A multimedia exhibition
Curated by Jean-Pierre Perrin and Maral Deghati
Afghanistan: blood, ashes, and darkness
How a very local rebellion, mainly from peasants fighting a communist coup d’Etat, in a poor, remote and moutaneous country, became a crucial episode of the Cold War with the Soviet invasion in December 1979 and Pakistan, United States and Saudi Arabia being later on involved in the conflict.
The invader was severely punished: it was forced to retreat in 1989 and, as a consequence, USSR started to collapse six months later.
But Afghanistan has never recovered. Being destroyed, with six millions refugees, it became the country of blood, ashes and darkness with the coming up of war lords and talibans. And the promised land for the international jihad, welcoming Usama bin Laden and provoking the September-11 disaster.
Today, Afghanistan faces a new insurgency and, the American army being also defeated, can become again a new jihadist spot. The Afghan story is also our story.
During all these wars, the Afghan women have paid a very high price. This exhibition is dedicated to them.
Texts:
Jean-Pierre Perrin, Kathy Gannon, Manoocher Deghati, Christopher Morris, Santiago Lyon, Florent Marcie, David Turnley, Massoud Hossaini, Zalmai, Daniel Schwartz.
Photographers:
Alain Mingam, Kate Brooks, Simon Norfolk, John Burke, Manoocher Deghati, Christopher Morris, Michel Lipchitz, Steve McCurry, Hiromi Nagakura, Reza, Robert Nicklesberg, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, Sergei Karpukhin, Patrick Robert, Joel Robine, Laurent van der Stockt, Alain Buu, Santiago Lyon, David Turnley, Florent Marcie, Amir Shah, Gary Knight, Zahid Hussein, Akbar Baloch, Seamus Murphy, Yannis Behrakis, David Guttenfelder, Massoud Hossaini, David Furst, Finbarr O’Reilly, Claude Baechtold, Andrew Quilty, Zalmai, Damir Sagolj, Manpreet Romana, Peter van Agtmael, Noorullah Shirzada, Anja Niedringhaus, Shah Marai, Wakil Kohsar, Stanley Greene, Isabelle Eshraghi, Roshanak B., Farzana Wahidy, Mohammad Ismail,Nilofar Niekpor, Daniel Schwartz, Barialai Khoshhal, Melad Hamedi, Tahmina Saleem, Roberto Schmidt, Farshad Usyan.
Agencies:
AFP, AP, Reuters, Sygma, Webistan, VII, NOOR.
Illustrations:
John Tenniel, William Barnes Wollen.
Video:
Claude Baechtold, Seamus Murphy.
Co-produced by Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents – WARM Foundation
