Afghanistan 1969-1974

April 9, 2003 12:21 AM

Afghanistan 1969-1974.Many photographs of the landscapes and people of Afghanistan as was. 'Searching the internet at the beginning of the year 2001 for "Kabul & museum" or for "Bamiyan" displays alarming news. This is why I'd like to put my old photographs of Afghanistan of the years 1969, 1970, and 1974 into the WWW to preserve a vivid memory of the treasures collected in the museum in Darulaman and of an Afghanistan as it used to be years ago ... ' (Also in German).
Related :- Lost and Stolen Images: Afghanistan, including a section on the Bamiyan Buddhas and some images from the Kabul Museum (via the Huntingdon Archive of Buddhist and related art).
posted by plep (7 comments total)

I remember when the Taliban dynamited the the bodhisattvas at Bamiyan. Man, I was for regime change in Afghanistan then and from there on. That was a crime against humanity. Thanks for this post, plep, it's very excellent.
posted by y2karl at 12:26 AM on April 9, 2003

It's a stupid - or at least obvious - thing to say but thank God for photography and the willingness of people to photograph. I don't think I can any longer imagine what the effort to somehow capture or preserve what is our universal, eternal heritage would be like without them.

Of course it's not the same - but when is it? How many would get to go and see these landmarks if they were still easily viewable?

[Cheers, plep. Take a case of the your favourite malt from that secret cupboard beneath the stairs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:38 AM on April 9, 2003

There are those who want to rebuild the Buddhas, and others who believe a third, reclining Buddha is waiting to be unearthed. The problem, of course, is that the Taliban are regrouping, and probably wouldn't respond well to these projects which would be basically undefended.

Annica.
posted by homunculus at 12:49 AM on April 9, 2003

great post. the pictures are stunning! (albeit depressing when you realize it's probably all gone)
posted by evening at 6:34 AM on April 9, 2003

My grandfather showed me his slides last year of when he went to Afghanistan in the late 1970s, when he was in his 50s, to hunt some rare (I know, I know...) sheep in the northern mountains, almost to the Russian border. It looked a lot like this - I'm sure this place doesn't change much at all. I recorded his story on tape, but I should put his pictures up on the net somewhere.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:53 AM on April 9, 2003

gottabefunky :- I'd be really interested to see these pictures, if and when you get chance to put them up.

It is indeed sad and tragic that these monuments have been destroyed; sadly, nothing is permanent in this world...
posted by plep at 7:02 AM on April 9, 2003

I was in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan last year where I spent some time with some survivors of the Afghan film industry. These photos remind me of someone I met there - a former cinematographer, now umployed of course, and gifted photographer. He had lost almost all his possesions when he left Kabul, and only had a single photograph remaining from his life in Afghanistan - it was a beautiful image of a man with a spear on a horse at a polo match which he tried to insist that I keep. It was impossible to accept it of course, but I think that blurry black and white image of the man on the horse is going to stay with me forever. thanks for reminding me

posted by gravelshoes at 7:20 AM on April 9, 2003