This project will examine the cultural, historical and contemporary significance of Kandahar and its people within the region and the current Afghan state.

Pashtuns are Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and dominate the province and city of Kandahar, which is the spiritual and former political capital of the Taliban movement lead by Mullah Mohammad Omar. Kandahar has always been at the center of all crossroads through this region of Asia for centuries. Ahmad Shah Durrani is credited with establishing the modern nation state of Afghanistan in 1747 and made Kandahar the first capitol of what would eventually become the Afghan state we know today.
 
Alexander the Great founded Kandahar around 330 BC and ever since it has been at the center of conflict for centuries, as various empires have fought over its strategic location within Asia. Almost every major empire has fought to control or tame Kandahar including Ghengis Khan and his Mongol army, the British Empire, Soviet Russia and now a US lead NATO force. Looking at the region from another view, it was here that a group of religious students formed a militia in the 1990’s and within a short period of time took over almost the entire country calling themselves the Taliban. It is also here that Osama Bin Laden set up his headquarters and training camp at Tarnak Farms where the attacks of 9/11 were believed to have originated. Kandahar has many lush green zones and was once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan for it’s agricultural production around the Arghandab River. It is in the summer during what many call “the Fighting Season” in these green zones that some of the most violent and bitter fighting takes place in the country.

Flash forward to the past several years and it is here in 2006 that the insurgency attempted to launch an assault on Kandahar City signaling the beginning of a new and reborn insurgency. Ever since, the insurgency has spread. It is here that I believe the world must focus to understand the people, their hopes and needs to find a path to end this conflict. There is no single place in the world that can equal or share the unfortunate timeline of war and destruction that Afghanistan has experienced for so long. Afghanistan is one of the few and only countries in the world that has never had a rail line. The majority of the people draw water from wells and rivers and have no electricity or running water. Most Afghans live in mud walled compounds that look like scenes from biblical times. Few Afghans know their age as record keeping has been virtually destroyed by decades of fighting.

I began my journey to document the situation in Kandahar in 2006 and have been going back every year since. I believe the answers to finding a path to a stable Afghanistan is in understanding the land and it’s people first, not only the insurgency and their methods of warfare. This project will seek to go further into many distant districts to document the cultural and social fabric of villages centuries old and their tribal and ethnic affiliations. Many villages I have been to have never met a journalist and don’t even understand what a journalist does. I have come to know the region well and have all the contacts to work independently from the military. As a balance, I will also explore the current NATO military mission and system to see if their manner is helping or harming the region as a continuous cycle of century old foreign interference. Is it possible to “fix” Afghanistan is one of the questions I will explore in contrast to “winning” in Afghanistan as most foreign governments involved in the conflict have focused on.

Many have called Afghanistan “the graveyard of empires”, but perhaps it more the graveyard of predictions and commitment to rebuilding on the part of the rest of the world. As the birthplace of the country and many of the country's current ills, Kandahar is where I believe many of our questions can be answered or at least explained and understood. This is where I propose to make a series of new pictures beyond just the war so we can actually understand the people most of the world is attempting to help and, in some cases, fight at the same time.