Hi Chris,
It’s a good question and one that’s not easy to answer concisely, but I will try.
Having previously concentrated on fine art and landscape work, I found myself living and working in Afghanistan some years ago. Naturally, with time I developed my own very personal reactions to ‘people, place, time’ and this took me towards a documentary approach, although I do not regard my work as fully adherent to that genre. It seems an absurd claim to make, but I am not really aiming to cover particular stories. I might just about consider myself as covering ‘issues’ in some cases. Most of all, I am interested in ideas, often simple ones, that relate to what I am encountering on the ground and questions I am grappling with in my head. There is a process of interaction and realisation and my photographs are a by-product of, and sometimes the catalyst for, that process. It is very personal and this perhaps makes my work less accesible than some documentary photographers, but as long as some viewers see exactly what the work is about then I am happy.
This project came about because of the heavy snow that descended upon Kabul (and much of the country) over a week or two. I saw, and felt, the energy within the city change. Despite the very real trauma caused by harsh weather around the country, Kabul city residents seemed energised. The snow offered an opportunity for frivolity and play that was palpable and the closed in weather, dark skies and poor visibility somehow allowed people to hide away from the wider reality of their situation. I got out onto the streets and photographed it, predominantly in the quieter suburbs where there were more subtle relationships between the people, environment, nature and elements. I was looking to photograph that peace, escapism, and at times simple beauty, which is the antithesis of Kabul for much of the rest of the time.
I also felt that many of the scenes depicted events, moments or actions that most of us can relate to, so acting as a catalyst for empathy at a very basic human level divorced from personal politics. Photographing simple scenes of beauty was key to this project, because I wanted to show them as fundamental to the human experience, no matter who or where you are. A number of the tree photographs were taken on the block where I live and all of the photos were taken with a mile or two. Those small details often exist 'under the radar for most of us most of the time due to our busy lives. This project therefore afforded an opportunity to connect with those things in the most unlikely of places.
