Dread and Dreams (Daylight Books, 2015) brings together photographs Zalmaïmade between 2008 and 2013 against the backdrop of the 14-year U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan which culminated in 2014 with the withdrawal of American troops. The book is about the legacy of a war that is still shrouded in uncertainty as Afghans lose faith in their government, and in the international community that appears to have forgotten them.
Dread and Dreams presents two stylistically contrasting bodies of work. Zalmaï’s epic, gritty, duotone photographs reveal the stark reality of life in Afghanistan for the millions of Afghan refugees who have returned to their country since 2002, only to find they cannot go back to their homes.They are instead forced to live in squalid conditions in makeshift refugee camps and urban slums where most live on the brink of surviva l, and many take refuge in drugs. Addiction is ravaging the population–both adults and young people.
In counterpoint to this poignant series, Zalmaï presents intimate and optimistic sun-tinged color photographs that reflect the hopes and dreams of the Afghan people. Here, Zalmaï takes us away from the monumental humanitarian crisis wrought by war to reveal signs of positive life force permeating his country.
Empathetic, indignant and still hopeful, Zalmaï’s photographs draw attention to Afghanistan’s ongoing struggle, that has largely left the headlines, by focusing on the Afghan people and their lived experience of war, insecurity, chronic governmental mismanagement, corruption on a huge scale and international negligence.
The award-winning Afghan-born photographer Zalmaï was forced to flee to Switzerland at the age of 15 after the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As a freelance photographer, Zalmaï has spent years capturing the human cost of disintegration and dispossession caused by war around the world and in his home country, Afghanistan.
BOOK SIGNING
by Zalmaï
At the international photojournalism festival Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan
On Friday, September 4, 2015 from 5-6:00pm.
The book signing will take place in the courtyard of Le Poudrière near the Festival’s designated bookshop, La Librairie éphémère,
Rue Rabelais (near The Couvent des Minimes).
66000 Perpignan
France
BOOK
Dread and Dreams
by Zalmaï
136 Pages; 28 Color/63 Duotones
Hardcover, 12 X 11 IN.
ISBN: 9781942084020
$50.00 US
