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Astronauts Snag Dramatic Photographs of Alaska’s Erupting Volcano
Images of volcanoes from space are often kind of dull. These, we assure you,...
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Melville B. Grosvenor, Editor of the Magazine and President of the Society, admires new globes on a conveyor belt in a Chicago plant, December 1961.
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Photojournalist Sharing the World through Instagram
Photojournalists from around the globe have begun using Instagram as an...
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New portfolio books for @brinsonbanks came in yesterday. Excited to get these out in the world.
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Time flies when you’re having fun! Open Show New York City launched at the BDC last year and it’s great to welcome them back to...
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Burma: Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State
Burmese authorities and members of Arakanese groups have committed crimes against...
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“Be a human first and a journalist second,” Donna De Cesare once told me.
Even before she became my professor at the University of Texas, Austin, I...
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“I am at war with the obvious,” the photographer William Eggleston said in a conversation with the author Mark Holborn, which became the afterward...
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If you’re in New Orleans, do not miss the screening of Steve Pyke’s Moonbug on April 13.
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Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor
Afghanistan’s Kyrgyz nomads survive in one of the most remote, high-altitude, bewitching...
“The Afghan National Army is regularly derided as being a rag-tag militia, dope-smoking, lazy and irresponsible in battle,” writes John D McHugh, a Reportage photographer who recently spent time with ANA soldiers in Helmand Province. He continues:
There is no doubt that this is true in some cases, but the reality that I have witnessed over my 7 years in Afghanistan is that there are plenty of brave and committed Afghan soldiers who want to serve their country, fight the Taliban, and hope for peace one day. But while bravery and commitment are important traits in a soldier, there are other skills that must be taught to men if they are to have any chance of surviving in a war.
McHugh is an Irish photojournalist and filmmaker based in London, England. McHugh has worked extensively in Afghanistan since the start of 2006. He has been embedded with US, Canadian, and British troops. His new feature, available via Reportage by Getty Images, is titled “Observe the Sons of Afghan Marching Toward War.”
Caption: HELMAND, AFGHANISTAN - NOVEMBER 2012: Afghan National Army soldiers take part in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) training at the Regional Training Centre in Helmand, 17 Nov 2012.
If you’re in DC this Thursday or Friday, see an exhibition of photos of “Women Between War and Peace,” including some by Reportage photographer Paula Bronstein. Visit their Web site for more information.
Women Between Peace and War: Afghanistan – Washington, DC
Installation Thursday, March 14 & Friday, March 15.
Reception
March 14, 2013
Presented by US Congresswomen Donna Edwards
Featuring remarks by Afghan women’s activist Wazhma Frogh and representatives from UN Women, UNFPA, UN Foundation and the US Afghan Women’s Council
Sponsored by UN Women
5:30-7:30 PM
Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn Building,
201-215 S. Capitol St. SW
Washington DC
FREE
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - JULY 13, 2011: General David Petraeus and Lt. General John Allen share a lighthearted moment in the Situational Awareness Room at the ISAF compound, just before Petraeus officially handed over command in Afghanistan to Allen (Photo by Charles Ommanney).
President Obama announced today that General Allen will retire rather than seek nomination as NATO supreme allied commander. See more images of Allen and Petraeus by Charles Ommanney here.
In 2010, photographer Paula Bronstein documented a special section of the Marines working in Afghanistan - a Female Engagement Team (FET). Muslim tradition often forbids interaction between men and women, so the FET was created in order to engage with the local female population.
Yesterday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the Pentagon would formally open combat roles to female soldiers.
…talk to any coalition troops on the ground and they will tell you the Afghans can fight, but only after they have been fed, clothed, armed and delivered to the battlefield by NATO. Chief Warrant Officer Klaus Augustinus is a Danish mentor/advisor to the ANA and is on his third tour in Afghanistan. He openly admits that he was unimpressed with the ANA in the past, but now he feels they are making real progress. However, he says, it is the insistence on viewing the ANA through the prism of a Western army that leads to many problems. “Always keep in mind that the Afghan way is the right way,” Klaus says. “We’re not going to do it any faster than they can cope with it. Otherwise we’re going to lose.”
-Filmmaker and photographer John D McHugh.
Read more and watch the film, Afghanistan: An Army Prepares, here.
Bringing Images Home to Afghanistan
This photo by Paula Bronstein, of an Afghan electrician at work in 2006, is included in an outdoor exhibition in Kabul called Streets of Afghanistan. Exhibition director Shannon Galpin explains the purpose of the show:
‘Really what we wanted to do is bring these images home, because in Afghanistan images are taken every day. People from around the world are in Afghanistan as journalists and photojournalists taking pictures that will never be seen by Afghans. This is something that has never been done before; a collaboration of life-size photography used as street art.’
‘Afghanistan is certainly a difficult place, but there are positive things happening there. I think it’s been hard for people sitting at home to relate to Afghans so I hope my work shows that they are human too.’
Photographer Jonathan Saruk seeks out signs of normalcy in Afghanistan, such as the rising popularity of movie houses. See more on Wired Raw File.
For many years I have heard the American military in Afghanistan use the phrase, “putting an Afghan face on the war.” It is invoked when the coalition has achieved something it wishes to publicise, but wants to give all the credit to the Afghan troops. The theory is that by praising the Afghans their morale is improved, making it more likely that they will do better in the future. At the same time, the media report this Afghan “success” back in the West, giving hope to the public that the Afghans are improving and so the war will soon be over.
I feel these portraits…do something I’ve wanted to do for many years. They put an Afghan face on the war!
-Photographer John D McHugh, on his project The People of Afghanistan
Images:
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, politician and runner up in the last Afghanistan Presidential election
Madina Saidi, skateboarder and instructor at the Skateistan NGO
Lieutenant Jan Aqa, Afghan National Army
Kabul - A City of Hope and Fear
Photographer and Filmmaker John D McHugh has been documenting life in Afghanistan’s capital city, its slow rise out of conflict, and the hints of impending disaster that many feel is just around the corner.
‘As the city holds it breath, waiting for the next assault, one man refuses to give up on Kabul. It is the city’s mayor Muhammad Yunus Nawandish, who is dedicated to putting the capital back on its feet after so many years of destruction and decay.
He spends hours every day on the road, inspecting infrastructure construction projects, badgering suppliers and contractors, keeping the pressure up on his officials. He is renowned for his hands on approach, fond of turning up unannounced at building sites and catching municipal staff unawares.
He is also dedicated to fighting corruption, particularly tackling what he calls “the land mafia,” which makes getting anything done in Kabul so difficult. With warlords illegally grabbing land for development, often for putting up their own absurdly extravagant houses, the mayor’s determination is admirable, but very dangerous. “Because the fight against corruption and the land mafia is not so easy, I purchased a piece of land for my grave,” he says, without a trace of fear.’
Read more at Al Jazeera People & Power
Just after crossing the border between Greece and Turkey, an Afghan man prays by the railway while waiting for the train to take him to Athens.
Photographer Zalmai has documented Afghan refugees worldwide, most recently in Greece, where they are often the victims of xenophobic discrimination and abuse.
This week, he is in New York presenting his work at several events organized by Magnum Foundation.
