When I joined Aïna Photo, I was its oldest member (at 40), and I probably still am. I was the only person to successfully film a documentary on the Taliban among the Hazara minority located in central Afghanistan. I spent … Read more
I learned photography in my father’s studio in Kabul. Under Taliban rule I was arrested five times for “photograph related crimes” and for cutting my beard. I taught the first course at Aïna Photo, teaching students how to use the … Read more
In an excerpt from her July 2, 2006 article in The Sunday Times, Christina Lamb writes about her experience of being caught in a fierce Taliban ambush while traveling with coalition troops in Afghanistan. Read more
Reporters’ movements and words were closely watched by certain Taliban officials. Journalists had to figure out ways to get stories out about what was happening while at the same time not losing their ability to remain in the country. What … Read more
Introduction by Travis Beard, chief editor of Aïna Photo To see Afghanistan through the eyes of Afghan people is Aïna Photo’s greatest ambition. Aïna Photo is the first Afghan photojournalism school and agency. Based in Kabul, it offers … Read more
I feel sad that Afghanistan is back in the news. ... Afghanistan was never going to become Sweden, but had the world really been committed to rebuilding it after 2001, and not been distracted by Iraq, then the return of Western journalists to report again on another war might never have been necessary. Read more
Rarely do photographs accompany words on the op-ed page of The New York Times. But earlier this year Times columnist Nicholas Kristof connected four gruesome images of the genocide taking place in Darfur with his ongoing reporting about the … Read more