Afghanistan: A Video Portrait

Shot with a 5D mkII and 7D. Earlier this year, filmmakers Lukas and Salome Augustin traveled to Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif, intent on capturing portraits of daily life. Lukas had lived in Kabul from 2006 to 2008, working with a humanitarian aid organization called Operation Mercy, and he’d fallen in love with the place. When he returned this year with his then-fiancée Salome, he shot this film, in part as a tribute to his friend Gayle Williams, an aid worker who was killed by the Taliban in 2008. Lukas and Salome have a still photographer’s eye, and have composed a very intimate series of video portraits of both the people and the landscape. The film lasts just under six minutes, so I invite you to take a few moments, relax, start the video in fullscreen mode, and let Lukas and Salome Augustin take you on a beautiful visit to the Hindu Kush.