Afghanistan Autumn 1974

A BROWN AND BLUE LAND

I was fortunate enough to have been able to visit this timeless land, back in the days when few people had heard of it. Before the Russian invasion, before the Taliban had taken control, and well before the US declared "war" shortly after 9/11. It had been conquered many times before, by various armies and aggressors. It was on the ancient "silk route", which Marco Polo, Ghengis Khan and others took.
Tribal women wore colourful embroidered clothing, other women were ghostly blue shapes in chadoors, except for in the capital, Kabul, where some women were quite modern and exposed faces and legs. There were few cars or TVs to be seen.
The people were proud and strong, friendly and honest. It was a wild and lawless land that was in a time warp, somewhere in the Middle Ages.

I took these photos on my trusty SLR Pentax Spotmatic - with a bulky telephoto lens, all of which I had to lug around, and guard with my life. Sometimes I cursed this encumbrance, but now, 33 years later, I can look back at this slice of history that is no more. Thanks to Kodak Ektachrome for lasting the distance and thanks to my new Canon scanner, I can now preserve them, and Flickr them, for posterity, and anyone else who is interested.

137 photos | 2,452 views

items are from between 10 Jul 2007 & 15 May 2009.