Blue - Limited Edition 1 of 15 Photograph

In 2000 there was only a small part of northern Afghanistan that was not controlled by the Taliban and was not under their reign of terror. The Panjir Valley, which stretched far, almost to the gates of Kabul, the home of the legendary folk hero Achmed Shah Massud, belonged to this part of the country where the Taliban still had no say. By November of each year at the latest, all mountain passes were snowed in to the north, making them impassable by land until spring. The only way to leave the Panjir Valley was by air. But it was only possible to fly in good weather. The few old russian Mi-8 helicopters, which Massuds Northern Alliance had, had no reliable air safety technology and therefore had to be flown over the up to 6000 meters high mountains on sight by the pilots, close to the mountain tops. The Taliban had captured some fighter planes of the previous regular Afghan armed forces when they came to power and regularly flew bombing raids over the Panjir valley with them. For me this meant that after a visit to the front line, which ran just outside Bagram, waiting for safe flying weather in a private guesthouse of Panjiris allied with the Northern Alliance. During the several days of waiting, this photo was taken when three Afghan women dressed in a blue burka passed a Russian tank shot down by Massud's fighters in the 1980s. To me, this scene seemed like a key image for the endless suffering that the people in this maltreated country have had to endure for decades.

Photography:Digital on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:18 W x 12 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.