Afghan Gold

While travelling overland to India from Europe in the fall of 1971, Luke Powell ran into the war between India and Pakistan, and he spent the following winter in neighbouring Afghanistan. Powell was stunned by the beauty of the country, the state of preservation of the culture, and by the Afghans' ability to be totally self-sustaining. He returned nearly every year until 1978, when he left the country three days before a Communist coup. His ability to transform raw 35 mm film into refined printed images grew during 15 years when he printed his work with the legendary 'Dye transfer process'. The exhibition travelled to over 120 museums and galleries in North America and Europe. In 2000 the Taliban government invited him to come back to Afghanistan, and later that year the Northern Alliance allowed him to travel alone in areas under their control. Through 2003 he took photographs for the UN Demining Program for Afghanistan and other UN agencies. In this book he has tried to separate art from journalism and show the traditional side of Afghanistan.