The photos are accompanied by words from the photographer on his time in Kabul, what he witnessed there, and the devastating effects of war as viewed through the eyes of one ordinary family.
They span the time from Seamus’s chance meeting with the Ba Deli family in 1994, when the country was gripped by civil war through the years under the Taliban regime, to the current Coalition efforts to bring stable democracy to Afghanistan and the country’s hopes for lasting peace.
When Seamus first met the family, it was comprised of a father and four sons, as their mother had recently died through illness. One son had already been killed fighting the Mujahideen, and another had lost a leg in a rocket attack. The photos show the development of the family until 2007, when the two remaining sons were setting up families of their own.
The firsthand account, set against a background of ongoing conflict, is tragic and captivating, yet ultimately offers hope with the final visit taking place during a time of fragile peace.
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