating effect on arts

Such a tussle between the inner calling of the

popular level, Afghans themselves began taking

an outstanding artist, Kamaluddin Behzad, who

centres. With artistic activities significantly

arts, a creative space on the one hand and be a

photographs in the early 20th century inspired

established a school of art (also known as the

reduced by 1996, the subject of art itself was

perceived as a success professionally abroad has

partially by King Amir Habibullah Khan (1901

kitabkhana) which eventually had a resounding

removed from the curriculum of the schools and

created a rift, given the recent opening out of the

1919) who was not only an avid lensman but a

effect in Asia through its integration of images

universities and practices such as sculpturing,

country. It allows for a limited group to represent

patron as well. Since the first quarter of the 20th

and text, embodied in the manuscript tradition

music, film, drawing and photography were

the larger entitiy of practices wherein lesser-known

century, the role of photography has varied in

(specimens of which abound in the British Library).

indefinitely banned. The personal and professional

artists or those without access to the city get

tandem with different regimes from a focus on

With a similar sense of integration, centuries

life of an artist was scrutinised, and then entirely

sidelined. With an emphasis on technical knowhow

kingdoms and the landscape to communism, civil

censored.

rather than form and perhaps feeling, the arts are

war, the Taliban, and finally, the current period of

now facing a real and perhaps productive problem,

emerging democracy.

after the Timurid era, Amir Amanullah Khan,

Afghniastans first modern ruler in collaboration

However, the inability of any regime to

with the German government established the first

undermine the arts beyond a point was also

i.e. how to establish a representative regional

industrial arts school in Kabul in 1921. Many such

an inevitability. Since 2002, although the wars

identity, through an inclusive yet independent arts

modern history that have helped change the

productive changes ensued so as to integrate

continue, Afghanistan has re-established some

movement.

course of photography. In 1912, soon after

history with the contemporary in the early 70s,

centres, and significant personal efforts are being

a second art center was established by Ministry

made through the Centre for Contemporary Art

Photography Renewed

Seraj-ul-Akhbar (Lamp of the News), photographs

of Culture and Information called the Ghulam

(CCAA), Blue Saphire and the Afghan Institute in

Farzana Wahidy

were often featured including personal images by

Mohammad Maimanagi Art Training Center; the

the University to reignite the liberal arts fields.

Ministry of Higher Education established the

The Center for Contemporary Arts of Afghanistan

There is a long, rich and interconnected history

work by King Zahir Shah during his journeys to

Fine Arts Faculty of Kabul University in 1976; and

(CCAA) established in 2004, is the first center for

of visual arts in Afghanistan. The monumental

the north of Afghanistan which eventually helped

the Fine Arts Faculty of Herat University in 1986

contemporary arts also establishing the need

statues of Buddha in Bamiyan constructed in the

a French archeological team discover the Greco-

second century A.D. during the reign of Kinishka,

Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum. At a technological

a powerful king of the Kushan Empire (60 375

level, also seen in this issue in the series by Lukas

A.D.) were a symbol fortitude if not resilience and

Birk and Sean Foley which brings to light how there

tolerance. Photographed by many international

is still a trace of our photo-history that finds its way

photographers, its obliterated remains tell a tale

into the present.

as additional training centers creating a strong

for graphic arts of Afghanistan. As its Director,

base for the visual arts. Artists such as Professor

I am hopeful that such initiatives will represent

Ghulam Mohammad Maimanagi, Ustad Bereshna,

the third wave of art advancement in the region,

Ustad Haidar Zada, Ustad Hamid Nawid, Ustad

fostering not only opportunity, leadership and

Yousef Kahzad among others were then educated

participation for all but also protecting and

in Germany, Italy and USA and hence played an

projecting a renewed view of the arts in the

important role in consolidation of these centers

country, other than what gets circulated through

for future generations through a growing global

mass media.

2 | P I X

There have been significant markers in this

establishment of Afghanistans first newspaper,

King Amir (mentioned above); or even documentary

Students work in the studio

gallery of the Center for
Contemporary Arts Afghanistan.
From the project The Little Book
of Kabul
Photographs by Lorenzo
Tugnoli. Text by Francesca
Recchia.
Kabul, December 2012
B&W film

of ignorance, but also that in the many decades

I feel that the gulf in photography, a titled

of war, not only artistic expression but also a

used in the editorial, came with the Taliban

generation of practitioners in Afghanistan has been

regime (1996-2001). At this time, the medium was

E d i t o r i a l | 3

lack of awareness about the importance and role

Ribouds surmising of Bressons advice cited

of the media, a weak local and international market

above is imaginably dated, even prosaic, but

presence, continual censorship purported in the

more so than ever, what holds true is that the

guise of maintaining confidentiality, and weak

image continues to have an iron grip on our pre-

copyright laws. But as the path is hard, we have

conceptions, influencing outcomes and provoking

taken a pledge to work harder.

memories through lived encounter.

As much as photography has established a

A Gulf in Photography

grounded language and aesthetic, to propose

Rahaab Allana

that all images from any space may abide by a

code, strikes me as a contentious issue in this

the right way to photograph, to look at painting,

quarterly. In an effort to surmount genre and a

to understand a country, to shun the picturesque,

classification of the contemporary as sacrosanct,

to think a story, to organize it in the mind; and of

there is a developmental or incremental stance

course to see to learn to see... - Marc Riboud as

where the idea of a resistance and hence what

quoted in the Photobook Review, May 13.

we considered its other renewal are points of

While Riboud travelled through what he

debate rather than assumption. Even a cursory

considered to be the orient in 1955 China,

glance at the renowned works of Ed Grazda

Japan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Turkey

(Afghanistan Diary, 1992-2000) and now Larry

deemed deemed a crime under Islamic law and

known worldwide. In 2012, Massoud Hossaini won

Cartier Bresson sent him several letters

Towel (Afghanistan, 2014), both managed as field

Afghans were forbidden to take pictures or to be

the Pulitzer Prize for his picture known as The

expressing ways in which to approach an

trips, expresses how with time an image of place

in photographs. All the newspapers were published

Girl in Green. but the greater effect was that it

unfamiliar country, its essence and its image.

inevitably morphs; or how similar images take on

without pictures, however the only exception to

also encouraged a number of young residents to

new meaning when given fresh context. Towels

this rule was the creation of ID card portraits for

consider photojournalism as an occupation for

monumental publication on war torn spaces begs

Afghan men, many illuminating examples of which

the first time, a job for which they often remained

perspective as a generalisation of war a visual

were found by Magnum photographer Thomas

uncredited. To name a few, Kabir Mokamel, Shamsia

spectacle that may easily be read as propaganda.

Dworzak in Kandahar in 2002.

Hassani, Lida Abdul, Nasser Fedaee and Rada Akbar

However quite positively, it questions whether

are some of the photographers actively working on

a transitional moment in Afghanistans visual

due o necessity, cameras were carried alongside

an international scale in the present day, further

history is possible and whether it has a precursor?

guns by foreigners who documented war and

abetted by developments in the framework of

conflict in Afghanistan. In a struggle to document

social media and citizen photography Facebook

in Kabul today, comprises mainly journalists,

ground realities, practitioners were usually

and Instagram have become powerful tools of

and we had the fortune of meeting some of

compelled to move with international troops.

exchange. The journalist Bilal Sarwary started the

its practitioners on our recce in December

And after the consistent struggle to make their

#AfghanistanYouNeverSee campaign to encourage

voices heard, the fall of the Taliban has led

locals as well as outsiders to regularly post photos

subsequently to a flourishing of photography

of Afghan landscape and daily life.

