A black and white photograph where two pairs of legs dangle from an overhead pipe. Below, pedestrians and bicyclists navigate a street backed by heavily ruined, crumbling buildings.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Artist James Nachtwey (American, born 1948)

Date1996

Place of originKabul, Afghanistan, Asia

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsMat: 20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66.04 cm)
Paper: 16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm)
Image: 13 x 19 in. (33.02 x 48.26 cm)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineGift of the Rubin Family Collection

Object number2025.25.3

Collections

PHOTOGRAPHY

Visual DescriptionNachtwey: “Boys sit astride the barrel of a tank in Kabul, which suffered more destruction in the 1990s than any other city. Five different armies fought in Kabul's streets since the departure of the Soviets in 1989.”

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Veiled woman kneels at headstone of deceased loved one. Similar headstones recede into and fill the background. Nachtwey: “A woman dressed in a traditional burqa mourns for her brother, who was killed in a Taliban rocket attack during the siege of Kabul.”

Kabul, Afghanistan (A woman in full burqa grieves on her brother’s grave who was killed by a Taliban rocket.)

James Nachtwey

1996

In a surrounding bombed landscape, four destroyed & towering brick walls create canyons against a cloudless morning sky. Between them are two separate bicyclists in motion.

Jada-e Maiwand, Kabul Afghanistan (Two bicyclists on Kabul’s main street reduced to rubble after civil war)

James Nachtwey

1993

A black and white photograph showing a dense, chaotic cluster of men on horseback. Several riders raise whips in the air against a backdrop of barren mountains.

Gulbahar, Afghanistan (Horsemen play a match of Buzkaschi with a headless calf)

James Nachtwey

1996

A line-up of ten men sit behind barbed wire.

Kabul, Afghanistan, Taliban Groups Trained in Prisoner of War Camp

James Nachtwey

1995

Several women, backs to us, walk into a mosque. Carpeted and tiled floor. Shadow of minaret’s entrance falls over their burqas and floor.

Kabul, Afghanistan (Shiite women gather inside a mosque on high holiday)

James Nachtwey

1996

Anonymous portrait of young boy on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, with makeshift cloth backdrop and people looking on.

Untitled, from the series Axe Me Biggie

Stephen Dupont

2006

Two men with shovels on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, other people looking on in background.

Untitled, from the series Axe Me Biggie

Stephen Dupont

2006

A man in a dark suit seated in front of a makeshift backdrop on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, as others look on.

Untitled, from the series Axe Me Biggie

Stephen Dupont

2006

Close-up face of a wide-eyed child, their hand on crib railing. Nachtwey: “Orphans spend most of the day confined to cribs in the Focsani orphanage.”

Orphanage in Focșani, Romania

James Nachtwey

1990

Side view of a young man with machete scars across his face and skull. Nachtwey: “A Hutu man at a Red Cross hospital in Nyanza, Rwanda. His face was mutilated by the Hutu 'Interahamwe' militia, who suspected him of sympathizing with the Tutsi rebels.”

Nayanza, Rwanda, Survivor of Hutu death camp

James Nachtwey

1994

A black and white photograph of a chain-link fence receding against a cloudy sky. On the right edge, fence shadows fall across a bald person's partial face.

Limestone Correctional Facility, Alabama (Prisoner on the chain gang)

James Nachtwey

1995

Mohammed Agha and Mohammad Zia Mama, November, 2011

Gloriann Liu

2011; print 2016