Afghanistan Photographs

Two boys rest. They are hearding goats (not in view) in a totally barren landscape....

Riders provoke their horses to head into the furious melee. Some riders have partners who...

I recall this market scene distinctly because it was a dense, crowded and active market,...

"Get the carcass to the goal"; that's the only rule of the game. In this...

A wholesale market for melons, Afghanistan's reknowned export. These will go to Iran and Pakistan,...

Waiting at a caravanasi, which now serves as a bus stiop. The pegs in the...

Once called the "mother of cities" Balkh is now untidy ruins of mud. Farmers still...

Two men load up a camel for the long haul back to their farms. This...

The tools for carpet weaving are simple and few. There's the loom, in a horizontal...

Along an unpaved street at dawn, stores remained shuttered until the afternoon sun warms up....

Breakfast in Afghanistan. Green tea in handleless cups. Golden raisins, dried on roof tops. Walnuts....

In a courtyard of the great blue mosque, two gentlemen engage in a debate one...

Where timber is expensive, you can make a roof with adobe mud by creating domes....

An innkeeper works two samovars, keeping his customers supplied with constant china pots of tea....

It's not unusual for musicians and balladeers to be blind, as this one was. He...

The outskirts of an adobe town serves as the sheep market. Here sheperds and butchers...

The collison of the west and the oriental is clearly seen in this Afghani scene....

In the spring, the dry desert of Afghanistan can awaken to a green carpet of...

This classic bridge in the historic town of Kholm still sees a lot of traffic...

While waiting for a bus in an old caravansi in Herat, I encountered this fellow...

Most of the items in this display were not antiques. They were only recently used,...

Carpet bags saddle a donkey. Woven as kilim, the bags reflect traditional arts. Donkey and...

A barber uses a pair of hand-operated snips to give a close haircut to a...

The inside of a traditional adobe farmhouse can be surprisingly bright and cheery. This farmer's...

Bcause of its climate, Afghanistan produces some of the world's best melons: watermelons, cantalopes, honeydew,...

It looks romantic and photogenic but this wonderful lighting is caused by horrible amounts of...

On a fall day a father heads to market with his son. Normally a child...

Traditionally this game is played on Friday afternoons (the Muslim "Sunday") on an empty field...

On carpet market day in a northern border town, men display the carpets their wives...

A buzkashi rider pauses during a game. Clutching his whip in this teeth (the whip...

Because of the Islamic prohibition against pictures of people or animals, the great Islamic mosques...

The ball for this game of buzkashi is the headless carcass of a calf. Sometimes...

The fatter the sheep, the better. This fat-tailed variety of sheep was especially prized in...

Afghani weaving skills go into making a horse blanket and a saddle carpet -- as...

If camels are the trucks of Central Asia, then donkeys are the jeeps. While kids...

The Afghani version of Starbucks. Men sit on carpets and sip green tea from well-worn...

After the steady browns and muted earth tones of rural Afghanistan, the vibrant blues, greens...

Denuded by goats, the hills in northern Afghanistan are moon-like in their barrenness. The small...

Like a truck stop, caravansi are places to rest, refuel your vehicle, and transfer freight....

Proudly wearing their sharpening bars on their belts, two butchers in the marketplace take a...

My brother Brian and I were taking a bus from Ghazni to Gardez, along a...

Looking north from the foothills of the Amjuman mountains. This was once known as the...