As a consequence of this harsh censorship,

especially photojournalism, documentary and art

As photographers, we have no doubt about

practice. Photography institutes like AINA and

the arduous path ahead and the challenges we

3rd Eye have emerged as a forceful voice and

will encounter with every successive decade. The

also trained Afghan photographers who are now

problems persist varying societal cooperation, a

4 | P I X

Third Eye, the name of photography collective

Shahbibi, a young Afghan singer

in the yard of her home in Kabul.
Photograph by Farzana Wahidy.
2009, Digital
Afghanistan, Kandahar
Thomas Dworzak Collection
Magnum Photos

2014. Reza Sahel, a cameraman and teacher

at Kabul University, greeted us on this early
December morning at their premises. A makeshift
establishment driven by sheer devotion and the
desire to see their professions take leap in time,
an improvised heater with a metal chimney at the
centre of the room foregrounded another Reza,

E d i t o r i a l | 5

seated on a broad carpet. Reza Yemak, previously

conducting basic workshops was to enlarge our

part of the Presidential guard, now turned

understanding of the professional photography

photographer, sat on the floor turning his prayer

base in the region and to share experiences rather

beads.

than immediately generate results.

As the discussion progressed, he spoke to

Though slow to start, eventually, the number

us of a country whose history had been wiped

of entries received for this publication steadily

clean in the last decade. What is contemporary

increased, something we didnt foresee in our

without history? he suggested. The uncertainty

first 3 months on the project, which seemed to

however was not passive, but a motion to

be mired in how to address some fundamental

generate outcomes without fabricating a past,

approaches. Our primary challenge was to

knowing that the images they take will now form

be cognizant of the lacuna between what

a contemporary, regional history and with

Afghanistan was in news media, held fast by

time represent a new kind of past, perhaps even

what we so desired to showcase of its renewed

a peoples past. Other professionals who we met

identity as a country experimenting with a novel

in Kabul, included a young group of filmmakers

kind of freedom a personal, local engagement

called Jump Cut, and their sensibility was that

with place. What came from such as modus

every two steps forward seemed to be one-step

operandi was the following proposition: How

back, but this was what made them act more

does one present a visual counter argument to

constructively. The stress was to document, to

the polarised representation of Afghanistan,

chronicle families and events with what can only

given there are underlining motives both for the

be perceived as a decisive stance not only

national as well as the international media?

because it is at great personal risk, but also to

What ensued was the difficulty of finding a

know that documenting now is itself an act of

vantage point that was singular as it is almost

foresight.

impossible given the factions within and

As one proceeded in conversation with Reza

from outside the country. With such outlined

Yemak, Rahraw Omarzad and several other

challenges, could the images in fact substantiate

institutionsal representatives, it was clear that

our contention that photos represent a kind

our initial engagement needed a follow up. Social

of collective consciousness and so aid in the

media could not easily foster a line of sight

deconstruction of some pressing socio-political

or a dialogue between India and Afghanistan.

issues of our times? How does one then generate

Hence, we were not poised to intervene just yet,

a representative image of a nation, and is that a

but to exchange and document. The seeds for

valid position to take? Is the nation presupposed

approaching the India Afghanistan Foundation

in all one does as an individual practitioner? How

were hence planted and played a pivotal role

does one come to a consensus between views

in securing our teams next visit, for a 5 day

from within and outside Afghanistan?

interaction and workshop with a select number of

The tasks therefore were also about peering

photographers, pre-decided between The Afghan

through a looking glass, and in spite of our

Photographers Association, the Goethe Institute,

previous exchanges with Iran, Pakistan or even

British Council and PIX. Another purpose for

Sri Lanka, the sense of scratching a surface was

6 | P I X

From the series

Our Great Discount
By Reza Sepehri
Kabul, 2014
Digital

E d i t o r i a l | 7

never as apparent. But some justifications did

presented here was generated by both online

ring true that as outsiders, we did not have an

submissions and portfolio requests, trying

entrenched view of the space, and that insiders

to manifest a social convergence between

may have too many preconceptions and this

developing projects and individual assignments.

was used to some advantage. The safety net of

The aim was to anticipate how the future could

this issue is therefore dependent on a grip that

be cast from this bedrock of practices and

was loosening around tropes of photography that

practitioners so as to create a frame around a

are predominant in places other than Afghanistan,

situation, a country, and a people rather than just

given its unique socio-political position in the

illustrate them. And through this archaeology

world and what it encounters daily determines

of practices, there is now an awareness, as there

the methods people adopt.

is a desire that we do not occupy a space but

Consequently, the rhythm of the images

8 | P I X

generate a dialogue for a new one.

From the series This is Not Me!

By Hanifa Alizada
Kabul, 2011
Digital

E d i t o r i a l | 9

As mentioned by Farzana in this editorial,

the Kabul Photography

Workshop

Massoud Hossainis chilling photograph which won

Akshay Mahajan & Tanvi Mishra

change from the predictable honours awarded to

a Pulitzer in 2012, also brought with it a welcome

western journalists for their work in war zones.

Our taxi pulled up to an address at the busy

Farzana Wahidy is the first Afghan women to work

intersection at Shahr-E-Naw as Kabul rushed by

for the AFP and later AP, and eventually received a

with late autumn colours. We were running late

scholarship to continue studies in photojournalism

for a meeting at the newly minted offices of the

from Canada. Wahidy, determined and resolute,

Afghanistan Photographers Association (APA);

returned to Afghanistan to document the stature

one of several such meetings with organisations

and plea of Afghan women, especially at a time of

concerned with photography in the region. These

receding international co-operation in the region.

meetings are a usual step when we embark on

With education and development organisations

a special edition. Through conversation and

significantly reducing their role, budgets drying

collaboration we hoped to feel our way to a

up and security concerns at their critical best,

theme for this special on Afghanistan and arrive

Farzana and Massoud felt that the only way

at a structure to match the unique realities

forward was for them to take a definitive step and

of photography there. We wanted to catch a

establish an organisation. United by their sense

glance of the photography revolution, as one

of missionconvinced that, as one photographer

practitioner called it. Ever since the Taliban were

puts it, a nation without images of itself does not

driven from power, the ability to openly document

have an identity at all, they have outlined a bold

ground realities, or project personal stories is still

responsibility to help create an accurate visual

considered a new and fragile artform with very

record of their beloved, yet beleaguered country.

few established practitioners. Farzana Wahidy

APAs ambition is commendable, conducting

and Massoud Hossaini, partners who established

photographers training both in Kabul and the

the Afghanistan Photographers Association are

provinces, writing and translating photojournalism

amongst the few at the helm of this revolution,

handbooks into Dari and Pashto to even drafting

managing through collaboration and devotion.

and lobbying the Afghan Parliament for a strong

Facing page:
From the series
Skate Girls of Kabul
By Jessica Fulford-Dobson
Kabul, 2012
Digital
Workshop being conducted at
the Goethe Institut, Kabul in
April 2015
Photos by Tanvi Mishra

10 | P I X

E d i t o r i a l | 11

intellectual property law.

