Afghanistan

Through 76 duotone photographs interspersed with the verse of Afghan poet Bahodine Majrouh and a few short, diary-like pieces written by photographer Steele-Perkins, readers are given an impressionistic glimpse of harsh contemporary life in Afghanistan. A freelance photographer for the Magnum Agency, Steele-Perkins constructs a vision of the ravages of the internecine strife among the disparate Afghan peoples and the destruction of the infrastructure of their daily lives. Based on Steele-Perkins's four sojourns in Afghanistan, this book presents an implied criticism of the Taliban but wisely eschews a polemic stance for who are the angels in a civil war. The stark photographs address destruction and mayhem on the one hand and daily life in the fields and cities on the other. The pictures are allowed to tell their own story, with thumbnail copies with captions tucked away at the rear of the work. Steele-Perkins's diary excerpts provide some context to the overall work and Majrouh's poetry further enhances the impressionistic tone of the work.

"Afghanistan is a strong and disturbing book which confounds the media approach that too often tends to show things in black and white.

                               Urbanpass.com

"The photographs speak for themselves: fair but oppressive, instructive and of a cruel beauty."

                                 Le Vif Express

"Steele-Perkins, of the Magnum agency, reveals a country destroyed by man (war) and nature (earthquakes). He rarely shows the war directly... but rather the effects of the war on day-to-day existence."

                                             Le Monde 

£30.00