Afghan Photographer Wahidy Shoots Through the Burka
source: http://www.womensenews.org/story/journalist-the-month/110125/afghan-photographer-wahidy-shoo...
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Farzana Wahidy loves to capture women on film. Armed with her camera, this 26-year-old photojournalist from Afghanistan finds inspiration in chronicling the lives of her country's vastly beleaguered but "hugely intriguing, wonderfully colorful and always stirring" women.
She is the first female Afghan photographer working for international wires such as Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
Her work earned her the 2008 prestigious Merit Award from the All Roads Film Project, sponsored by the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.
"Everything I remember from my childhood is about war, about being afraid and moving," she said.
But no childhood memory beats the one of the night when the Taliban took control. "I was 13 then," she recalled. "No one could sleep. Our house was near a police checkpoint. We had to move to the safety of my uncle's house. That night there were nearly 30 of us together. Later, as we walked back to our home, I could feel the Talibs standing around giving us strange looks. I felt weird. My mother said that from now we would have to be careful about our headscarves."
Wahidy's subjects are often women affected by the Taliban regime who are covered in swathes of cloth. She sometimes shoots photos from behind a burka headcovering, showing the world as seen within its criss-cross strips of cloth.
"I was working on a photo story for AP," she said. "I was trying all angles and then I remembered wearing the burka myself. It was like being in prison. I shot it in front of a shopping center and today that photo is symbolic of everything that I wanted and couldn't have."
Read the full profile at Women's eNews http://www.womensenews.org/story/journalist-the-month/110125/afghan-photographer...
She is the first female Afghan photographer working for international wires such as Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
Her work earned her the 2008 prestigious Merit Award from the All Roads Film Project, sponsored by the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.
"Everything I remember from my childhood is about war, about being afraid and moving," she said.
But no childhood memory beats the one of the night when the Taliban took control. "I was 13 then," she recalled. "No one could sleep. Our house was near a police checkpoint. We had to move to the safety of my uncle's house. That night there were nearly 30 of us together. Later, as we walked back to our home, I could feel the Talibs standing around giving us strange looks. I felt weird. My mother said that from now we would have to be careful about our headscarves."
Wahidy's subjects are often women affected by the Taliban regime who are covered in swathes of cloth. She sometimes shoots photos from behind a burka headcovering, showing the world as seen within its criss-cross strips of cloth.
"I was working on a photo story for AP," she said. "I was trying all angles and then I remembered wearing the burka myself. It was like being in prison. I shot it in front of a shopping center and today that photo is symbolic of everything that I wanted and couldn't have."
Read the full profile at Women's eNews http://www.womensenews.org/story/journalist-the-month/110125/afghan-photographer...
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- groups:
- Women, Afghanistan News
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- tags:
- War, Women, Photography, Afghanistan
