HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

I found my first camera while I was working as a barman in a London pub. Even though the camera was a Praktica, a very basic model, it was enough to start me thinking seriously about photography. I had been traveling around the world and doing odd jobs since I was 17. At 25 it was time to decide on a profession: Photography offered me an opportunity to travel and work.

Since I didn’t know much about the technical side of photography, I decided to enroll in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, Netherlands. A year and a half later I returned to New York and participated in a workshop at the International Center of Photography. There I learned about the Eddie Adams workshop. I applied and was accepted.

During the Eddie Adams workshop I met Elianne Laffont, president of the Sygma Photo News agency, who offered me work in New York. I started to do small assignments at first. My mentor was Peter Bolioli, Sygma’s national editor. He taught me a great deal about being a photojournalist and kept me busy when I needed assignments.

In New York I shot everything from press conferences and portraits to celebrities and breaking news. In my heart I knew, however, that I wanted to travel. My first international assignments came in 1996. Currently I am shooting for various magazines in both Europe and the United States.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE ASSIGNMENT?

I have many favorite assignments. I especially like to photograph real-life stories, not staged events. On one assignment I photographed the entire length of Broadway in New York City, from downtown Wall Street all the way to the northern tip of Manhattan. It was a lot of fun; every block was different. Each had its own ethnic diversity, culture, and distinct flavor.

WHAT MAKES THIS PORTFOLIO SPECIAL?

For 30 years Afghanistan has been wracked by power struggles between tribal, military, and political groups. There have been violent political swings as governing powers embraced monarchy, then communism, and now Islamic fundamentalism. The country is now divided between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, who as of December 1998, control the vast majority of the country.

I first went to Afghanistan in 1996. I was deeply disturbed by all the destruction I saw and the deplorable living conditions of the Afghan people. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Approximately 70 percent of its population of 23,730,000 are illiterate, and many are unemployed and malnourished. Almost 1.4 million Afghans have fled to Iran and 1.2 million to Pakistan. Between one and one and a half million people are refugees inside the borders of their own country.

Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the international community and the Western media seem to have lost interest in Afghanistan. The country ceases to be a selling news topic.

With my photographs I hope to increase awareness of the Afghan people’s plight as they rebuild their lives.

ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRING PHOTOJOURNALISTS?

Follow your instincts and try to set your own standards. Define the type of photography you are interested in and concentrate on it.

Shoot a lot of images. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I have learned from mistakes because they sometimes bring better results than you might think.

Timing is important. You have to be ready with your equipment. It’s like fishing. You have to be ready or you can’t catch a fish. Sometimes you’re ready, but the fish just aren’t there. Other times you cast and there’s a surprise at the end of your hook. Several times in Kabul I arrived several hours after a bombing or looting. Some of my colleagues would have photographed the actual bombing and left the scene by the time I arrived. But often I caught the poignant moments—people picking up the pieces of their destroyed lives. The photographs on this site showing Taliban militia burning film reels and the man preparing the child’s body for burial were shot that way.

Work on your portfolio. Select your photographs with care, so that prospective employers will focus on the images that you want them to focus on. Have two or more people you respect critique your portfolio before showing it to prospective employers.

Update your portfolio with fresh images from new projects. Or make two portfolios with different focuses. You don’t want employers to think that you can only take a certain kind of picture. Show them you are versatile.

 

Photograph courtesy
of Ilkka Uimonen

E-mail the photographer.