A Girl from Sarhad e Broghil, a photo from Badakhshan, East

Photographer's Note

It always amazes me that often the poorer the country or region, the more colourful attire of the local ladies. This girl exceeded many others in the number of colours and patterns she was wearing. And yet, it all looks somehow harmonious and balanced, do you agree?

Somewhere between her childhood and adolescence, this girl does not look as unhappy as a lot of kids I posted portraits of before. But she isn抰 smiling either.

I would like to end this note with a quote from the book Taliban by Ahmed Rashid. 揂fghanistan has one of the lowest rated indices for the human condition in the world. The infant mortality rate is 163 deaths per 1,000 births, the highest in the world which compares to an average of 70/1000 in other developing countries. A quarter (1/4) of all children die before their fifth birthday, compared to one tenth (1/40) that number in developing countries. A staggering 1,700 mothers out of 100,000 die giving birth. Life expectancy for men and women is just 43-44 years old, compared to 61 for people in other developing countries. Only 12% of the population has access to safe water, compared to 70 per cent in developing countries. Children die of simple, preventable diseases like measles and diarrhea because there are no health facilities and no clean water.�

I was glad when both Gert and Malgo pointed out that these figures are largely obsolete and Afghanistan's statistics are now closer to those of the rest of the developing world.

Two more photos of characters I met Sarhad (male and grown up) in WS.

holmertz, PaulVDV, Fis2, jhm, COSTANTINO, pajaran, PiotrF, ktanska, papagolf21, ChrisJ, lucasgalodoido, ricardomattos, adramad has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

CMJC (5097) 2020-11-21 7:06 [Comment]

Show Comment

Silvio1953 (221593) 2020-11-21 7:23

Ciao Basia, great portrait of lovely young girl, intense expression, wonderful colors, fine details, splendid light and excellent clarity, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

holmertz (102700) 2020-11-21 7:29

Hello Kasia,
I'm happy to see you posting again, and from Afghanistan. This girl looks more curious than sad, but even then she doesn't have that innocent, spontaneous look of Afghan children decades ago, or most children anywhere today. Nice portraits in the WS too, and all photos with your usual perfect sharpness. Rashid's book was written 20 years ago, so I would expect the terrible statistics you quote to have improved at least marginally. Sadly, Afghanistan is still down there at the bottom.
Have a nice weekend,
Gert

PaulVDV (62892) 2020-11-21 7:37

Hello Kasia,
It would feel strange to me to be in a country where just about everyone is younger than me. In fact, it cannot be otherwise, given the average life expectancy of the Afghan.
You are right that in poorer countries the women are dressed much more colourfully. Does it have to do with much less influence of the west on dress codes? Or does one find a rare happy feeling with the beautiful colours where this is more difficult to find in the hard everyday life?
It is remarkable and good that local customs under the influence of religion don't impose dark clothing.
Any idea whether this is also the case in Kabul or more densely populated places with greater social control?
Three beautiful and sharp portraits, each with the rough environment as a background.
Best regards, Paul

Fis2 (170747) 2020-11-21 9:06

Czesc Kasia!
Sympatyczna dziewczynka, ladnie spojrzala w obiektyw.
Stroj robi wrazenie.
Dobry kadr i kolorki.
Milego weekendu.
Krzysztof

jhm (211736) 2020-11-21 9:44

Hello Kasia,

I've much attention again, reading your text, I've very ig respect for you that you the world gives the perfect cipher about the bad situation in this country .
Only the government be responsible for this.
Your picture is nice taken with a girl a little ashamed.
Sorry, I know my English are not good but I hope that you can read my lettre.
Very well done, TFS

Best regards,
John

lousat (139266) 2020-11-21 9:57

Hi Kasia,the data on infant mortality in this region are truly impressive, it seems to go back 100 years. And the photos are beautiful as always, in fact the girl wears a lot of poor and different clothes, but overall the result is a beautiful harmony of colors, maybe some stylists could be inspired. While the two WS show smiling men, for them a different thing, but unfortunately missing once again, the smile of children. Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano

COSTANTINO (116490) 2020-11-21 10:33

Hello dear Kasia and have a nice Sunday
no comments....from me...
I red carefully your useful notes
about the feelings of the little
girl...I am impressed by this
phrase....but she isnt smiling
either....
regards
Costantino

emka (158156) 2020-11-21 12:31

Witaj Kasiu, Najpierw zajrzałam do Wikipedii, żeby zobaczyć aktualne liczby dotyczące populacji Afganistanu. Ludnośc wynosi około 38 mln, czyli mniej więcej tyle, ile w Polsce. Life expectancy teraz to 60,5 (2015), więc jednak sporo więcej. Śmiertelność noworodk體 to 66,3 na 1000 urodzeń żywych. Średnio jedna kobieta ma 5 dzieci. Przy tym tempie wzrostu w 2015 roku będzie ponad 80 milion體 Afgańczyk體. 43% powyżej 15 lat umie czytać i pisać. maternal mortality jest około 400. More than 65 per cent of Afghans have clean drinking water through 'improved drinking water sources' that are protected from outside contamination � a marked progress from a decade ago when drinking water reached only 20 per cent of people. Więc liczby kt髍e podajesz są w znacznym stopniu nieaktualne. To dla całego Afganmistanu, nie wiem, jak jest dla tego regionu. Nie zmienia to jednak faktu, ze zycie jest tam ciężkie.
Fotografie, kt髍e pokazujesz sa w pewnym stopnuiu podobne. Ubrania sa wprawdzie wielokolorowe, ale te kolory sa takie przygaszone, jakby sprane, ale przez to fotogeniczne. ale mniej kolorowe niz na przykład w Indiach. I ubrania sa bardzo biedne. Tutaj podoba mi się ta sp骴nica, a u facet體 nakrycia glowy.

