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CNN’s Moni Basu appraises “Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear,”...
Reportage by Getty Images TumblrCNN’s Moni Basu appraises “Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear,” a new photo book by Reportage photographer Paula Bronstein:
[Bronstein] says that through her photographs, she wants people, especially in the United States, to see Afghanistan anew. It’s not just a country of war and suffering, she says, but one that is far more nuanced. Every time she returns to Afghanistan, she knows she will capture images of the intricacies of life she might not have otherwise imagined.
Many of her photographs are dark – there is no getting around that in Afghanistan – but many portray everyday life. Children on skateboards. Politicians on campaign trails. An Olympic runner training in the hills high above Kabul. A bride and groom in a taxi cab.
She says 90% of the headlines from Afghanistan are bad but that somehow lives go on. People have learned to cope even under the most punishing of circumstances, which closes the distance perhaps between fear and hope.
Read the rest, and see more photos from the book, on CNN’s website.
“Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear” is available from University of Texas Press.
Caption: Mahbooba, 7, stands against a bullet-ridden wall waiting to be seen at an Afghan health clinic in 2002. She was suffering from a skin disease called leishmaniasis, a bacterial infection transmitted from sand fleas. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Reportage)