We were made to understand that for

communicators of their stories. We began by

illustrating the basic tenets of storytelling such

photography to flourish in the harshest

as structure the beginning, middle and end,

environments, some sacrifices need to be made.

establishing shots, introducing the subjects, climax

Without free movement and basic equipment

and flow using Eugene Smiths Country Doctor

a photographers daily struggle in the region is

as a functioning premise. Smiths essay serves as

vastly different from many other countries in Asia,

a evocative and effective tool to demonstrate a

sometimes drawing attention to all that one takes

typical assignment following the a day in the life

for granted. Currently because of the scarcity of

of model.

resources, photography in Afghanistan remains

With this preliminary introduction, the idea

largely frozen in the struggle to manage daily news

was to further equip the students with faculties

events and rise above the cliche of war and peace

on how to develop their own projects. Discussions

imagery. Only a talented few have been able cross

were initiated around theme selection, how to use

the rubicon to tell richer stories with a narrative.

a story so as substantively impact the audience,

The art practice of photography on the other

deciding on who the story is intended for, how

hand seems to show some significant promise

to build access, how to research and establish

with the young faculty at the Kabul University.

contacts, and the best medium for telling the story

And so, Farzana and Mossoud sowed the idea of a

etc. Once these facets had been discussed, the

workshop conducted later by PIX as photography

students were shown various bodies of work as

education is still in need of greater dissemination

examples. The work ranged from Bruce Davidsons

and exposure. The idea was simple: conduct a short

East 100th Street showing how to photograph

workshop about telling stories using the tool of the

an in-depth portrait of a community, to Joakim

photo-essay, keeping the modules versatile for a

Eskilsdens Home where the photographer was

wide range of styles both documentary and art-

looking at a personal narrative around his children

practice. In late April 2015 we returned excitedly to

and hometown. The contrast between Davidson

Kabul to conduct our little experiment.

and Eskilsdens work, with the latter being a much

Photography as a Narrative Tool was the

working title of a 5-day workshop that we
conducted with 14 young Afghan photographers.

quieter and abstract telling, was to inculcate a

sense of predecision and continuity.
Before the 4-day workshops began, the students

Most of the students were from the Faculty

were asked to come prepared with an idea of

of Fine Arts Kabul, some from the Center for

what they would like to photograph in Kabul or

Contemporary Arts Kabul and some from the The

Afghanistan more generally. The recurrent themes

Third Eye photo agency which began under the

that were declared included unemployment,

aegis of APA.

culture, landscape and the position of women.

Narrative being the main thrust of the

The idea behind the workshop, was to further

workshop, we chose to concentrate an entire

refine these aspects for an Afghan audience. Even

day on the photo essay format. The objective

though the theme of unemployment had been

here was to acquaint the students with svarious

explored before numerous times by photographers,

tropes employed by photographers to be better

one of the students Isaak Anis (from Third Eye

12 | P I X

Interview with Rahraw Omarzad,

founding direction of Centre for
Contemporary Art Afghanistan.
Photo by Akshay Mahajan
Interview with Abdul Wahab
Mohmand from Turquoise
Mountain Trust, an organization
which established the Afghan
Contemporary Art Prize in
2008 to support the creative
potential of a new generation of
Afghan artists.
Photo by Tanvi Mishra

E d i t o r i a l | 13

Photo Agency) stressed that it had not been

led to its eventual disappearence. Discussions were

explored in detail within Kabul. Discussions were

also initiated on how to build a mood in a story

encouraged with the entire class on how to build

using a particular colour pallet, and Chowdhurys

this unique narrative and Anis was encouraged to

use of the faded, de-saturated look consistent

start the project within one particular area of Kabul

through his entire project, lent an apocalyptic

and then expand it to the whole city or various

sensibility.

cities within the country. Examples were also given

Important feedback from the students was that

at the macro level, involving stories that focused

the part of the class focusing on showing different

on the same subject but across a very large control

bodies of work and deconstructing the images

group, say spanning different countries or even

in terms of composition, content, sequence,

continents. Sebastiao Salgados Workers was

subject relevance etc., was most useful to them.

used to illustrate how to adopt a generic theme

Most of the students, either having attended a

but building complexity around it by spanning

photography program before (in Afghanistan) or

different cross sections of people.

having learnt from their peers in the workspace

Other examples of photo essays to help the

like the Third Eye Photo Agency, have a basic

students build ideas were geographical and

knowledge about the techniques of photography

biographical photo essays like Akshay Mahajans

but have little or no exposure on how to string a

Slowing Down the Ganges which looked at the

narrative together.

evolution of the river Ganga and life around it

Due to fairly erratic internet availability and

from the Himalayas till Sagar Island, travelling a

next to no interactions with photographers

total of 1200 miles. Since the story has been (self)

from other countries either at photo festivals,

published as a Berliner (a newsletter format), it

conferences or international workshops, these

also helped students visualise how to work with

young Afghan photographers feel fairly cut off

diptychs and conceive of possible outcomes/

from their contemporaries overseas. The idea of

spreads of their work once the shooting stage was

the PIX workshops was to acquaint them with

over. Rasel Chowdhurys work on the Buriganga

ideas on how to use their photography skills to

River in Dhaka titled Desperate Urbanization

communicate effectively about local stories.

provided a fine contrast on the same general

The intention was also to enable them to look

subject (the river in this case). Chowdhurys work

at themselves as insiders, standing at a unique

was more attuned to an environmental photo essay

juncture in Afghanistans history, because of their

focusing specifically on the burden of pollution on

privileged understanding of Afghan language,

the river and how human interaction with it slowly

history and culture.

14 | P I X

From the series

Skate Girls of Kabul
By Jessica Fulford-Dobson
Kabul, 2012
Digital

E d i t o r i a l | 15

Asad Hussain
Two Afghan Films
I first travelled to Kabul in 2006 where I began

Given the situation both Directors worked with

by exile either having left their homeland or

on TV and other forms of entertainment as well as

collaborating with Afghan filmmakers and

a large number of non-professional actors, but to

seeing it drastically change from within. Many

media unconstitutional laws which were in place

crews, working on productions for motion

very different ends.

made films as a way to learn about the places

until the defeat of the Taliban in 2001.

pictures as well as the local TV channels. As

a result, most of my time was spent around
a group that was involved in media in some
way screenwriters, camerapersons, directors,

they had always imagined as home, but had

Because we have suffered,

dont we deserve joy?
Text by Taran N. Khan

editors and on a number of sets and locations.

never really known.

Salim Shaheen, whose work is also seen

The images featured in this section were taken

in the years following the US-led overthrow of the
Taliban government and during the international

here, is one of the most commercially

effort to rebuild Afghanistan a time that was

successful directors and producers in Kabul.

not quite war, (but) not entirely peaceful (either).

Sometimes I would be a part of the production

Siddiq Barmak, some of whose work appears in

He often also plays the hero/protagonist in of

They record the adventure of making movies in

and at others I would just be observing, usually

these images, once told me about what drives

his own films, and is viewed as a true star who

Afghanistan, the many influences that flowed

taking photographs from a vantage point with

him as a filmmaker. We were in the mountains

draws large crowds when his films travel. His

through these locations and how they were recast

an overview of the entire shot, a film still of the

of northern Afghanistan where he was shooting

features crackle with energy and melodrama, as

to tell Afghan stories. For me, they form a portrait

entertainment and enterprise unfolding around

for his second feature. The location had been

the actors or locations are slathered with fake

of the people who made films, despite unbelievable

me.

kept secret for security reasons. I watched his

blood and pulsate with dance sequences. When

odds in terms of resources, accessibility and

characters emerge from the wilderness, vanish into

I asked one of his actors why he makes such

safety.

with two different Directors, both iconic in

tanks hollowed out to create homes. Men danced

over the top productions, I was told that it was

their own way. The first set was shot in 2007,

in coloured chadoris (veils) to tunes from beautiful

to give dreams and hope to those who watch

taken, standing in the mud and slush that frames

during the making of Opium War, directed

Nuristan, located to the east of the country.

them.

them, and at the time they seemed like flashes

by the internationally acclaimed filmmaker

Dont write about this until we leave, the crew

Siddiq Barmak (who also made Osama, 2004).

repeatedly told me out of concern for the safety of

places, is made up of several strands: popular

slowing down. Looking at them now is somehow

The location, which was kept secret during

the team. Why did he make movies? I asked Siddiq.

entertainers, family drama, and art house fare.

more complex. They appear as documents of a

filming, was actually in the northern mountains

(Meaninghowdid he make movies, in the middle

As a consequence, Shaheens films constitute

time when it seemed possible to tell stories of

of Afghanistan, near the town of Pul-e-Khumri

of all the chaos and threats?)

just one kind of cinema in the region, that is

the history and aspirations of Afghanistan, of

part of a larger, diverse scene that includes

attempts to recast the past and the present into

productions by the state-run Afghan Film, edgy

images in a new way that preempted the future.

