Afghan Eyes: A Culture in Conflict, 1987-1992
Through Afghan Eyes: A Culture in Conflict, 1987-1992
features photographs and videos from the Afghan Media Resource Center
(AMRC) archives. These images are the work of Afghan photographers and
cameramen who were able to portray their country and its daily rituals
and practices as few outsiders could. The pictures they recorded have
an intimacy that can help to translate the experiences of war across
cultural boundaries.
The Afghan Media Resource Center (AMRC) was founded in 1986 in
Peshawar, Pakistan. AMRC journalists were recruited from the Islamic
resistance parties and introduced to the principles of news reporting,
documentary photography, and video editing by journalism instructors
from Boston University. After completing their six-week training
course, AMRC personnel were dispatched in teams to all parts of
Afghanistan, gathering images and stories for international
distribution. AMRC maintained active coverage of the situation inside
Afghanistan from 1987, through the Soviet pullout in 1989, until the
final collapse of the communist government in 1992.
The curators of this exhibition, David B. Edwards, Holly
Edwards and Liza Johnson have chosen a selection of the journalist's
work specifically to complement the all-too-familiar images of
mercenary warlords and veiled women that have dominated news reports
since the events of September 11, 2001. Images from the archive have
been organized around moral values that Afghans use to enact their
relation to place (homeland/watan), to each other (honor/nang), and to God (belief/iman). Each of these themes show people living against severe odds.