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AFGHANISTAN


2003

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AFGHANISTAN
2003

Kabul

"Afghanistan is a 'free' country for half of its nationals at the very most. (…) I envisaged a few difficulties as I brushed with impious provocation by pursuing my project of producing portraits of women."

Abstracts

"(…) I remembered one thing that had troubled me twenty years earlier when I had stayed in a Berber region in Morocco’s High Atlas: the most coveted status in terms of female autonomy was that of the war widow. This status conferred, on top of genuine freedom, the right to a pension! In Afghanistan, there is no real freedom, and even less, anything like a pension, but there’s no shortage of widows. As a result, it turned out to be easier to persuade widows to pose for photos and drawings here.

The destinies of these women told me about the last twenty-five years of war: the widow whose husband was executed by Russians, the one who lost hers to American collateral damage, the one whose husband was assassinated by the Taliban, another whose husband was killed by a bazooka during the civil war, or else the one separated from her husband who’s imprisoned in Guantanamo. Yet how many times did a cousin, a father, a brother or a son interrupt our posing sessions. 'He said no!' my interpreter would invariably translate, as if there were any need to."

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard

Works

AFGHANISTAN 2197
Suraya, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3051
Professeure Suraya, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3053
Jour dedans, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3056
Nuit dehors, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 2207
Les cavaliers, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache enhanced silver print
30 x 45 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3058
Kaboul, 2003

Afghanistan
Gouache and pencil on paper
42 x 66 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3060
Jour tranquille à Kaboul, 2003

Afghanistan
Gouache enhanced silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3064
Guerre civile, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache enhanced silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3124
Marina, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3126
Marina 2, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

AFGHANISTAN 3128
Marina 3, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache enhanced silver print
30 x 40 cm

AFGHANISTAN 2225
Anar Guli, 2003

Kabul, Afghanistan
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

Maps

AFGHANISTAN 2228
Map of Afghanistan, 2003

Gouache on paper
64 x 50 cm

AFGHANISTAN 2229
Map of Afghanistan 2, 2003

Gouache on paper
64 x 50 cm

Making-of

Illustration Making Of
Illustration Making Of
Illustration Making Of
Film by Marc Jampolsky

Images by Claire Duguet

Books

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