These images were shot at different times

which was interestingly known for housing

Afghanistans first cement factory in 1954

To remember the history of my land, he said. To

make others remember it.

Cinema in Afghanistan, like cinema in most

In many cases, I saw these pictures being

snatched on a ride that showed no signs of

Afghanistan is usually represented by

experimental features by young Afghans, the

non-Afghans, in cinema and as well as other

popular Pashto films made in Jalalabad as well

troubles in his country, he was focused on making

engagement over several weeks in 2011, spent

mainstream media. But in the years after 2001, a

highly stylised social commentaries of the kind

films. Because we have suffered, dont we deserve

with the bombastic and highly popular actor/

determined group of filmmakers starting creating

seen in Osama (2004), Afghanistans Golden

joy? he replied.

director/producer, Salim Shaheen in different

their own visual narratives drawing from the

Globe winner for best foreign language film.

locations in the Shomali (northern) plains,

cultural history of their nation and its fables.

shooting Sarzameen-e- Dilawaran, a film

Many of them were still young, but there was also

they captured a capital already ravaged by

based around a jailbreak during the civil war in

a slightly older generation that had learned the

years of civil war. They closed the cinemas,

Afghanistan. The film was made on a shoestring

craft during an earlier era, as students in Russia

banned the viewing of films and cracked down

budget and completed in about three months.

or Europe. Virtually all were marked in some form

supported by former Czechoslovakia.

The second film shoot came from an

16 | P I X

I once asked a director why, with all the

When the Taliban seized power in 1996,

P I X | 17

Page xx : On the sets of Opium War,

directed by Siddiq Barmak, the crew
prepares a shot in the poppy fields
grown especially for the film. Digital,
Pul-e-Khumri, 2007
Page xx : Under ground, shooting the
home of a family that lives inside a
tank, from Opium War. Digital, Pul-eKhumri, 2007

Page xx : On location for Salim

Shaheens historical drama,
Sarzameen-e- Dilawaran, his son Zahir
Shah takes stills of the actors posing
with their weapons. Digital, Shomali
Plains, 2011
Page xx : Shooting a dramatic fight
sequence, Shaheens voice booms
out over the action: For the love of
cinema, I implore you... Hit him like an
Afghan, not a sissy foreigner! Digital,
Shomali Plains, 2011
Page xx : Shaheen directs a corpse
floating down the river. Other actors,
and often the audience of young men
and boys from nearby villages, joined
in to give instructions to the actor
lying quietly in the water. Digital,
Shomali Plains, 2011

Page xx : Shooting a song sequence.

The actor lip-synced the lyrics about
the sweetness of being free, as the
song played on a tape recorder placed
on a nearby rock. Digital, Shumali
Plains, 2011
Page xx : The climax of the film,
when the villains set a village on fire.
As there were no actresses on the
location, a bearded actor was thrust
under the chadori to show women
fleeing the flames. Digital, Shomali
Plains, 2011
Page xx / xx : : Shaheens older son
directs a deaf-mute actor in an escape
sequence, while also shooting behind
the scenes video of the film. Digital,
Shomali Plains, 2011

Hamid
Soltanabadian
The Countrys Soul

The relationship that develops over time between

Shot against a neutral background, dressed in

a people and their homeland is a bond that

their uniforms and holding their tools of trade,

transcends language. I liken it to a connection

the portraits conveyed a sense of elegance and

between a mother and her child, as a land

nobility, a kind of paean to the working class.

absorbing the latent and manifest suffering of

All images from the series The

Countrys Soul
Portraits: Mazar-e-Sharif
Aerial photographs: Pul-e-Khumri,
Herat, Kabul and Balkh, Samangan
and Baghlan provinces
2013, Digital

24 | P I X

Within the specific context of Afghanistan

her people. The history of Afghanistan has been

and its history, I too wanted my portraits to

checkered with unrest making it extremely

express a sense of the dignity of the workers. The

difficult for the common man to find security and

pain as well as the desire for change is obvious to

contentment. However, after many conversations

me in their faces, and so I wanted to capture the

with Afghan people, some of whom are now my

pride and nobility of the working class. I was eager

friends, I came to understand, empathise and

to show an inseparable connection between the

admire their situation. Though happiness might

workers and their homeland, juxtaposing portraits

be elusive, the work towards a future of unity,

along with aerial photos taken from different

peace and development.

regions between Kabul, Herat, Pul-e-Khumri, Herat

Irving Penn, in his series, Small Trades took

studio photographs of the working class of

and Mazar-e-Sharif, taken over the span of one

month.

London, Paris and New York between 1950-51.

P I X | 25

Lorenzo Tugnoli &

Francesca Recchia
Little Book of Kabul

All images from the series The Little

Book of Kabul
All photographs by Lorenzo Tugnoli
Kabul, 2012-13, B&W film

Text by Francesca Recchia

We looked for people who were interested

in a dialogue within and outside the country,

The Little Book of Kabul is a project that depicts a

but would not entirely rely on external support

portrait of Kabul through the daily activities of a

to realise their practices; effectively those

number of artists who live in the city.

who would make the creative drive the main

It is the result of a two-year long collaboration

between photographer, Lorenzo Tugnoli and

motivation of their daily lives or activities.

The images for The Little Book of Kabul were

writer Francesca Recchia and focuses on the

taken in 2012 and 2013 in the lead up to the

exceptional dimension of the ordinary in a

2014 election. Concerns about what would

context where external narratives and reportage

become of the country after the scheduled

often turn life into a mere act of survival. It dives

drawdown of international forces and the

into the lives of three main characters exploring

national polls were already on the minds of

what it means to be an artist in Kabul and hence

many. Political instability, combined with

trying to unveil the beauty and brutality of the

the overwhelming presence of development

city.

agencies and the constant instability of aid

At the centre of the narrative are Kabul

money, fostered a widespread and dangerous

Dreams, an Indie rock band; Rahim Walizada,

dependency mentality that left the issue of long-

an interior and carpet designer; and the Center

term sustainability in a critical state. However

for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA), the

low on the priority list of political agendas,

oldest contemporary arts school in Kabul. Around

cultural production has not been exempt from

them move other visual artists, musicians and

such dynamics either, and so, for us, this is a

poets.

narrative of perseverane and endurance.

30 | P I X

Page xx : December, 2012:

A man looks out of the window as he
travels on a bus in downtown Kabul.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Women walk on the street in the old
city in Kabul.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Students work in the studio gallery
of the Center for Contemporary Arts
Afghanistan.
Page xx : March, 2013:
An actress runs through the ruins
of Darulaman Palace during the
recording of a music video filmed
by Jump Cut, a collective of young
independent film-makers.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Khadija Hashmi poses for a
portrait series by Sara Nabil in the
studio gallery of the Center for
Contemporary Arts Afghanistan.
Page xx : March, 2013:
One of the actors the Afghanistan
National Theater smokes a cigarette
before the performance at the
Ministry of Information and Culture.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Students draw and paint in the library

of the Center for Contemporary Arts

Afghanistan.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Arifa, a student at the Center for
Contemporary Arts Afghanistan,
poses for one of her colleagues art
work.
Page xx : November, 2012:
Sulyman Qardash, Kabul Dreams
singer, stands in the recording studio
at The Venue where the band is
recording their first album Plastic
Words.
Page xx : April, 2013:
Young artists Baqir Ahmadi and
Shahram Rahimi attend an exhibition
in the studio gallery of the Center for
Contemporary Arts Afghanistan.
Page xx : December, 2012:
Kabul Dreams play during the
shooting of the official video for their
song Good morning freedom.
Page xx : May, 2013:
Young men cheer during a
performance of the heavy metal band
District Unknown at the Institut
Franais dAfghanistan during the
Sound Central Music Festival.
Page xx : January, 2013:
A bus drives past the Soviet built
granary silo on a rainy day in Kabul.

