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Home sweet Rome

I’m back home after a long journey back in time. From surreal atmosphere of Kabul and the Western Provinces to a long stop over in Dubai. From Middle Age to Blade Runner in 3 hours flight.

During the journey in Afghanistan I did not sleep a lot (around 3 hours a day); adrenaline and caffein kept me awake. The very moment I fastened the seat belts on the airplane I fell asleep and I woke in Dubai. I had many hours to spare so I went downtown to see with my own eyes Burj Khalifa, the 800mt tall brand new skyscraper. Currently the tallest man made building in the World.

Absolutely impressive. As impressive it was the largest shopping mall in the World where they shop ‘till they drop. Literally.

Actually…I DID drop eventually. So I sat outside, enjoying the hot evening and trying to play around a couple time lapses with my camera.

This is a teaser video of the forthcoming web doc about what I saw during my caboolexpress journey…. I think it makes sense starting from the end, for a change

 

Sitting there, in Dubai Mall was surreal and it made no sense at all. But it helped me adjust to the return and dust off the sand from my boots and head.

But the moment I landed in Rome and I switched on the iPhone I got a message about the attack on a hotel in Kabul. 20 people died during the fires.  Afghan police men and soldiers fought bravely to defend the guests against the insurgents. 20 people…

And I thought about Dubai; and I thought about my trip….

I thought about KMTC where they train new generation Afghan Army, building on their love for their Country. And of course my mind ran to Mary Akrami and the other new friends I left down there.

Some friend warned me before leaving. “You’ll leave a piece of your hearth in Afghanistan once you visit it”.

It is actually true.

Impossible to forget all those people.

I take this chance to tell you something more about a photo of a kid I posted on my Facebook page

 

I’m usually not in favor of depicting children and kids (mostly when they suffer) but I like doing it when they help me telling positive stories. And this is one of them.

I do not know the name of this kid. He was sitting there, alone, in a hospital room of the western Ghor Province. He stared at me with curious eyes and when I asked him if he wanted a photo he lightly nodded.

His eyes lightened up when he saw himself in the camera lcd.

Many people asked me his story and what happened to him.

Nothing extremely serious, thank God! One might thing about war injuries, mines, etc. But he was just a normal child who hurt himself somehow and good doctors took care of him.

If there was not that province hospital nobody would take care of him. And if it wasn’t for the fast transports given by the closely F.O.B. Shield (operated by the Lithuanians) that hospital would never be so active.

So, eventually, this is a positive story.

As it is the case for this photo

But this time it is about War injuries. I tried to communicate with this young Lady parents and they kept saying ‘Taliban! Taliban! Taliban!’

A nurse, in a hard to understand english, tried to explain me that the kid had been shot by some Talibans in her village.

Had the hospital not be there, she would surely die. Now she’s being taken care of by those doctors. And the parents accepted that male doctors would cure her.

The Director of the Hospital told me that one of the main problems of his Hospital is the lack of women doctors (although there are plenty of women personnel involved in helping giving birth to children with a drastic reduction of pediatric mortality in the area).

Once again, a sad image (children should not suffer) but one that depicts a sparkle of Hope in a war scenario.

I’m sure that young lady will manage to survive. I hope it with all my heart.

Once, a good friend of mine and great photographer – Alfons Rodriguez – said that when you shoot stories in a crisis zone you somehow sign a gentlemen agreement with those stories, whereas you take on the responsibility of treating their stories, their images with respect and dignity.

Dignity and respect that a photographer can manage to fulfill in making those stories known… Because otherwise we would forget that a War is going on.

And most of all we would forget that – no matter what – even in the worst scenario there is always a sparkle of Life

And Dubai is only 3 hours away…

Antonio