A photographic exhibition entitled “On the Ground: UN Peace Operations in Darfur and in Afghanistan” opens today at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. A collaboration between the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNMID), the exhibit allows a peek into the lives of ordinary people in two of the most dangerous countries in the world.
“I save my country as an image. I photograph the situations of women and children. The truths of the situation in Afghanistan,” said Kabul-born Fardin Waezi who created the images of Afghanistan along with international photographer Eric Kanalstein.
“Two of the photographs are of people celebrating New Year. One in Kabul, the other in Mazar. They show that there are a lot of problems, but people still celebrate,” he added.
Waezi remains a rarity in Afghanistan – a professional local photographer displaying his works internationally. UNAMA, as part of its mandate to support Afghans and rebuild Afghan institutions is training talented youth, such as Waezi who started photographing for UNAMA four years ago, to become professional.
“For an Afghan photographer to be able to cover his or her country at this stage is very crucial for building the visual memory for the future generations,” said Shoresh Kalantari, who heads the multi-media section of UNAMA’s Strategic Communication and Spokespersons Unit (SCSU).
“Apart from passport photos and whatever photos there were by Afghan photographers were destroyed, so there has not been an up and running tradition of photography,” Kalantari added.
The New York exhibit is designed as two parallel capsules showing normal life in the midst of conflict. The Darfur photographs centre on refugees or “people in the static state” while the Afghan images show “people carrying on in their life”, according to Kanalstein who travelled to New York last week to help set up the exhibit following a barrage of logistical emails and phone calls between people in three continents and time zones.
The 30 photos from Afghanistan show images on various topics and from different communities throughout the country. Click here to see many of them on the UNAMA Flickr site.
“I think what visitors will find in this exhibition is the simple dignity of individual Afghans. It is almost as if Afghans were reaching out through the photos to show their lives and they are not always lives you expect to see in a war zone,” Kieran Dwyer, SCSU director.
“You will get the feel of the heat and dust of Afghanistan sometimes. You will also get the feel of the beauty. But it is about the faces of the people, I think, and what you can feel about the struggles of their lives through their faces. That’s what stands out to me,” he added.
Staffan de Mistura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, will officially open the exhibit. He is in New York to brief the UN Security Council on the latest developments in Afghanistan, many of which are detailed in the latest Secretary-General’s report. Click here for a full copy of the report.
The public can view the photographs throughout the month.
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