P I X | 31

32 | P I X

P I X | 33

Lukas Birk & Sean Foley

Rohullah is a native of Kabul and as of June 2011

a landmine. Jobless at the time, the centres

he was also one of the last two remaining kamra-

director suggested he learn how to use the

Afghan Box Camera Project

e-faoree photographers left working in the city.

kamra-e-faoree as patients needed photographs

In the trade for forty years, he was taught how

for the identity papers the centre issued. Mia

to use the camera by his brother, who before he

got a loan, bought a camera, and started to take

Afghanistan is one of the last places in the world

were keen to share their knowledge with us. We

entered the military was also a kamra-e-faoree

photographs on the side of the road outside the

where photographers use an antiquated wooden

were also fortunate enough to meet the last two

photographer. Rohullah has been working from

centre. Business was good; but gradually materials

instant camera called thekamra-e-faoreeto make

working box camera photographers in Kabul, as

the chowk in downtown Kabul next to a digital

for the camera became more difficult and

a living. This hand-made device has both camera

by the summer of 2012 these photographers had

photo-studio for the last four years but hes

expensive to obtain. The centre started to use

and darkroom as one large contraption and

stopped practicing due to economic constraints

also had pitches in Jadda chowk and Shar-e-Nau.

digital technology to photograph patients, but

generations of Afghans have had their portraits

bringing a culture of photography that had

With only twelve boxes of Lucky photographic

since Mia is illiterate he was excluded from the

taken with it, usually for identity or passport-

prevailed since at least the 1950s to an end in the

paper left, Rohullahs days as a kamra-e-faoree

job as it requires reading instructions (in English)

like photographs. Under the Taliban rule, which

capital.

photographer are numbered.

on cameras and computers.

banned photography, practitioners were forced

Howeve, in 2012, the project returned to

to hide or destroy their tools. After 2001 and the

Afghanistan, with field staff travelling again to

to open a grocery store in the outskirts of Kabul.

Red Cross.

removal of the Taliban from power, box camera

Kabul as well as Herat, Jalalabad and Peshawar

A perfume seller has taken over his pitch.

September 2011

photographers in Kabul experienced a revival and

in Pakistan. Recognising that a significant part

September 2012

boom in business. But over the last decade, the

of Afghan cultural life has been displaced due

trade has drastically declined to the point where

to warfare over the previous thirty years, the

When Haji Mirzaman was 15, he started working

in Mukhaberat Chowk in Jalalabad near Bajazay

the camera has all but disappeared.

Peshawar part of the project had particular

in his cousin Gul Afghans Maiwand Studio near

mosque on a pavement under a banyan tree. He

significance in understanding the life of Afghan

Cinema Pamir. He opened his own studio in

worked under this tree for seventeen years, where

photography under refugee conditions.

downtown Kabul; it burnt down during the civil

photographed soldiers, farmers, school children,

war. It wasnt until Karzai came to power after

war veterans, and a passing New York Times

reporter.

The aim of theAfghan Box Camera Projectis

to provide a record of the production and
consumption of the kamra-e-faoree. We have

Postscript: By 2012, Rohullah had left his pitch

Postscript: Mia now works as a cleaner for the

Muhammad Isaq, used to work on a box camera

documented the last practicing photographers

Kamra-E-Faoree Photographers:

2001 that he opened his present studio in the

in the country and archived their work for

Qalam Nabi, 44, is one of the last two remaining

Kart-e-nau area of Kabul.

posterity. We also createdinstructions onhow

kamra-e-faoree photographers working on a daily

to useandbuild a kamra-e-faoree, along

basis in Kabul. His father, Abdul, also a kamra-e-

photography on the kamra-e-faoree. Farshad, his

on the pavement anymore. They called it

with generalbackground information on

faoree photographer taught him the trade. The

youngest son, works with him.

illegal encroachment and many box camera

the cameraand the history ofphotography

Taliban put a brief halt to this work in the 90s

in Afghanistan. Focusing on the craft of

when they passed an edict initially banning all

kamra-e-faoree for daily business in 2011, but he

work around this time for the same reason.

photography together with the visual culture of

photography, though finally they relented after

still stands one of his old box cameras outside

Muhammad managed to find another pitch at

Afghanistan, from the outset the project treaded

a few months and allowed identity photographs

his studio to advertise business; and hes also

the bus stand, soon after which he was offered

unchartered territory, bringing a previously

- meaning kamra-e-faoree photographers were

had some work with the camera at an expatriate

a job taking photographs of welfare applicants

obscure but deeply rich and routed culture of

back in business.

farewell party.

for the committee for war affectees (Riyast-

September 2012

e-Mayoubeen). He took the job and in his new

photography to light for the very first time.

As early as May 2011, the Project began

Postscript: In May 2012 Qalam Nabi was no

Mirzaman has taught all of his four sons

Postscript: Mirzaman stopped using the

longer working at his pitch. He has reportedly

In 2006, he was forced to move. The

municipality wouldnt allow him to work

photographers in Jalalabad moved into other

post continued to use the box camera the

research on the ground covering Kabul and

moved to London, and was tired of working with

Until recently, Mia Muhammad worked outside

same camera that was made for him forty years

Mazar-e-Sharif, where we began to learn of the

the box camera.

the Red Cross orthopedic centre in Kabul. The

previously by a local carpenter.

techniques and history of the kamra-e-faoree

September 2012

first visit Mia made to this facility was for

from many existing Afghan photographers who

40 | P I X

treatment after he lost a leg by stepping on

Muhammad has also worked in Jalozay refugee

camp in Peshawar as a box camera photographer

P I X | 41

for fourteen years. He came back to Jalalabad

and Izzat helped provide for them working as

after the fall of the Communist government.

a box camera photographer. Because he was

During the Taliban times he continued to work on

so young starting out, families mindful of their

the box camera and only stopped using it in 2010.

women would often choose him over adult

Postscript: Muhammad bought a digital

male photographers to take their pictures. His

camera and started taking digital photos and he

popularity, he claims, caused friction with some

continues to work in the same office.

of the other photographers who seemed to think

September 2012

he was invading their pitch.

Abdul Samad was one of the earliest kamra-

between 2004 and 2005 when the United

e-faoree photographers in Kabul. The first was

Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

Afandi who introduced Abdul Samad to the

repatriated hundreds of thousands of Afghan

box camera. During the time of Zahir Shah

refugees from Peshawar. Because box camera

(1933-1973), Abdul Samad travelled around the

photographers could provide the photos for

provinces taking identity photographs for the

documentation economically they were in high

national identity card; he remained working in

demand.

Izzat Ullahs occupational heyday came

photography all of his life. He has his own photo

Postscript: Izzat stopped working on the

shop in the Kote Sangi area of Kabul for over fifty

box camera in 2010. At the time he was told by

years.

many of his friends and family to burn it. They

Postscript: Abdul Samads son, Abdul Satar

learnt the trade from his father in the family shop.
When heavy fighting broke out in the locality

said it was now useless. But Izzat refused; he just

couldnt bring himself to burn his camera.
September 2012

during the civil war, he was forced to close down

the store and travel to Peshawar, in Pakistan to
work. The shop was destroyed during the conflict,
but he managed to re-open a new one on the
same site. The services Abdul Satar now offers are
completely digital.
September 2011
When Izzat Ullah started working on the box
camera he was so small he had to set the
tripod to its lowest point so he could reach the
sleeve. In the mornings he attended school; in
the afternoons he worked close to the once
sprawling Nasir Bagh Afghan refugee camp in
the Board area of Peshawar, a one-time regular
pitch for Afghan box camera photographers in
the city. His family originally came as refugees
to Peshawar from Jalalabad across the border

42 | P I X

P I X | 43

Majid Saidi
Life in War
Living Between Blurred Lines
Text by Mujib Mashal

people they collectively trampled over in what

we were told was an ideological battle, of Islam
vs. Communism, of feudalism vs. equality for all?

