Arms Against Fury: Magnum Photographers in Afghanistan

by Sebastian Junger

Book Overview

Arms Against Fury examines the dramatic struggle of the Afghan people through the lens of Magnum photographers, dating back to cofounder George Rodger's documentation of the country's role in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576871517
• ISBN13: 9781576871515
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: powerHouse Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 3.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.8" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Afghanistan Photographs 1955-2001

Over 230 pages of hundreds of photographs taken throughout Afghanistan between 1955-2001. About equally divided between color and black & white photographs. The photos between 1980-2000 look eerily similar, despite the Russians moving in and out, with the Taliban moving in and out, and with the American soldiers arriving in 2001, nothing seems to have changed between these years: so much rubble. As there is little text, this is not an `educational' reference book. This is a collection of photographs taken by many different photographers of different nationalities who traveled through Afghanistan. There are only 2-3 photographs of dead Taliban soldiers, but nothing really gory that should keep it out of some junior high-library (although the color photo of a dead government soldier's bloated face on page 113 isn't for the faint-hearted). Few `battle-action' photos, no photos of the Taliban stoning women. The photograph showing a criminal chained to the prison floor (p. 223) reminded me of similar containment that I had seen in Haiti in 1993, and the photo of a crumbled-up painting of a nude female in the National Art Museum depicted the anti- `avant garde' morals of the Taliban government. Alas, these everyday-life photographs -- although they depict many country and city-street scenes of war amputees, destroyed homes, and impoverished women and children -- cannot capture the heat, the cold, nor the dustiness of the country. Nary a scenic photo anywhere. I had correspondence with the last Afghanistan king back in the early 1960s, I'm sure he would have been extremely saddened with these photographs in seeing how ravaged his country became during the last quarter of the Twentieth Century.