Fardin Waezi, one of the first photographers who has been trained by Aina NGO, exhibits his photos in Queen’s Palace in Baghe Babur. Photographic exhibition, “Views of Kabul”, brings several photographers together. On behalf of the Tate Modern and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Fardin Waezi invites you cordially to take different look at Afghan capital between 6^th and 28^th march 2011.

Aina is the NGO founded by Reza in 2001, aiming to train the locals and empowers individuals and communities to promote reconstruction, restoration of peace, stability and civility. He supervised in 2006 a photo training program for 60 adolescent refugees from Rwanda, in collaboration with National Geographic Photo Camp and the International Medical Corps in 2006. Reza carried on the same project in refugees camps in Iraq. He is currently planning photographs workshop in Burkina Faso, which would be followed by the creation of a big “International Centre of Visual Media”. In Ethiopia, with the collaboration of Unicef and Sony World Photography,  he teached in 2010 the local visual media professionals to train adolescents. Last in 2010 but not least, the launch of a training program in visual media for a hundred teenagers has been created, in one of the most deprived suburbs of Sicily. This will eventually lead to the creation of an open air museum on the unseen walls of the apartment blocks. We hope to see the birth of other talents like Fardin Waezi around the world.

It’s a powerful story that talks about fidelity and friendship, two words that go well together. Reza’s friendship with Massoud, a resistant, and Massoud’s fidelity to his people and his country, Afghanistan. Throughout the pages and images, the shadows of past wars linger, but green landscapes and poetry bring traces of life that gradually regain their strength. Atiq Rahimi’s French and Persian texts unfold along side Reza’s photographs creating one dialogue woven between the two.

• Format : 260 x 320 mm
• number of pages : 224 pages
• date of publication :  October 28, 2010
• ISBN : 978 – 2 – 36104 – 015 – 4
• publisher : Democratic Books
• cover: hard

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This story is about a promise that one must never betray, a promise made by the photographer Reza to his son Delazad, of a journey across the world.

When he was a little boy, Delazad would cry about being separated from his father, a renowned photojournalist, and would hide in his suitcases. Until one day Reza tells his son: “When you will turn 15 years old, we will embark together, just you and I, on a trip across the world.”

Years had passed and Dalazad started to absorb the world atlas, learning everything about different countries, while becoming an aspiring geographer. He followed his father’s voyages for years, as he had marked each one of them on a world map and would hang it in his bedroom.

In May of 2008, Delazad turned 15 years old. In July, the father and son fled in the direction of Beijing, arriving in the middle of the Olympic preparations.  From there on, they decided to cross over China, Mongolia, Russia, Caucasia, Turkey, and Central Europe, and return to Paris by train; their silk road. Throughout the two months of travelling, these “modern Sindbads” send their letters and photos by mail or text messages to Rachel; mother and spouse, and the central connection between them and their adventure.

A Childhood Promise tells a story, through these letters and Reza’s images, of an initiatory adventure. It is a first life lesson and transition into adulthood for the son. For the father, this trip is an opportunity for intimacy, conversation and a mutual understanding between him and his son.

“I believe that this encounter with the unknown will inspire Delazad to question his own identity and roots throughout this journey. After all, our encounters with radical opposites act as a mirror of who we really are.” Reza

Chemins Parallèles

Genre : Travelogue (Narratives & Photos)
Authors : REZA, Delazad et Rachel DEGHATI
Publisher : Hoëbeke
192 pages

Visit the website and blog of the journey

The movie is under preparation for Fall 2009

Video report:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qp2RxWqrfw[/youtube]

Related page:

“Chemins Parallèles” exhibition at Luxembourg RER station (Paris)

On August 20th, 2009, Afghanistan will have its second free presidential election running since the fall of the Taliban in November, 2001.

Eight years later, while violence has never really ceased, foreign troops even increasing their military operations, and Taliban stepping up terror on citizens to boycot the ballot, many Afghans, still consider this election as an opportunity of expressing themselves. For many others, it is a gauge to measure the progress of the political transition and the development of a free and open society.