Our perpetual war has paved a path of

destruction. But it has also blurred many lines.
Dragging on for decades, the war has turned
a survival-first mentality into a norm for the

Well, the people live in a haze of confusion.

So how can we still see beauty within these
blurred lines?
Beauty is the calm of the driver who stops

society. As a people one that stubbornly

on the highway because a battle is waging,

continues to pride itself in living by the sword of

coming out to light a cigarette chat and with

honour, one that has long carried the burden of

other drivers as if they are in a rest station. When

our faith by fighting the battles of others who

the battle quiets, they drive on. Beauty is in the

cheerlead from their sidelines of prosperity we

teapot and sugar cubes of the Samovar-chi who

dont acknowledge this, for our honour does not

sells tea by the over-crowded graveyard because,

allow such admissions. But the lines between

because, in true Afghan fashion, tea needs to be

Afghanistan has been at war for the past 35 years,

those who have remained impassive in front of

what is right and wrong, what is corrupt and

drunk even when paying respects to loved ones

due either to foreign interventions or civil war.

my camera, but I am interested to know how the

moral, are forever blurred for us. The warlord

long gone. Beauty is in those moments unfolding

By now, the world has seen countless images

viewer feels when they see my images. What is

that was one once a brute is now a hero after he

around war a young boy flying his kite against

of Afghanistan particularly images of soldiers

the result of all these wars? Every time I see a

trimmed his beard and exchanged his fatigues

an overcast Kabul sky, or a Herculean figure

and aid workers. In my experience, these images

young Afghan boy or girl in the streets, I wonder

for a western suit. The Communist, who once

flexing his muscles to an expectant crowd before

dont portray the real Afghanistan. The real

how similar children across the world are in

prided himself in owning nothing but the small

a bodybuilding contest, his veins popping like the

Afghanistan may actually be seen in an image of a

completely different circumstances, which then

Soviet-built apartment, is now the former-

traces of a river on a map.Beauty becomes about

young child looking at my camera lens without a

makes me think of the imbalance.

warlords business partner and raking in millions

seeing poetry in these moments in fleeting

smile, or an image of a woman who has set herself

Throughout the lonely and difficult days of war,

in contracts from the US military. And what of the

transitions and complex contradictions.

on fire to express her despair with life, or images

I kept telling myself Im a photojournalist in the

of men, women and children who have lost their

streets of Afghanistan, with the responsibility

arms and legs due to land mines. Photojournalists

of exposing the realities of daily life, both brutal

in Afghanistan become used to seeing such

as well as joyful. Sharing a common tongue, I

realities, but for me, the real Afghanistan is also a

found that I could live alongside the Afghans

smile on the face of one of those children when

with an understanding they are rarely given while

they get a chance to take a picture with my

being documented by journalists from outside

camera. It is not the war itself but what it does

the country. I feel there is a contrast between

to the people in it that speaks of their fortitude

the innate tranquility of Eastern culture and the

and courage, and hence the reality of their

violence of this war, and perhaps can express all

circumstances.

that words cannot entirely communicate.

I may never fully understand the trauma of

50 | P I X

All images from the series Life in War

2009-13
Digital
Page xx : A young Afghan boy is kite
running in the ruins, Kabul.
Page xx : A wooden horses merry-goround in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Page xx : Afghan students are playing
in the ruins on their to school in Kabul.
Page xx : An Afghan bodybuilder is

preparing for the competition in Kabul

Page xx : Menswimming in a river
located in Feyz Abad, Badakhshan.
They use an old tank which remained
from the war to dive from.
Page xx : Dogs fighting remains one
of the popular forms of entertainment
in Afghanistan.
Page xx : An Afghan boy carries money
to exchange in the bazaar at Herat.

Page xx : An Afghan man in the bazaar

in Kabul.
Page xx : An Afghan police woman
trains in Walis Training Center, Kabul.
Page xx : Trainingmaneuver for the
Afghan police force in Kabul.
Page xx : Photos of Afghanistan
Parliament members in front of the
Parliament in Kabul.
Page xx : Two mentally ill Afghan men

in an asylum in Kabul.
Page xx : Afghan men wait for a bus
to return to their village in Bamiyan,
where the Buddha sculpture was
destroyed by the Taliban
Page xx : An Afghan woman and her
child pass through ruins in Kabul.
Page xx : Firemen are fighting a fire
triggered by a bomb blast in a bazaar
in Kabul.

P I X | 51

Mujaheda Khowajazada
Years of Forgetting

The image of the Afghan woman today is that

aspect of life free from the intervention of the

of a figure clad from head to toe in a blue burqa,

State, what women wear has increasingly become

with no heed given to her identity. The aim of

a field of resistance.

this project was to raise the awareness in the

In one of the previous issues of PIX (Freedom,

younger generation about both, the freedom

Vol. 5), in her work Transcending Stereotypes,

and the restrictions placed upon Afghan women

Pakistani photographer Nariman Ansari inserts

under different regimes in last century, along with

herself into every image depicting the clichd

highlighting a very important aspect of within

categories of women the kitty party

the culture (and of late, religion) of Afghanistan:

aunty; the rundee (prostitute); the college girl;

clothing.

the activist, and so on. In this almost camp

Changes in womens attire according to shifts

performance/role play, the photographer explores

in political, religious and social circumstances

the many stereotypes existing in Pakistani

have been telling in the history of the world

society, and in the exaggerated treatment of each

in the last century. Clothing is one of the

one, moves beyond the stereotype.

most prominent symbols of human culture in

In my work, instead of looking at different

which aesthetic, social valuesand beliefs are

categories, I move across time. I have selected

reflected. In our recent history, what women

salient periods of time to show a distinct

wear has developed into an interesting politic of

change in apparel under different rulers. I am

dominance and power play, with heated debates

trying to move past decades of selective and

in the West and at home.Over time, women in

collective amnesia, to show the woman behind

the country have increasingly been expected

the blue burqa one who is moving well

to cover up and dress modestly. With almost no

beyond it.

62 | P I X

All images from the series

Years of Forgetting
Kabul, 2014
Digital
Page xx : King Amanuallah Khan r.
1919-1929
Page xx : King Mohammed Zahir Shah
1933-1973
Page xx : President Mohammed
Daoud Khan 1973-78
Page xx : Soviet Occupation 19791989
Page xx : Dr Mohammed Najibullah
Ahmadzai 1987-1992
Page xx : Taliban Islamic Emirate Of
Afghanistan 1996-2001
Page xx : Hamid Karzai 2004-2014

P I X | 63

Mustafa
Quraishi
Afghanistan

Transient Times
Text by Nazes Afroz

displaced and returned home again. There has

also been a resurgence of street photography in

From the early days of photography in

the last one decade of a country that is on the

Afghanistan till the second half of the twentieth

brink of recovery from decades of upheaval. With

century, most photographs from the region were

political events shaping the nature of recent

taken by the British, Indians and other Western

photography from Afghanistan, the majority of

travellers. Those photographs were either of the

images that have emerged from the regions have

stunning beauty of the landscape or they were

been documentary and/or journalistic.Mustafa

noble savage-esque portraits of the local tribes

Quraishis photos fall into this genre. Working

people in their exotic attires and settings, or

on assignment with the Associated Press, one

performing their customs and rituals. Being a

of the largest sources of newsgathering, the

deeply conservative society, outsiders had no

focus is entirely on comprehensive (photo)

access to their personal lives.

journalism. However, it is the narratives beyond

In the past thirty odd years circumstances in

the images that also lead the viewer to linger a

Afghanistan have led to the creation of some of

moment longer: the disturbingly cheerful grins

the most iconic photographs in recent history.

on the faces of children with toy guns in a world

World famous and local photographers have

where violence in normalized is grimly reflected

produced a cache of memorable images that

on the photos of row upon row of tombstones.

encapsulated a life amidst war, devastation

Quarishi has carefully crafted a body of work that

and rebuilding, portraits of despair and hope

represents the uncertainties still hovering over

and images of the old and the new. There are

Afghanistan. The bleak light, the overcast sky and

haunting close-ups capturing the emotions on

the ominous presence of the military reminds

the faces of Afghans who have been ravaged,

viewers of a country still in transition.

