at01 US Soldiers
This chapter and the one to follow do not offer the same consistent level of visual treats as most of the other chapters on this web site. Ordinarily every photograph in these essays must be able to stand alone as a picture. Most of the time I am feeling my way along by instinct, choosing the photographs that were in some way exceptional, allowing my unconscious to become a player, not setting out in advance to tell a specific story. These two chapters are adaptations of reports that I made for the United Nations while I was under contract to record UN activities during an interesting period.After the events of 11 September 2001 and the United States bombing of Afghanistan that soon followed, the collapse of the Taliban Government came very quickly. By mid December Kabul was ready for an Interim government to be headed by Dr. Hamid Karzai. During the days prior to the transition of power to the new government on 22 December 2001, the airport at Kabul was closed. At the time it was believed that a large unexploded bomb was embedded in the main runway at the Kabul International Airport, so all traffic at that time came in and out of the airport at Bagram, a forty-five minute drive from the capital. American and British troops controlled the Bagram Airport, and they assisted with security on the runway. The soldiers visible in this photograph are Americans, but they did not give their unit and wore little or no insignia.
Kabul Transition Ceremonies, Afghanistan, 22 December 2001, 35mm Nikon F100, Nikkor lens, ŠLuke Powell, 2002. (LP18.k01-7)