In the past weeks, during the campaign, Reza has followed Dr. Abdullah, former foreign minister, who has emerged as President Hamid Karzai’s top challenger. Considered as one of the most “daring” candidates by western media for always campaigning on the field, this physician of mixed Tajik-Pashtun parents represents a hope of ethnic peace and modernity for many.

A selection of these photos are available on Webistan Archives and Pixpalace:

Afghanistan 2009 Presidential Election: Portrait of Dr. Abdullah, the Challenger

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With 64 photographs placed throughout the city, this outdoor exhibition allows its visitors to discover images of four continents taken by a direct witness of turmoils that have shaken the world over the last thirty years.

The exhibition “Between War and Peace” takes a special resonance in this city that commemorates this year the 65th anniversary of the Normandy Landings and the beginning of France’s liberation from occupying German troops. Yesterday scarred by war, today the city of Saint Lô celebrates peace with these images, full of humanity, life, and hope.

Visit the event at Saint-Lo’s city website at
http://www.saint-lo.fr/specific/formats/format_vivre.jsp?id=180

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Following a weekend of violence in China’s farwest region, Xinjiang, at least 160 people have been reportedly killed and more than 800 others injured.

Xinjinag meaning “new territory” in mandarin, is a rugged region of vast deserts and mountains that borders central Asia and is home to ethnic Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking people with closer cultural links to their Central Asian neighbours than the Han Chinese.

For five decades, communist China has strenghtened its control on this oil-rich and economically vital region. Even though China’s constitution claims that it guarantees equal rights for ethnic minorities, tensions run deep. Uyghurs, a Muslim group still comprising a majority of Eastern Turkistan’s (the region’s original name) 20 million people, have long complained of discrimination and unfair division of the region’s resources with the Han, who make up more than 90 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people.

China accuses separatists of terrorist acts, including attacks on police and bombings last year, and has drawn parallels between its attempt to fight the groups with the U.S. war on terror.
After more than fourty years of isolation, Reza was the first foreign photgrapher to visit the region and bring up an indepth sight of Xinjiang/Eastern Turkistan. In 2008, thirteen years after his first visit, he renewed a rare retrospective of this forgotten people and land.

Find these photos and a complete selection on our online gallery and pixpalace

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From June 18th to June 26th, 2008 Reza traveled to Jordan where he taught the art of photography to young Palestinian and Iraqi refugees.

Organized by National Geographic, the International NGO Medical Corp and the Jordanian foundation “Jordan River”, this photography class was given by National Geographic photographers. One of the goals of these photography classes was to facilitate the creativity of young people, and by giving them a camera, allow them to see the world differently.

Throughout his career Reza has trained numerous people in photography in refugee camp. In the 1980’s he trained Afghan refugees in Pakistan and more recently, in 2006, in young refugees in Uganda.
For Reza, photography remains a premium medium in the long road towards the freedom of expression and democracy.

The week of training in Jordan, which closed with an exhibition of the young photographers’ works at the Children’s Museum of Jordan, allowed these young refugees from 13 to 19 years old to learn a way of witnessing from their own lives through their own experiences, of war and exile.

Visit Jordan’s Photo Camp 2009 on International Medical Corp’s website at
http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=609

To read the Jordan Times article visit
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=17825

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On May 22, 2009, for the first time, Reza shared some of his most remarkable photos of Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Afghan people with those who came from all around Afghanistan and gathered by his tomb in the Panjshir Valley.

More than 50 photos of the legendary Afghan leader during his wars against the Russian invasion and the Taliban, were displayed next to remains of Russian tanks and heavy artillery.

The opening ceremony of this great installation attracted hundreds of visitors, among whom Massoud’s brother, Ahmad Wali and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Abdullah. Those who attended the exhibition believe Reza’s photos, and especially Massoud’s portraits, have played an important role in the worldwide acknowledgment of the fate of the Afghan people.

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