Kabul Kids

Overview

In Australia we are presented with images of Afghanistan almost daily. They’re usually images created with the intent to shock, giving only an outsider’s perspective on the country’s bleak dusty skylines and abject poverty. It’s no wonder, then, that the most striking images we see of war-torn places are ones of friendship, vitality and unguarded honesty.

This is what we’re presented with in Kabul Kids, the result of a photography project undertaken by Sydney-based freelance photographer Palwesh Yusuf. In 2009 Yusuf enlisted a group of six orphan children aged between nine and 18 in a series of photography workshops, before handing them a camera with which to document their lives. What we get is an eye-opening, insiders’ glimpse into Kabul that is optimistic in its rawness. The photographs taken range from intimate, family album-like shots from the orphanage to captivating street scenes captured outside. With creativity as the only agenda being served, we see banana peddlers taking the time to enjoy a laugh rather than conforming to media-bred illusions of the hostile male.

Artworks will be available for sale during the course of the exhibition, with all proceeds to be donated to Hope House Orphanage. The exhibition will open at China Heights gallery from Novmeber 18 - 20 and continue at ICE from November 25 - December 1.