Chris Steele-Perkins

These photographs are about Afghanistan as I experienced it, rather than the place generally projected by the media. It was important to cover the war, but I was more intrigued by the way ordinary people lived their daily lives, for in reality most of the country is at peace.

I first went for Médecins Sans Frontières in 1994 when I worked in Kabul and Jalalabad. I went again in 1995 for Der Spiegel to do a story on the Taliban, traveling from Kabul to Kandahar.
I went for myself in 1997 and my last trip was in 1998 when I traveled in the north in areas not under Taliban control, in order to photograph rural life.

Chris Steele-Perkins