The final evacuation flights from Afghanistan heading to Italy and the UK landed today, but the situation remains critical in the country.
During this past week we have explored a variety of issues connected with this country, from the work of artists and artisans to some of the indomitable Afghan girls and women and athletes as well.
We haven't looked at photography yet, so let's do it today remembering Fred J. Maroon's fashion photoshoot in Afghanistan.
Born in 1924, the American photographer graduated in architecture in 1950, but throughout his life he mainly worked as a photographer for a variety of magazines, including Life, Esquire, Paris Match, Town and Country, Travel and Leisure and National Geographic.
In 1968, intrigued by the ancient Silk Route, but unable to take pictures in China, he decided to head to Afghanistan. The country was an important segment of the silk route anyway and Maroon felt it offered the chance to shoot some exotic locations. The editors at Look magazine approved his project and Maroon left.
In Afghanistan Maroon managed to take some great photographs that wouldn't have looked out of place in a travel publication or in the pages of the National Geographic: rather than merely focusing on fashion, Maroon created contrasts with the models in Western clothes (or in clothes that combined local designs and Western attire) in the foreground and the locations in the background.
Vast natural landscapes prevailed in some cases: in one picture a model in a lynx-bordered wool-fleece coat, matching tunic and flared pants, was portrayed with the snowy peaks of Hindu Kush mountain range in the background, in another a model in a floral gown stood among bright red poppies.
In other images, Maroon put emphasis on culture, local places and traditions with a caravan passing by the giant Buddha statue in the Bamiyan Valley (destroyed by the Taliban in 2001) or a model wearing a male costume comprising trousers, a silk tunic and turban, stading in the Charh Chatta, Kabul's covered bazaar.
One of the best images remains the portrait of model Ann Cosyns in an embroidered pigskin coat and boots by Chester Weinberg and a cropped silk top and silk-satin pouf skirt, standing in front of a group of Buzkashi's Chapandaz riders at Kunduz.
Architecture was instead referenced in a picture with the Grand Mosque of Herat, a model standing around the caves of the Bamiyan cliff sides, and with two images of Balkh, one with the Khwaja Parsaw Shrine in the background, another with a crumbling caravansarais in the background and a model in palazzo pants in the foreground.
Maroon wasn't sure what to expect when he left for the shoot and wondered if he may have been greeted with hostility, but the images showed instead the hospitality of the people he met with one model for example sitting among elder Kochi tribesmen gathered for afternoon tea.
Sadly, it is unlikely we will see any fashion shoots like this one again anytime soon, that's one of the reasons why we should cherish Maroon's fashion reportage from Afghanistan so much. You can check out the entire photoshoot and the story accompanying it on Fred J. Maroon's website.
Image credits for this post
All images in this post copyright Fred J. Maroon
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