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Framing hope

Insiders’ view The exhibition shows different aspects of Afghan society and culture and not the destruction

Think Afghanistan andimages of ruins, destruction and poverty pop up. The photo exhibition “Life and Nothing Else” goes beyond the clichés to capture the people and society on their way to recovery. The photographs have been taken by local Afghan photographers and is the result of workshops conducted by the Goethe-Institute and photographer Wolfgang Bellwinkel in Kabul in 2004.

The purpose was to show a never-before-seen side of Afghanistan. “The world has always seen Afghanistan through others. The foreign photographers dwelt on Taliban regime and its aftermath. I have been to Kabul myself and all of Kabul isn’t rubble. The idea was to train the local photographers who can throw light on the real Afghanistan,” says Evelin Hust, Institute director, Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.

Another aim of the effort was to give impetus to photography as an art form and to enable the Afghan photographer to produce work on par with the international standards.

Six photographers, including a young woman have covered areas like religious life, living rooms, youth, Hazara childrens’ orphanage, weddings and family life in Afghanistan.

The exhibition boasts of a woman photographer Farzana Wahidy who now works as freelance photographer for Agence France Presse (AFP). Her pictures, “Family Life”, captures the many dichotomies in Afghan society. Soraya is the breadwinner of her family. While her husband sits at home, Soraya works from dawn to dusk. In one picture, she is shown as walking confidently ahead of her husband while her face is still covered. And in the other, she talks about how she couldn’t send her daughter to school as it is unusual to send girls to school.

Massoud Hasan Zadah’s “Living Rooms” present an insight into regular Afghans’ homes from different strata of society through their living rooms.

The living room of an affluent family is well-decorated. With a PC, a swanky sofa, centre table and a carpet, it can easily pass off as a upper middle class family’s living room anywhere. Those which are sparsely furnished tell tales of transition. The presence of a portrait of the Queen of England, television sets and music system talks of the winds of change. Zadah works as a freelance reporter covering the South-west Afghanistan for various news agencies.

Central Afghanistan is home to Hazaras. The prolonged wars left many orphans. Unlike the usual pictures of Afghan childrencrying and begging, in Massoud Hosseini’s “Life in an Orphanage” one gets to see children studying, eating, playing in the orphanage run by Mohammady in Kabul.

“Afghan Youth” by Najibullah Zirak shows the aspirations of the youth of Afghanistan. To find employment is tough but the youth their have found other ways to earn income. A picture shows a young man sitting on his cart in a market place, other images show them selling jewellery, books and television sets.

Weddings are important and elaborate affairs in Afghan society. Malik Asghar, a wedding videographer has documented this aspect through his images of the wedding halls of Kabul. The pictures do not feature people because to share photos of your family with general public is still socially unacceptable. The flowers, the chairs meant for bride and groom and the decorated stage speak volumes.

Ishag Gulban is the only photographer in the group, , who has more than basic knowledge of photography. For the last 16 years, he has been working in the photographic department of Afghan Film. In his “Religious Life”, he depicts the importance of religion through images of Hakim Sahnai shrine, Shams Tabrezie shrine in Ghazni and “Khanaqas”.One thing that has remained constant in all these years of hardship is religion. “People go to mosques, convents or other religious places to pray, sing religious songs and to contemplate. This way they struggle with great patience against all difficulties,” shares Gulban in the catalogue.

The pictures are straight and direct. The exhibition attempts to present a nation as seen by the insiders for a change. “During my visit to Kabul last year, I was impressed by the sheer optimism there. One would have expected despair and sadness but I saw a hunger in their eyes especially in the youth to get linked up with the rest of the world,” sums up Hust.

Life and Nothing Else is on at Max Mueller Bhavan till June 30

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