Arms Against Fury: Magnum Photographers in Afghanistan Review

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Arms Against Fury: Magnum Photographers in Afghanistan ReviewOver 230 pages of hundreds of photographs taken throughout Afghanistan between 1955-2001. About equally divided between color and black&white photographs. The photos between 1980-2000 look eerily similar, despite the Russians moving in and out, with the Taliban moving in and out, and with the American soldiers arriving in 2001, nothing seems to have changed between these years: so much rubble. As there is little text, this is not an `educational' reference book. This is a collection of photographs taken by many different photographers of different nationalities who traveled through Afghanistan. There are only 2-3 photographs of dead Taliban soldiers, but nothing really gory that should keep it out of some junior high-library (although the color photo of a dead government soldier's bloated face on page 113 isn't for the faint-hearted). Few `battle-action' photos, no photos of the Taliban stoning women. The photograph showing a criminal chained to the prison floor (p. 223) reminded me of similar containment that I had seen in Haiti in 1993, and the photo of a crumbled-up painting of a nude female in the National Art Museum depicted the anti- `avant garde' morals of the Taliban government. Alas, these everyday-life photographs -- although they depict many country and city-street scenes of war amputees, destroyed homes, and impoverished women and children -- cannot capture the heat, the cold, nor the dustiness of the country. Nary a scenic photo anywhere. I had correspondence with the last Afghanistan king back in the early 1960s, I'm sure he would have been extremely saddened with these photographs in seeing how ravaged his country became during the last quarter of the Twentieth Century.Arms Against Fury: Magnum Photographers in Afghanistan OverviewArms Against Fury examines the dramatic struggle ofthe Afghan people through the lens of Magnum photographers, dating backto co-founder George Rodger's documentation of the country's role inWorld War II. Ever since, Magnum's intrepid photographers havecrisscrossed the country's striking landscape from the Central Asiansteppes to the parched southern desert by way of the Hindu Kushmountains surrounding Kabul and the adjacent Panjshir Valley. As early as the 1950s, Eve Arnold and Marc Riboud filed unprecedentedstories from a legendary Shangri-La, showing a small kingdom strugglingfor statehood against the forces of underdevelopment and unfortunategeographic position during the Cold War. The ultimate overthrow of themonarchy and brutal liquidation of Afghanistan's constitutionalgovernment in 1978 heralded the arrival of Soviet-style communism.Peasants in Nuristan rebelled immediately and initiated a jihad that wascovered first by Raymond Depardon and then by Steve McCurry, and laterby renowned photojournalist Abbas, who also focused on the progress ofthe mujahedin, who eventually faced a massive Red Army invasion andsavage aerial bombardments. The victory against the Soviets also signaled the beginning of a civilwar that began in 1992. Documented by Luc Delahaye, ChristopherSteele-Perkins, Abbas, and Steve McCurry, Afghan militias destroyedlarge swathes of Kabul. The Taliban militia subdued warring factions in1996 and proclaimed an Islamic emirate. Steele-Perkins was one of thefew journalists to report from Afghanistan during this period oftheocratic tyranny. In the wake of the September 11 attacks on theUnited States, the hated Taliban were shaken from power by a loosealliance of mujahedin backed by American forces. Yet nothing seemed toremedy the miserable spectacle of a ruined country littered with tenmillion land mines and thousands of innocent victims of the hi-tech waron terror. The future of Afghanistan, as depicted by Abbas, Eve Arnold, LucDelahaye, Thomas Dworzak, Alex Majoli, Steve McCurry, and FrancescoZizola, remains uncertain at best. Containing additional photographic work by Ian Berry, Elliott Erwitt,Stuart Franklin, Philip Jones Griffiths, Susan Meiselas, and WayneMiller; commentary by the photographers; and several illustrated essays,Arms Against Fury will become an indispensable reference for documentary studies, social history, and critical photography.

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