Simon Norfolk
Simon Norfolk was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1963 and educated in England, finishing at Oxford and Bristol Universities with a degree in philosophy and sociology.
After leaving a documentary photography course in Newport, South Wales, Norfolk worked for far-left publications specializing in work on anti-racist activities and fascist groups, in particular the British National Party. In 1994 he gave up photojournalism in favor of landscape photography.
Simon Norfolk went in Afghanistan for the first time in 2001, when the US began to bomb the country as the prelude to the so-called Operation Enduring Freedom. He came back with the series Afghanistan: Chronotopia: Landscapes of the Destruction of Afghanistan
. A few years later, someone from the National Media Museum in Bradford showed him pictures by the nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke. Burke, who is thought to be the first man ever to have photographed Afghanistan, accompanied the British forces during the invasion that became theSecond Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-80. Burke's splendid sepia photos gave Norfolk the desire to follow the footsteps of the Victorian photographer.
. A few years later, someone from the National Media Museum in Bradford showed him pictures by the nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke. Burke, who is thought to be the first man ever to have photographed Afghanistan, accompanied the British forces during the invasion that became theSecond Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-80. Burke's splendid sepia photos gave Norfolk the desire to follow the footsteps of the Victorian photographer.In October 2010, Norfolk flew back to Afghanistan to shoot a new series that respond to Burke's Afghan war scenes in the context of the contemporary conflict. He hopes that his photos will communicate his disappointment at the situation in Afghanistan where thousands of people have already died. Norfolk sees the war as a murderous manifestation of imperialism.
I've chosen six images which stood out to me out of the series and will give my opinion and thoughts of them.
The old station for Jalalabad-Kabul buses
The swimming pool of the destroyed preseidental palace at Darulaman
Former tree house in a park next to the afghan exhibition of economic+social achievements in Shah Shahid district of Kabul. Balloons were illegal under the Taliban but now balloon-sellers are common on the streets of Kabul providing cheap treats for children.
The district of Afshar in western Kabul, this Hazara neighbourhood was completely devastated during the ethnic fighting between the residents+Rabbani forces in the early 1990's.
Controlled destruction by Halo Trust of US Cluster bombs dropped in error on the civilian village and orchads of Aqa Ali-Khuja on the Shomali plain north of Kabul
Bullet -scarred outdoor cinema at the place of culture in the Korte Char district of Kabul
Old big plane on a display plinth at the exhibition grounds in Kabul. Fighting birds are a source of great pride to Afghan men but were banned by the Taliban as un-islamic.
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