‘Return of the Taliban’ provides vivid, colorful images of Afghanistan
With ‘The Return of the Taliban,’ Kaveh Kazemi captures the mood of Afghanistan a month after the United States military ended its 20-year occupation, allowing the Taliban to regain control.
The work of Iranian photojournalist Kazemi is prolific, encompassing coverage of significant events such as the Iranian (Islamic) Revolution and conflicts spanning the entire Persian Gulf region, as well as the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Accompanied by his wife, Colombian journalist Catalina Gomez, they embarked on a journey that took them across the border into Afghanistan, eventually reaching the city of Herat. Throughout their expedition, they remained vigilant, capturing any noticeable changes in the landscape, the people, or the political atmosphere. Spanning a period of 12 days, their travels also led them to Kabul and Kandahar, where they documented rare glimpses into life in the aftermath of tumultuous events.
Kazemi was born on October 17, 1952 in Tehran. He studied photography in England and began his professional and artistic career with the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He settled in Paris in 1984 and expanded his photographic domain by traveling to countries such as Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Syria, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
This book consists of photographs of his fourth trip to Afghanistan in the past 30 years, when American troops left the country ending a 20-year occupation. This is Kazemi’s fifth photo book published by Nazar Art Publications.
His previous works include ‘Revolutionaries’ (2017), ‘Portraits of Iranian Literati’ (2018), ‘My Days in Troubled Ireland’ (2019), and ‘The Persian Gulf, Scene of Never-Ending Conflicts’ (2020).
For the past four decades, Kazemi has collaborated with international print media as a freelance photojournalist, photographing Iran, the Middle East and other parts of the world. He has been working with Getty Images for years, and his pictures from more than 40 countries are archived there and available online.