70 | P I X

P I X | 71

Morteza Nikoubazl
The Modern Face of Kabul

I visited Herat, Afghanistan for the first time

want to enjoy being young having access to the

in 2010 and saw many aspects of life on the

internet, to malls and restaurants, coffee houses,

cusp of change, especially amongst the youth

and to experience music and art.

billiard clubs had become popular, women were

As I documented life in the capital in 2014,

learning English and the younger generation was

I met many young people who shared their

becoming adept in computer science.

thoughts about the future of Afghanistan who

After coming back to Iran, I did some research

were working tirelessly to help shape a better

and found a plethora of photographs of a very

nation: painters, actors and musicians, human

modern lifestyle in Afghanistan from the 1970s.

rights activists and womens rights activists,

Interestingly, these photographs look incredibly

among others. I asked them what had made some

similar to the kind of photographs that were

of them decide to come back to Afghanistan

being generated from my home town, Tehran, at

after being away for a period of time. We love our

the same period of time.

country, they said. What hope is there for the

I decided to go back to Afghanistan, this time

future if we forsake our motherland? If we leave

to Kabul. I came to realize that the youth love

it, it will collapse. With us here, we can make it

their country and want to help rebuild it, but also

stronger.

78 | P I X

All images from the series

The Modern Face of Kabul
2014, Digital

P I X | 79

Made in Afghanistan

Sandra Calligaro

Text by Moska Najib

Afghan Dream
For me it is not a detachment to take a
picture. Its a way of touching somebody
its a caress.

What if these photos didnt carry the tag Made

public, electronics and computers have become

in Afghanistan? Would you believe it is the same

commonplace, and even western clothing styles

country that is on the news everyday; headlines

are the new norm. Scenes like these in Kabul were

carrying stories of the destruction wrought

unheard of in the late 90s. The city centre that

by a never-ending conflict. Its easy to forget,

was once reserved only for public executions is

then, that beyond the battles, extremists and

now a vibrant venue for young girls to compete

I arrived in Kabul almost by accident, initially for a

realized between 2012 and 2013. It shows

politicians, many are just trying to hang on to

and play ball.

month. I wanted to be war correspondent; and a

the development of the Afghan society,

- Nan Goldin

distress, underlined by imperceptible details that

would emerge: ordinary situations, or moments inbetween, where the tension is tangible, emotions
perceptible, but the conflict rarely visible.
Afghan Dream is a long-term narrative

journalist friend casually said go on, Afghanistan

tranforming ever so swiftly after thirteen years

to breathe a lingering sense of uncertainty.

is good to start. His words still resonate in my

of international presence. The intervention of

However, we tend to forget that the reality of life

head. That was seven years ago.

coalition forces, the return of the diaspora and

living daily lives. The image of a young boy glued

is unlike what we are exposed to a simplified

During all the years I have wandered through

a major aid effort favoured both the resurgence

to the TV screen as he watches Spiderman; a

representation of a war thats only viewed from

Afghanistan, I have tried to understand it as an

of a middle class and the emergence of a young

group of boys catching-up after a swim; a girl

the ranks of Western troops. And far too often,

insider rather than a paid professional. I do not

generation in the capital. I wanted to report

working on her painting and a couple enjoying

we overlook the ordinary people living amidst this

know if I have succeeded, but I have been deeply

on daily life and to present Afghans, Kabulis

a coffee date. They represent a less familiar side

conflict.

touched by the country and the people I have met

specifically, in the most ordinary way possible. I

and now the way I look at it is full of tenderness.

felt it was important to make a Western viewer

a sense of normalcy while continuing with the

every day.
These are faces of hope ordinary people

to the country, one thats almost too surreal to

imagine.

Much has changed in a city that continues

More than two decades ago, Steve McCurrys

Finally, I brought back hardly any war

iconic photograph of the Afghan girl haunted

more sensitised to the situation in order to find

the world. It symbolized the plight of a country

photographs from this experience. Rather,

an alternative view to the majority of pictures

day Kabul looks much like any other city in the

caught between the Great Game. Could these

the fragility of everyday life in this turbulent

spread by the media, mainly focused on the

world. A cosmopolitan capital that has western

photographs, instead, come to symbolize a new,

country fascinated me. I try here to show a sense

spectacle of the conflict rather than the story of

style malls filled with modern-day amenities,

emerging and modern face of Afghanistan, or is it

of uneasiness by highlighting a certain latent

how people continue with dignity

billboards with signs and street artists taking

just another Afghan dream, a short-lived portrait

over blank walls. Men and women talk openly in

of a nation in endless transition?

Through these images, to an outsider, present-

All images from the series Afghan

Dream Sandra Calligaro/Picturetank
Kabul, 2012-13
Digital
Page xx : A view of Mecrorayan, ageing
Soviet housing, but still a reference for
middle class people as the are known
to be safe, only inhabited by educated

84 | P I X

people. 2014
Page xx : A man poses with her son
for a photo in front of one of the
sceneries of the City Star, a renowned
wedding hall the Afghan capital. 2012
Page xx : Karte Naw, literally the new
district. 2012
Page xx : Awaiting caption

Page xx : Sparghai and his family

spend a Friday afternoon at Qargha
Lake. On a hill overhanging the lake,
Frough, Sparghais cousin, mimics the
famous Titanic scene with her fianc.
2013
Page xx : The Blue Flame, a new pool
and spa in Kabul. Abdullah, Ahmad

and Shoab work respectively for

IOM - International Organization for
Migration, the Afghan National Army
and Supreme, a logistic and refuelling
company for NATO. They like to come
here to relax the weekend. 2012
Page xx : The game room for children
of the Afghan version of KFC, the

Kabul Fried Chicken. 2013

Page xx : Kids play in Shahrak-e Arya, a
new district of apartment complexes
in the north of Kabul, near the airport.
2013
Page xx : On a hill overhanging the
Qargha Lake, a recreational area
located a few kilometers away from

Kabul. 2013
Page xx : Rahman Mina area in southeast suburb of Kabul. 2013
Page xx : Matin, a rapper. A refugee
in Iran when he was young, his songs
speak about exile, war and love. 2013
Page xx : Basir has a date in a coffee
shop. 2013

Page xx : The new McDonalds. No

franchise, only a pixelated logo on the
menus. 2013
Page xx : Going to restaurant in a safe
taxi. Zarlasht is quite free for a young
Afghan girl its not common for girls
in Afghanistan to be allowed to go out
alone in the night. 2013

Page xx : The DVD department of the

Finest Superstore. 2013
Page xx : Absorbed by Spider Man.
2012

P I X | 85

86 | P I X

P I X | 87

Shamsia Hassani
Dreams of Graffiti
The Medium is The Message
Text by Jemima Montagu**
Shamsia Hassani is one of several young female

by international artists and activists that took

artists who have made international headlines

place between 2009-10. Several Afghan and

in the last few years for adopting graffiti art as

international artists based in Kabul began to

a way of protesting about womens rights, and

adopt the medium as a form of resistance,

the impact the war has had on womens lives,

painting slogans, provocations and imagery

exacerbating cultural traditions of repression and

across the city. They criticized corruption and

isolation. Hassani uses the blue silhouette of the

the abuse of power, and presented images

burqa to create a ghostly female figure which

protesting womens rights. Like the many artists

moves around the city, inhabiting places where

and activists who adopted street and graffiti art

women are usually unwelcome: public spaces,

during the Arab uprisings in Spring 2011, it is the

streets, broken buildings. Every character in my

immediacy of the form, as well as its mass appeal

artworks is me, says Hassani, because my problem

and publicity value that makes graffiti attractive.

