FIFTEEN DAYS IN AFGHANISTAN

In September, 2014, I had an incredible opportunity to travel to Mazar-i Sharif in northern Afghanistan to document a large scale portrait project chronicling the German involvement in the Afghan conflict by Jens Umbach. We were transported via military flight and hosted by the German army at Camp Marmal. We spent our days roaming freely through the dusty, organic jumble of the city and the surrounding areas in a beat up minivan, and spent our nights on base surrounded by modularity and uniforms and armored vehicles. Coming from about as far away as possible geographically and culturally, and loaded with media-sponsored fear and preconceptions, it felt exactly like what it must feel like to land in a spaceship on another planet. We must have seemed like aliens to them as well, but the people we met, almost unanimously, welcomed us without wariness or hesitation. My expectation of shattering my expectations was confirmed by the harsh beauty of this unforgiving landscape and the unguarded openness of the people.

The memories of visiting this other world sit in the mind like a surreal fever dream that I will treasure forever.