AFGHANISTAN
BORN IN 1981
AFGHANISTAN
A PAINFUL HISTORY
Shah Marai started working with AFP as a driver and translator in 1996 and officially became a photographer in 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power. He was later made head of the Kabul bureau. He died in 2018 in a double suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 25 people. He arrived on the scene after the first explosion alongside other journalists and was targeted by a second suicide bomber.
Shah Marai started working with AFP as a driver and translator in 1996 and officially became a photographer in 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power. He was later made head of the Kabul bureau. He died in 2018 in a double suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 25 people. He arrived on the scene after the first explosion alongside other journalists and was targeted by a second suicide bomber. In a country upended by insecurity and the American occupation, his images, full of empathy for his people, are displayed here alongside the work of Wakil Kohsar.
Kohsar joined AFP nine years ago after working with various Afghan media outlets, taking over from his colleague Shah Marai. As head of the Kabul bureau, he most notably covered the fall of the city last August in images that have been seen around the world. Some of them show the airport and planes with desperate figures clinging to them, while others reveal the tension and panic of American soldiers.
As the only foreign agency with offices still open in Kabul, AFP pursues its work in increasingly dangerous circumstances in order to keep the world informed about a country that has slipped back into religious obscurantism.
JARDIN DE LA PASSERELLE
Agence France-Presse is a vital link in the international news chain and a beacon of quality journalism. For the 3rd year running, our Festival is joining forces with AFP to present the work of press photographers posted in the regions that are under the spotlight at La Gacilly this year. After South America and the Nordic countries, this year we are showing the work of two Afghan photojournalists.
Exhibition produced in collaboration with Agence France-Presse.