is the same as every other Afghan womans. Our

problem is not the burqa but the war.
Shamsia Hassani is a founding member of

Hassani has explicitly said that she was drawn

to graffiti art because Afghan people have no
chance to visit art galleries and if it is there

one of Kabuls most prominent artist collectives,

for a long time, then people will slowly memorise

Berang Association. She also teaches at the

it and it will be part of their everyday life and

Faculty of Fine Arts in Kabul University and

they dont need a ticket. The democratizing

participates in many international exhibitions. But

power of street art takes root in places where

none of these things can be taken for granted. As

there are few places to see art, and even fewer

a woman, working as an artist, and particularly a

places for discussion and dissent. But Hassanis

public graffiti artist, is a difficult and controversial

point about memorising is also important

choice. Hassani takes great care where and when

street art is also a protest against forgetting,

she does her graffiti works, and sometimes paints

or ignoring, the truths of the world around

or Photoshops her paintings onto photographs

them. Many forget the tragedy women face in

of urban scenes as a way of reaching places

Afghanistan, Hassani explains, so that is why

otherwise inaccessible. It is not acceptable for

I use my paintings as a means to remind the

women to go out unaccompanied onto the

people.

streets, particularly at night, and the streets in

the capital can be lawless and dangerous.
The graffiti revolution that erupted in Kabul
was sparked by several graffiti workshops run

96 | P I X

** Excerpted from Contemporary Visual Art

in Afghanistan: An Art of Laughter and
Forgetting (p. 45-55) by Jemima Montagu in
Art and Conflict, a research enquiry supported by
the Arts and Humanities Research Council and
the Royal College of Art 2013-14

All images from the series

Dreams of Graffiti
Kabul, 2012-2014
Painting on photograph
P I X | 97

Kabul

Sumit Dayal

Poem by Shakila Azzizada

Translated by Mimi Khalavati

No Strings Attached

If my heart beats
for Kabul,
it is for the slopes of Bala Hissar,
holding my dead
in its foothills.
Though not one, not one
of those wretched hearts
ever beat for me.
If my heart grieves
for Kabul,
it is for Leylas sighs of
Oh, dear God!
and my grandmothers heart
set pounding.
Its for Golnars eyes
scanning the paths
from dawn to dusk, spring to autumn,
staring so long
that all the roads fall apart
and in my teenage nightmares
side roads

Before leaving for Afghanistan in the spring

for the image, compelled me to click and then

suddenly shed their skins.

of 2007, I began to notice a resemblance in

immediately move on.

If my heart trembles

the look of most things I was shooting. It was

Three months later as I looked at the Holga

for Kabul,

the need to arrive at another visual vocabulary

contact sheets, I found frames with vignetting

it is for the slow step of summer noons,

that impelled me to carry along with my

blurs, light leaks, and other distortions. The

siestas in my fathers house which,

other equipment, a plastic Holga camera to

cameras inability to be controlled beyond a point

heavy with mid-day sleep,

Afghanistan.

had resulted in the creation of surreal scenes

still weighs on my ribs.

taken at the spur of a moment.

For the playful Angel of the Right Shoulder

With this camera I had no great expectations

of what the result could have been and therefore,

Ironically, the low-fidelity aesthetic of the

no pressure to take images of the exceptional. I

camera did justice in depicting my experiences

recorded scenes without any overriding agenda.

in Afghanistan. Feelings of being alienated, of

Unfolding scenes of daily life, the static-ness of

unanswered questions, of uncertain moments and

objects, childhood memories etc., virtually

of a time vacuum were faithfully replicated a

anything that would trigger inside me a feeling

roving journey told without words.

100 | P I X

who keeps forgetting

to ward away stray bullets.
All images from the series
No Strings Attached
Afghanistan
Film, 2007

It is for the hawkers cry

of the vegetable seller doing his rounds,
lost in my neighbours troubled dreams,
that my heart is trembling.
P I X | 101

The Archive of NationBuilding in Afghanistan

Nancy Hatch Dupree

The 1978 leftist coup dtat in Afghanistan

being exposed to all manner of ideas that were

under the premise that a sustainable society can

taken in Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-

followed by the Soviet occupation set off the

gradually changing attitudes. They welcomed the

be achieved only when its members have access

Afghan War (1878-1880) by such famous early

largest flow of refugees the world has ever

benefits of secular education previously viewed

to a variety of learning experiences. It focuses

British photographers as John Burke. These come

known. Thousands of refugee camps sprung up

with anathema and learned good basic health

predominately on the promotion of research and

from the British Library in London. Another

around Peshawar, Pakistans frontier town with

practices at clinics such as they had never seen

on sharing information in order to give Afghans a

one titled From Kabul to Kolkata featured the

Afghanistan, and aid organizations from all parts

before. Importantly, women were also making

sense of belonging and pride in their nation.

photographs of Moska Najid and Nazes Afroz on

of the world contended for resources and funds.

decisions, which was once the prerogative of men

By 1988 the competition was so fierce that the

alone, as the men were off fighting the jihad. The

collections continue to grow and are shared with

migrating as moneylenders. The photographer/

Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief was

lessons being learned about what these groups

universities and libraries around the country as

journalists also created a connection with cinema

formed to quell the chaos.

were accepting and rejecting socially, would be

well as with scholars abroad. ACKU now possesses

citing Tagores short story that was later adapted

ARIC (Asia Regional Integration Centre), the

In an age of the digital revolution the

the Afghan community settled in Kolkata, originally

extremely useful for future development planners,

over 100,000 items, of which the collection of

into a Hindi film in 1961, directed by Heman

ACBAR (Agency Coordinating Body of Afghan

pointed Dupree. ARIC consequently widened

newspapers dates back to the early years of

Gupta. In addition to exhibits such as these, the

Relief and Development) Resource and Information

the scope of its collections, visual, literary and

the twentieth century which the public find

ACKU holds a range of events focusing on topics

Centre, a semi-independent unit functioning as

academic and began to produce easy-to-read books

extremely compelling to study. The reading room

including research methodologies, poetry, history,

a central depository for all refugees reporting

for new literates distributing them through the

is visited daily by about five hundred students

the environment, human rights, good governance

opened in 1989. Viewed initially as one way to help

ARIC Box Library Extension, ABLE.

from various educational institutions in Kabul in

and much more.

avoid duplication, a broader purpose surfaced when

addition to those at Kabul University. ABLE, now

Though the Soviets left in 1989, as ARIC had

Developing a sense of belonging is particularly

Louis Dupree, an American ethnologist with years

no backup support for its gathered information

the ACKU Box Library Extension, flourishes in the

pertinent for many Afghan youth were born in

of experience in Afghanistan, pointed out that

and documents, it waited until a suitable

provinces.

exile where they had no opportunities to study

the information being collected would possibly be

government was in place before moving to Kabul

invaluable after repatriation took place.

in 2005. Located at first in the main library at

His reasoning stemmed from the fact that

Kabul University, it moved in 2013 to its own

a good proportion of the refugees were from

independent facilities constructed at the centre

remote areas untouched by previous fledgling

of the campus. Now registered as the Afghanistan

development efforts. These populations were now

Centre at Kabul University (ACKU), it operates

108 | P I X

Page 112:
Records maintained by Nancy
Hatch Dupree of her husband,
Louis Duprees photographic
archive at the Afghanistan
Center at Kabul University.
Photo by Akshay Mahajan

Given the rich cultural resources we attempt

Afghan history or learn of Afghanistans rich

to foster social integration through exhibits of art

cultural accomplishments. Yet these youth are the

and photography illustrating various aspects of the

leaders of the future and need to acquire good

history and culture and how they may be perceived

governance skills which can only be obtained by

and evolved. A recent exhibit, for example,

asking questions and evaluating the many options

displayed prints representing the first photographs

open to them.

P I X | 109