Stephan Goss
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Photography / Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan · 2023

Stephan Goss photographed in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power. The work follows people living through the country’s economic crisis and the changes to daily life under Taliban rule.

A Terrible Peace: Afghanistan's Descent into Deeper Poverty

A green ribbon of cultivated land and a scatter of flat-roofed houses follow a river along the floor of a deep, bare valley between eroded desert mountains.
Plate 01 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A village strung along the only water in a valley of bare rock. Goss travelled across Afghanistan for three weeks in September 2023, photographing the country after the Taliban’s return to power.
A man works a hand-cranked sugarcane press mounted on a wooden handcart under a red parasol at dusk, bundles of cane stacked behind him and a guard tower on the wall beyond.
Plate 02 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A sugarcane juice seller works his press at the end of the day, beside one of the blast walls and guard towers that still divide the city.
A woman in a blue burqa carrying a black plastic bag walks through a narrow market street past haberdashery stalls; two children sit on the kerb in a patch of sun.
Plate 03 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A market street in Kabul. Trade of this kind continued through the collapse in incomes that followed the change of government.
A crowded bazaar street at eye level: men in shalwar kameez move between stalls piled with bread rings and dried fruit under red and yellow parasols, hills rising behind.
Plate 04 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The main bazaar of Kabul, where merchants sell an eclectic mix of goods, the market a pulsing vein of commerce and survival amidst the city’s adversities.
A woman in a blue burqa carries a small child on her hip through a lane hung with wooden and wire birdcages, a girl in a blue headscarf at her side and a man with a bicycle behind.
Plate 05 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The vibrant chaos of Kabul’s bird market, distilled in the image of a woman with her family, a snapshot of daily life in the city’s throbbing heart.
A boy of about ten in a rust-coloured shalwar kameez sits on a kerb holding a heavy iron padlock, a second lock and a cloth bundle on the step beside him.
Plate 06 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The stark reality of poverty through the eyes of a child in Kabul’s market, where the economic downturn after the war is acutely felt.
The eroded mud-brick wall of an old hilltop fort in the foreground, a white Taliban flag on a pole at its corner, a green irrigated plain and hazy mountains far below.
Plate 07 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A white Taliban flag flies over the ruins of a mud-brick fort above a farmed plain, one government’s banner on the fortifications of many earlier ones.
A shepherd in a blue shalwar kameez and turban stands beside his flock of black and brown sheep on a wide dry plain below a long escarpment of pale cliffs.
Plate 08 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A shepherd in the midst of vast, empty landscapes, representing Afghanistan’s dependence on pastoral life. Possibly encountering a foreigner for the first time, he stands for the isolation and simplicity of rural existence.
A Soviet-era artillery piece sits among crumbling mud fortifications on a ridge, two figures standing beside it, a patchwork of green fields on the plain far below.
Plate 09 Ghazni, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The silent testimony of Soviet artillery on a hill in Ghazni: relics overlooking the land they once dominated, now silent spectators to the country’s unfolding future.
Two women, one in a pale blue burqa and one in a cream chador, cross a tiled courtyard towards separate doorways of a mosque decorated in blue and gold.
Plate 10 Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss Two women entering a mosque in Kandahar, a visual testament to the gender segregation that permeates Afghan society under Taliban rule.
A graveyard of low stone-covered mounds on bare ground, each marked with a tattered flag on a thin pole, a monument and mountains behind in the dust haze.
Plate 11 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A cemetery, each grave marked with a flag and overshadowed by an abandoned US installation behind it. Burial grounds like this one are among the most visible records of four decades of war.
Two men walk down a sandy slope towards a domed brick shrine standing alone among bare desert hills.
Plate 12 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss Goss’s two fixers along with a Taliban minder walking towards an ancient gate.
An elderly man with a white beard and dark turban sits on a low stool in a brick doorway, a rifle upright between his knees and both hands resting on it.
Plate 13 Herat, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A seasoned old man guarding the Blue Mosque in Herat. His role, earned through a history of combat, likely includes battles against Soviet forces, making him a living embodiment of Afghanistan’s tumultuous past.
Terraced fields of ripening maize and rice follow a river through a steep mountain valley, a dirt road cut into the slope on the right with a vehicle on it.
Plate 14 Nuristan, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The tranquil Nuristan valley, a remote area where agriculture persists despite the challenging altitudes and rugged terrain.
A man in a waistcoat and cap walks up the middle of a pale dirt road towards the camera, granite peaks and pine forest rising steeply on both sides.
Plate 15 Nuristan, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A man walks the road through the Nuristan mountains. Roads like this one are the only link between the valley’s villages and the rest of the country.
Close portrait of an elderly man with a long white beard and deep-set eyes, wearing a brown wool pakol cap and an embroidered waistcoat over a striped shirt.
Plate 16 Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A portrait made on the road, towards the end of three weeks of travelling.
The gilded dome and blue-tiled drum of a shrine against a dusk sky, with a large white Taliban flag flying from a mast beside it.
Plate 17 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss A white Taliban flag flies beside the dome of a shrine at dusk. Versions of this flag now fly over public buildings across the country.
A city spread across its plain under towering white cloud, seen from a hillside through an ornamental iron railing topped with coils of razor wire.
Plate 18 Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2023 Stephan Goss The capital seen from the hills above it, through the razor wire of a viewpoint. The last frame of the three weeks.

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