Pakistan and Afghanistan 2006 | My Site

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In 2006 I spent two months of my university summer holidays exploring what was then the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. I also briefly crossed the border into Afghanistan, spending a few days in Kabul. The trip had a significant impact on me. I was entranced by a heady combination of danger, the vestiges of romanticised British narratives of the frontier, and the overwhelming hospitality of the people I met. Ten years later I returned to the frontier to undertake a PhD on one of the communities I had fist visited on this trip.

Drawings and text on two pages.

Very dense text around drawings.

A coloured felt tip drawing, text and a brown ink drawing.

A pen drawing of a man moving a huge cooking pot.

Pencil portrait of a youth.

Brown ink drawing of armed men eating. Pencil portrait of a young man.

Pencil drawings of members of the family I stayed with and a diagram of part of their home.

Pencil drawing of a rifle.

Pencil drawing.

Brown pen drawings and text.

Pen drawing of a heavily carved wooden entrance way.

Felt pen drawing of a graveyard, diagram of a shepherd's hut and dense text.

Drawing of a Kalasha house.

Portrait in pen of a young Kalasha woman.

Pressed mulberry leaf and black biro drawing.

Very dense text and the start of a drawing.

Two pages of dense text and a pencil drawing of a snowy mountain.

Text, a photocopy of an ID card taped to the page and pressed flowers, also taped to the page.

Pressed flowers taped to the page and the beginnings of a drawing.

Portrait in brown pen of a man wearing a turban and aviators, dressed in a tweed jacket.

Two pages of dense text and a small drawing of the Kabul skyline.

Black biro drawing of the courtyard and façade of a mosque. As seen from a balcony across the road.

Grey felt tip pen of a man deep frying something with a samovar to one side.

Page of business cards given to me by helpful people on my trip.

Photo of a row of very brightly coloured woven bands.

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