(2010) Hazara
The third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan who have greatly benefited from the long-standing American occupation. In 1998, approximately 8000 Hazara people were ethnically targeted and killed by Taliban in the city of Mazar-e Sharif.
Today, the Hazara people continue to bare discrimination, and live in constant fear of racially motivated acts of violence and property destruction. During the summer months of 2010 in a Hazara neighborhood in Kabul, members of an opposing ethnic group, the Kochis, stormed the community and destroyed a hospital, homes, and ended the lives of six Hazara people. Since the nationwide United States occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, the Hazara people live with a lesser fear of ethnic cleansing; but safety is never a guarantee.
This project was photographed using a 70's era Japanese film camera that was brought into Afghanistan shortly after the Soviet invasion. During the Taliban rule it stayed hidden in a wall of photography studio to avoid the restrictions on arts brought in by the regime. Surviving three different occupying forces, the camera was acquired during the American occupation. This camera was used to create an aesthetic different from today's digital cameras, questioning the changes in the lives of Afghan citizens.
