Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has been one of the most media-documented regions in the world. Even so, there are many myths that underlie and complicate the interpretations that the public faces when it comes to getting a general idea of the situation of this country punished by different wars. An interest that has been reduced with the withdrawal of international troops from Afghan territory in 2021, and that led Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975) and Lorenzo Meloni (Italy, 1983) to revisit the narratives surrounding one of the protagonist countries of the turn of the century.
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni / Magnum Photos, 2023.Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Thus, in January of last year the photographers traveled the length and breadth of the Afghan territory willing to document a new period of its history marked by the return of the Taliban to power, after 20 years of war with the United States. His intention was, in thirty days, to gather enough information to shape The Kabuler, a publication conceived in the format of a magazine. A nod to Western weeklies and the special issues that magazines usually devote to destinations or topics that are not subject to constant scrutiny. Based on interviews, reports, opinion articles and lighter sections that allow not to leave aside humor, the duo of photographers (incorporating texts from several collaborators) aims to offer a more unusual look at Afghan society and accommodate the different voices that compose it.
It is the voice of the one-eyed governor of Bamiyan, Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, – one of those responsible for the destruction of the giant Buddhas, implicated in the massacre of the Hazaras, ex-convict of Guantánamo and recently accused of supervising the looting of Buddhist antiquities in the area – in charge of introducing us, through an interview, into this melting pot of experiences that will also lead us to discover one of the discreet beauty centers where women The nails are painted (many have their fingers cut for it), the curls are outlined and the extensions that will be hidden under the burqa are placed. The journalist and writer Jean Marie Ward compares George Lucas's Star Wars to the war in Afghanistan, based on what an Al Qaeda fighter told CIA officer Amaryliis Fox: "What you don't realize is that, in the rest of the world, you are the Empire. We are Luke and Han." Similarly, the past glories of the mujahideen and Taliban are exposed in the museum of Jihad, "symbol of a divided present rather than a shared past", as Johan Faes points out; While colorful rickshaws and their drivers, who fulfill days that reach fifteen hours a day to earn about four euros (the salary has been halved since the return of the Taliban), make up the chapter dedicated to the engine. Gastronomy, fashion, a puzzle of words, and, of course, an advertising space, in which a stern and burly armed Taliban invites us to celebrate what is needed in the Stars Palace room, complete other themes offered by the relaxed publication dotted with powerful portraits and unusual prints of daily life in the Asian country.
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni / Magnum Photos, 2023.Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Both photographers are part of the Magnum agency (of which De Middel has been president since last year). Although the trajectory of the Spanish photographer has been defined by a conceptual photograph through which she usually plays with reality to question the excess of veracity that is granted to the photographic medium as an authenticating document, Meloni's is framed in the description of different warlike conflicts and in the consequences that these leave in the people and in the landscape. Two different approaches to photography that would serve to reflect the coexistence of the two complementary trends, the documentary and the artistic, which form the backbone of the mythical cooperative of photographers. It was precisely as a result of a conversation that the authors had about how art and photojournalism, fiction and truth, can coexist or not, where the idea of joining the two visual languages to shape this project in a country unknown to both photographers emerged. "We decided to give it a try," De Middel explains during a telephone conversation. "It was an experimental work in which we would not maintain any favorable treatment towards any of the approaches. Meloni is a war photographer. His photography is the result of more exhaustive approaches. All the data it offers needs didactic support while I work in a more conceptual field where I do not need so many verifications but simply visual anchor points that allow me to speak with images. However, this job taught me to be more thorough and also more demanding."
Since its foundation, Magnum has fought to defend the independence of its members (that then the medium where the photographers publish, whether independent or not, is something beyond their control). "More than truth or objectivity, we fight for the personal voice of the photographer," warns De Middel. "When many subjectivities are added together, one comes one as close as possible to the truth. A single explanation of things in a world as complex as the one we live in is nonsense. The moment we understand that to get closer to objectivity, or truth, what we have to do is unite the maximum of opinions and subjectivities, maybe we advance a little, "he adds.
Image belonging to 'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni / Magnum Photos, 2023.Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni (Magum Photos 2023)
Similarly, behind The Kabuler is the need to warn of the importance of seeking new formulas of narration in a world continuously transformed by technology. "If a few years ago the media experienced an exhaustion in how things were explained, now we are living a reinvention," warns the photographer. "Newspapers are more visual than ever. There are interactive and multimedia pages in the digital versions of newspapers, but even so, the perspective given to the themes, not only through photography but also in text, is almost always the same. For example, with the war in Ukraine we are seeing that only one point of view is offered. I am not saying that one is true and the other is a lie, but in Russia and in countries close to Putin, other versions of the war are published. The Kabuler tries to emphasize the need to incorporate everything we have missed to decipher the complexities of a conflict."
The publication also alludes to the difficulty for readers to navigate between a constant flow of information and our tendency to succumb to platitudes, which seemingly simplify our understanding of the world. Hence, one of the articles offers a list of the twelve most used clichés in the representation of Afghanistan prepared with the help of ChatGPT. "In terms of the use of artificial intelligence, I think we are in a very delicate moment since we do not know how far this can go and its consequences," says De Middel. "I'm afraid that controlling it is going to be complicated, it is as if we had given a Formula 1 car to a child to navigate Madrid Central. I believe that in the field of photography the consequences are going to be terrible in terms of deception, but precisely this deception will cause measures to be taken. Audience manipulation is a very serious thing."
The project was born with an ambition of continuity. "We will continue to expand the publication," says De Middel. "We want it to be kind of a structure for the Magnum family. Or maybe we'll continue just the two of us, if no one else dares, so that we can continue to demystify, and expand knowledge of places that are highly stigmatized."
'The Kabuler'. Cristina de Middel & Lorenzo Meloni. Various editors. 128 pages. 30 euros.
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