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Description: | Here, Simon Norfolk contrasts the war-torn ruins of Afghanistan with a colourful balloon-seller: a cheerful symbol of hope for the future. Under Taliban rule, balloons were illegal. Since the Allied invasion of October 2001 balloons can be bought from street vendors and are seen as treats. Norfolk visited Afghanistan as a War Artist during and after the Allied bombing campaign. His landscapes capture the story of immense human disaster in a land embroiled in constant war for more than twenty years. He also examines how conflict, and the need to fight, has formed our world both in the past and for the future. This photograph was taken with an old-fashioned cherrywood & brass field camera like the ones used by nineteenth-century war photographers. Taking photographs with this camera, Norfolk has to use a tripod and a black cloth over his head. The result is that Norfolk's images feel epic: wide golden desert-scapes with rich colours like an eighteenth-century oil painting.
Photograph of a former Teahouse in a park next to the Afghan Exhibition of Economic and Social Achievements in the Shah Shahid district of Kabul. Man with balloons stood to the right. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ | Publisher: | Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service | Rights holder: | Copyright Simon Norfolk | Subjects: | Fine arts Works on paper Buildings Prints Balloons | Source: | Black Country History | Creator: | NORFOLK; Simon | Identifier: | http://www.blackcountryhistory.org/colle... | Go to resource |
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