Sharing Photos, Building Bridges Bilal Sarwary '10 breathes life into Afghanistan through photos

Author: Trevor Lee

"I'm here to build bridges," Bilal Sarwary '10 explains as he turns down the traditional Afghan music playing out of his speakers and points to a photograph of a boy who lost his parents in Afghanistan's civil war.

In the Ross Fireplace Lounge last Thursday night, Sarwary, who left his job as producer for BBC Kabul to enroll at Middlebury, exhibited a collection of his photographs that are, he says, "much more than photographs" they tell the story of "how Afghanistan has changed in the past five years."

Through his photographs, he reveals a country in which tanks are now used as billboards, boys and girls walk to school every day despite the constant threat of bombs, women demonstrate against the Taliban and Al Qaeda and Afghan President Hamid Karzai - Sarwary's "hero of the day" - has become, in his words, "our Nelson Mandela, our Gandhi."

"We're all one people," says Sarwary, indicating his hope that the international community will not forget about Afghanistan. "We have common interests and common dangers," and the story that these photographs tell is not only about Afghanistan but also about America and the international community at large. "I want to tell people of my country," Sarwary says, and to remind people that "Afghanistan is a country [that] has many fruits."

His photographs mainly focus on how Afghans cope in the face of the current, threatening violence. Pointing to a photograph of a ten-or eleven-year-old girl, Sarwary says, "The fact that these kids are risking their lives going to school when they are being attacked shows they are committed." If the Afghan youth is so committed to the future of Afghanistan, as Sarwary's photographs suggest, then, he believes, the international community has good reason to follow suit. "Any help will be welcome," he says.

Looking at a photograph of a boy who has lost his parents Sarwary says, "I wish I could make a difference with this boy here." Later he showed me a photograph of a nomadic girl who desperately wanted to go to school but is not permitted to because to do so would require crossing a river with no bridge. "I really regret not being able to talk to this girl for longer," says Sarwary. It is this ability to relate to his subjects that makes Sarwary's photographs so "much more than photographs" and so personal.

Within each photo lies a story. Take, for example, the description below a photograph of a cautious-yet-hopeful looking twelve-year-old girl: "My name is Frechata. Every time I go to school I am scared. We change our route every time. Most of my friends have stopped coming and I miss them. The sound of explosions frightens me. Every time I see something suspicious I cover my ears and I am so happy when nothing happens. I want to become a reporter when I grow up. I also want to help my father."

Sarwary's presence during his exhibition also made his photographs more personal for the Middlebury students who spent an hour or so engaging him and his photographs Thursday night.

"It is so different," said Claire Luby '10, "when you see these photographs when the person who took them is standing right there."

"I don't understand how we can be destroying places like this," said Jaime Lam '09 about a photograph of three Afghan men praying on a hilltop overlooking snow-capped mountains, "[these photographs] are so astonishingly different from anything we know [and] are so personal."

If Lam's response is any indication, it is the emphasis on the personal and positive side of Afghanistan's story, rather than on its troubles, that renders Sawary's photos so provacative and that will, hopefully, one day encourage the international community to rally behind the country.

Sarwary's focus on this positive side of Afghanistan is especially important because it shows the ways in which Afghans actively respond to the threats their country faces. Haseeb Humayoon '09 led me to an incredibly moving photograph of a group of women demonstrating in a remote province bordering Pakistan. Their sign proclaimed that terrorists are enemies of Islam and peace. He explained that these demonstrations have become increasingly common in his country as more and more civilians have become targets of terrorists in Afghanistan.

Sarwary's photographs never ignore the troubled and negative side of Afghanistan's story - of the civil war, the bridgeless rivers, the sound of explosions on the way to school. Yet they do leave room for and underscore the much more important personal and positive side of the story.

With his evocative and touching exhibition, Sarwary paints a more complete picture of Afghanistan and succeeds in his effort to build much-needed bridges between here and there.