Pozdrawiam serdecznie

Małgorzata

PiotrF (54666) 2020-11-21 16:30

Czesc Kasiu
Swietna seria portretow mieszkancow Afganistanu. Fotograficznie udaje Ci sie zlapac dobry kontakt z "modelami", natomiast notatka napawa smutkiem... moze tylko nuta optymizmu w zakonczeniu.
Ciekawa prezentacja
pozdrawiam
Piotr

jemaflor (147128) 2020-11-21 23:14

Hi Kasia,
Well photographed this girl, interesting attitude and expressive face, nice colors for these traditional clothes, tfs.

Royaldevon (85932) 2020-11-22 2:14

Hello Kasia,

Lovely to see your photographs again.
Hope you and your family are well.
Are you still in Poland?

In answer to your question, I wonder if poorer people, especially in wild regions, like these, with a lack of bright colours around them, dress so colourfully to brighten their lives. They would also, be easier to see against the sombre b/g colours, perhaps particularly important for children. You can certainly appreciate how well this pretty, young girl stands out against the b/g!

The men, by comparison, merge very easily with the b/g.

Three fine photographs using a shallow dof to very good effect.
The young girl seems to be regarding you with curiosity. If unused to having her photograph taken, she will never have been encouraged to 'smile for the camera'! Then again, we smile when we have something that makes us happy. I wonder what would make this young lady really happy in a hard, relentless existence.
Am I just skimming the surface?

Take care and thank you for sharing this,
Bev :-)

ktanska (44766) 2020-11-22 3:47

Hi Kasia,
Yes, those clothes are indeed colourful. I like her shy looking pose. Beautiful background reveals how arid the climate is there.
Kari

papagolf21 (152607) 2020-11-22 7:42

Bonjour, ch鑢e Kasia,
Ici encore, notre voyageuse du bout du monde nous pr閟ente des habitants dans leur milieu naturel (sans influence touristique).
Des photos qui respirent la v閞it�.
Amiti閟.
Philippe

GyurMaster (24830) 2020-11-22 10:01

Hello Kasia,

Again, this was a photo I knew was taken by you immediately. Maybe it was the pale beige bg. against the vivid clothes of the subject, but I knew. I have to agree with you that her clothes look harmonious.

Best Wishes,
Gy.

ChrisJ (171822) 2020-11-23 22:44

Hello Kasia,

A superb daily life scene of the young Afghan girl in traditional local costume. Good colour, sharpness and framing. The red and blue colours contrast well. Tfs!

SteveH (8220) 2020-11-24 1:41

Hi Kasia, sounds like this girl has good reason to consider herself one of the lucky ones, having survived to the albeit young age she has. A thought provoking image, especially when considered with your note. cheers, Steve

lucasgalodoido (27698) 2020-11-30 6:36

Ol� Kasia,
interessante retrato aqui dessa garota, com vestimentas t韕icas da localidade. Gostei do contraste das cores e da profundidade de campo, assim como as imagens complementares do WS. Belo trabalho.
Parab閚s e Abra鏾,
Lucas

mkamionka (74407) 2021-01-03 0:55

Czesc Kasia,
Na pierwszy rzut oka jest roznica pomiedzy dziewczynka dorastajaca w UK i w Afganistanie. Moja rodzina co prawda mowi mi ze powinienem przestac nosic dziurawe podkoszulki a ja uporczywie sie przy nich trzymam. Moja 8 letnia corka dostala od Mikolaja noweg iPhone'a. (BTW: Ja sam uzywam starej Nokii). I pokilku dniach zaczalem sie naprawde martwic czy ten telefon nie wyrzadzi jej krzywdy.
Chce powiedziec ze sa roznice w mozliwosciach, ale nie zawsze przekladaja sie one na rozwoj danej osoby.
Jako rodzic zaczynam sie tym powaznie martwic.
Chcialoby sie wyrownac te mozliwosci ale wlasnie poprzez danie dziecku wszystkiego: pozbawia sie je czegos...

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku!!
M

adramad (72978) 2021-01-04 10:13

Hi Kasia.
This photo gives me a lot of tenderness, because the girl with that pose and that expression, transmits me despair, also that mixture of clothes gives us an idea of her limited level of life, the whole environment looks so arid ... ..
The color are magnificent, good sharpness of the image.
Very well done. I like it
Have a good day.
Very best regards.
Luis.

jmdias (115156) 2021-01-18 11:36

kasia

marvelous these three portraits of people of this poor country involved in so many wars and troubles.the girls remind me the russian girls from 19th century in the paintings I saw, at same time some italian madonnas too.
take care

jorge