June 01, 2004

• I never even stopped for a second to consider that Afghanistan could be so fiercely, achingly be-yoo-ti-full! My fave post this week. Nice find, PF!
• Looks even better after a few cones of the local gear.
• These should do the rounds as much as the Chenobyl pics. Even moreso, since these are the real deal.
• Real-deal Chernobyl pictures: 5 years of Chernobyl pictures, panorama of Pripyat, Chernobyl [Russian], Chernobyl poems [with photos].
• i can't get the second link to work. he's trying to get them published where?
• Funny, it doesn't work for me anymore either. The deal was, as I recall, he wants to publish a book of his photographs, but no publisher will touch it because he wants to show Afghanistan as a beautiful place.
• Doesn't work for me either. *cue ominous music* What does it mean?!?!? Seriously, those are beautiful shots. Makes me want to see it firsthand. Hope one day I'll be able to without, you know, the risk of death and everything.
• I emailed Luke actually. As I suspected, the journalist missed the point in her story, so it's no big deal the link no longer works.
• They're very good photos, but I don't think that most are really all that amazing, many of them are somewhat postcardish. He's got a few excellent works in there however, but I don't know if it's really worth making a whole book.
• yeah, cellar, that's the thing. nice, pretty pictures but nothing really bookworthy.
• ah! here's second link: IN BRIEF: Publishers avoid Afghan photos, Potter audiences 'goggled at,' more Last Updated Mon, 31 May 2004 16:49:53 EDT LIVERPOOL, N.S. - Companies 'scared to publish' book of Afghan photos: photographer A photographer who has spent 30 years capturing the landscape and people of Afghanistan says no one will publish his work because of controversy after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I just had another major book agent give me the same old story," photographer Luke Powell told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. The American photographer lives part of the year in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. "Everyone loves it, but they are scared to publish it because no one wants to see how beautiful it really is." Powell's book Afghan Gold includes work spanning from 1974 to 2003. He blames a general "hands-off" approach to stories about Afghanistan for the continued refusal to publish his work, which has been shown in 112 shows in galleries worldwide. Powell was first attracted to Afghan culture in the 1970s. "No motor vehicles, no power lines. Everything was homemade and everyone was happy and no one was hungry. It was the most beautiful place," he said. Even when the Taliban was in power, Powell was welcome to photograph the country. United States officials also invited him back in 2003. Powell plans to return to photograph Afghanistan in the fall, but in the meantime, his photos are featured at his website.
• speaking of Afghan gold...
• Cellarfloor, SideDish, I'd buy it, but then I don't know from photos. The Argus - you intrigue me.
• From SideDish's link: "Plans are underway to build a museum in Bamiyan, home to giant Buddhas cut into cliffs which were blown up by the Taliban in 2001. It was an act of destruction that shocked the world and exposed the hard-line Islamic militia's intolerance." Very cool. And on the subject of Bamiyan: Where's the Third Buddha?
• A bit more on our source for the existence of the third Bamiyan Buddha, Xuan Zang.
• Great links, PF. Thanks! "Unfortunately for Xuan Zang (also referred to as Tripitaka which is a pun on his name), his character in the book was reduced to something of wooden caricature whose main role it seems was to be constantly upstaged by the antics of Wu-k'ung, the delightfully mischievous monkey-god."
• You're one to talk, Homie "Linkmeister" Nunclus!
• speaking of Afghan gold...
• The international relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended operations in Afghanistan after five of its workers were killed in an ambush.
• More photos, from 1976-1978. Archaic Proto-Bactria and Early Ancient Bactria.
• Blogging from Afghanistan.
• *grows beard, wife throws stones*
• A Hoard of Gold That Afghanistan Quietly Saved
• Overstocking in Afghanistan
• Dispatch From Afghanistan
• Afghanistan's Buddhas may rise again
• Aid agency quits Afghanistan over security fears
• The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan
• at least heathen images have been dealt a blow. mmmm . . . blow.
• Seeking a Sleeping Giant