Without having experienced a place, it’s near impossible to not let your impressions be shaped by the media. When it comes to a place like Kabul, Afghanistan, the collective view of anyone who hasn’t spent real time experiencing will obviously skew toward
Without having experienced a place, it’s near impossible to not let your impressions be shaped by the media. When it comes to a place like Kabul, Afghanistan, the collective view of anyone who hasn’t spent real time experiencing will obviously skew toward visions of a war-torn, impossible-to-inhabit city. It was this desire to add a different view of a place that motivated Amsterdam-based photographer Marieke van der Velden to portray the city in her series A Monday in Kabul.
One of the great pleasures of attending portfolio review events (this one was Lensculture/FotoFest Paris) is meeting other photographers, and in this case international photographers. Amsterdam photographer, Marieke van der Velden brought a wonderful body
Marieke van der Velden brought a wonderful body of work to the reviews about her experiences in Afghanistan and provides humanity and context for the people she encountered
Playful, sad, poignant and optimistic, Marieke van der Velden’s photos of Baghdad portray a deeply human dimension of the sweltering, bomb-shattered city.
Marieke van der Velden’s recent photographs of daily life — not death — in Baghdad make you feel. Taken in August, the project, “Baghdad Today,” forms one of the most intimate portraits of Iraqi life to emerge since the 2003 American invasion. By turns playful, sad, poignant and optimistic, her photos portray a deeply human dimension of the sweltering, bomb-shattered city.
