Every day life

Kabul

Usually I wake up at 6 in morning. The light here is beautiful in the first hours of the day but around 10am is already too strong. At the moment I’m working on the election, on the street children and also taking general pictures of this amazing city. Toward the end of the morning I come back home and I make phone calls, read mails and than out again for the nice light of the afternoon. At 5:30pm is dark and the day is over. I eat, I write, I look at the pictures of the day and I try to organize the ideas. At 10pm I’m exhausted.

In Afghanistan Friday is holiday and the rest of the week is working days. So Thursday night is when the westerner parties are. Last Wednesday I’ve been to this place called Atmosphere and I met some Italian ngo workers. That place is pretty cool. There are armed guards outside (as every place for foreigners here) than a guy that checks you through a little hole in a metal door. You enter a concrete room where he checks you bag and then another guy look at you through another metal door. Then you enter a beautiful garden and then a French restaurant, with prices that are probably higher than many places in Paris. But then the cool part is over, is like being everywhere else in the west. Basically people come here to flirt and get drunk. You can meet really unusual people in places like that. I’ve seen similar bar in Beirut and Jerusalem: ngo workers, private contractors, journalist, and others with unclear positions. But at the moment I’m too focussed on my work to find all this interesting, and I don’t have time and money to waist in alcohol.

The situation is pretty tense in these days before the second round of the elections. But the Afghans keep their own routine and being outside with them gives a sense of security. Many foreigners here, who works for ngos or international organizations have really restrictive security rules, that makes harder for them to relate to the every day life of ordinary afghans. I feel glad to have a relation with the population, Afghan are sweet, joyful, really friendly and have no problem to be photograph.

Yesterday there was an incident in a UN guesthouse nearby at around 6am. I wake up with the gunfire, and I spent the rest of the morning wondering if it was worth to go and photograph. But at the end I didn’t. I’m not here to photograph news and I don’t want to risk too much until I know my way around.

It was a good decision. It’s important to go only when you feel safe. I arrived too little ago to play the war photographer.

Last year I photographed the attacks at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. I was really lucky, my hotel was nearby and I literally walk there before the police can close the area. I get some nice pictures and I published it. But now I realize how the month I spent in Mumbai before the attacks was important that night. I knew my way around, I have walked a lot nearby, I knew every street and I felt safe. Here in Kabul is different. At night nobody walk around, neither the Afghans. It’s not unusual to hear gunshots and there is no city lights. Driving in Kabul at night is an experience. Everything is dark, you have only the light from other cars faded by the dust, the dust is everywhere. Actually people cover their faces with scarves in Afghanistan more because of the dust than for jihad… ah.. as I’m writing the roof is moving… at first I thing somebody is walking on the roof… I turn of the lights off… but then al the house is shaking, it’s an earthquake. It’s the second one since I’ve been here, always at night. Last time was more powerful, 4 at the night. I wake up and I didn’t know what to do, it didn’t seems powerful enough to destroy the house. It was really long 30-40 seconds. But then stopped and I went back to bed. Now I remember, the terrible earthquake in Pakistan two years ago, and it’s really close from here.

For the election I’m photographing billboards around the city, old ones as nobody made news ones for the second round. I also photograph Abdallah Abdallah, one of the candidates. But there is not much else to photograph.

But anyway this place is magic, it’s really helping my photography. I feel more relaxed. I just go out every morning and try to do my best. This is all that counts. I’m really glad I’m here. Something is happening inside me. I don’t know if I am a good photographer but this is not important. What matters is doing it without fears of not being enough. Just doing it, showing up every morning and pushing. At the moment I’m more focussed on trying to give my best and working than judging if I’m doing a good job.