Sometimes we break and follow dreams and passions

Waiting for you

Forgotten how long I've been waiting
And as always I'm stuck on the same thing
You, and the perfect unfailing
Love that you may bring me

Know you won't come for me
But faith knows no reality
So I'll wait an eternity
Here for you

- Gotye -

In this girls' world

Between June and July 2009, I had the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan. I had desired to visit this country for more than 3 years. Everyday we are overwhelmed by terrifying news about Afghanistan, so I was asked many times why I wanted to go there. There were many reasons, including personal ones, and the more I read about Afghanistan, the more I saw photos of its beautiful natural scenery and people, especially women and children, the stronger was my eagerness. I also wanted to meet Afghan women and girls and hear from them their views on the current situation of women in Afghanistan.
I knew that as a woman it would be relatively easy for me to have access to Afghan women. Still, I felt lucky to travel to the north and northeast of the country and become friends with an Afghan girl. Through her I met several other Afghan women including farmers and a woman with a prominent position in a regional office of an international organization, who invited me to visit a girls' school.

The school was located in a valley in one of the most sublime landscapes I have ever seen and separated from the nearest town by a rugged path that the girls walk every morning to attend their classes. In a one-story building with big widows there were several classrooms with grey and pink dilapidated walls and worn out school tables covered with Dari handwriting. Even if the conditions of the school were not the best, these girls were grateful for being there.

Despite some recent progresses in Afghan women's rights, Afghanistan is still one of the hardest countries in the world to be born a woman. Over the last years women have been allowed to return back to work and girls to school. The government no longer forces them to wear the all-covering burqa and it is now acceptable to see a woman as a politician. However, even if private family affairs are traditionally considered to be a women's responsibility, many men still restrict their own mothers, wives, daughters and sisters from participation in public life. A big percentage of Afghan girls are still forced into marriages and deprived of formal education. Numerous schools for girls have been burned down and female students have even been attacked with acid for daring to go to school, especially in the southern and eastern provinces. Female teachers have been intimidated and kidnapped. Gunmen have broken into schools, gathered dog-eared schoolbooks and threw them into flames.
Regardless of the difficulties Afghan girls have faced when trying to pursue their education, many of them still believe it is their duty and right to be educated. Despite the threats and worries about their daughters' security, many families are happy that their girls go to school. In a mountainous northern province, I saw an old farmer telling my Afghan friend that education is essential for the country's development and that he wished that both Afghan girls and boys received a proper education.

One of the best feelings I had while travelling in Afghanistan was to realize that even considering the oppression Afghan women have endured, and probably due to the same oppression, the women I met in Afghanistan always looked strong and determined, not pitiful. According to them, discrimination against women and girls is finally becoming a topic of discussion in Afghanistan and it is possible now to hear and read about it. There is still a long way to go for Afghan women and girls to be valued throughout the country as individuals with inherent human rights, but, slowly, women in Afghanistan are becoming aware of their rights. When listening to these women, I felt hopeful that a day will come when all Afghan girls will be allowed to go to school with no more fear.

Kuchi children

And eight million butterflies forgot about rules

What a delightful surprise to find a postcard this afternoon in a store in Montreal with a photo the photographer Dita Kubin took of me in 2007 and a few words...



when you are sleeping
you are a precious
black and white photograph
that begins to breath

the day we met
i uttered something completely stupid

i can still remember your lips
laughing
endlessly

a sweet red tidal wave
overwhelmed us both-

you said you loved
heart-shaped pretzels with beer

i said i appreciated the symmetry
of your appetite

there was no what if
forever wedded to forever
and eight million butterflies
forgot about rules

frame by frame
the photograph moves

curling in me
in a spoon feeding itself

-Dita Kubin-

"The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another."

-Simone de Beauvoir-

Behind the mirror

New photos coming soon, I promise!

I am too busy figuring out how to get enough money to buy the new Canon 5D Mark II and a couple of professional lenses.

Cinemascapes

A photography project that caught my eye a year ago and is still my favourite: Aaron Hobson's Cinemascapes.

Dark and original. I absolutely love it!

Mimi and cousins go for a walk in Paris

Enjoying the French coast last November (Color)

Enjoying the French coast last November (B/W)

Watching time pass me by

Untitled

08/08/08 08:08 am

"in dreams we stand on the shore between the ocean of spirit and the land of matter"
-David Mitchell-

A "mistold" story

Feet that walk away

The first photo taken with my Mamiya C330S

Jerusalem (Holga)

Outside the old city.

Jerusalem

Probably, my favourite city in the world.

MOM the Queen of Hearts

These girls ran to me with a huge smile when they saw me walking lost in the old city of Nablus (West Bank). And while I tried to find my way out of the old city, they kept looking at me and smiling. It was an extremely warm reception.

In the tunnels of Nablus's casbah

The old city of Nablus (West Bank) has been the scene of fierce fighting during the first and second intifadas and the place where Palestinian suspects hide.

Back to the Yulong River

While waiting for Israel and the West Bank.

Every time you leave, I try to keep the best of you

Die slowly

He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones “is” rather than a bundle of emotions,
the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly.

He who does not travel,
who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself, dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck,
about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it,
who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know,
he or she who don’t reply when they are asked something they do know, die slowly.

Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,
always reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort by far
greater than the simple fact of breathing.
Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.

Die Slowly
by Pablo Neruda

Fade into you

The late arrival of dreams

Photo taken by Dita Kubin

Yulong River

Untitled

Soft light

Vulnerability

Painted memories of a summer love

Dusk glow

"Chichicastenango on market day" in JPG

My photo "Chichicastenango on market day" has been published in JPG Magazine. Check it out! It's on page 39 and was taken with the crappy camera on page 8.

JPG Magazine (Issue 13)

To build a home

Cinematic Orchestra with Patrick Watson. Truly beautiful!

There is a rainbow behind every dark cloud

Untitled

Photo taken by Dita Kubin

Cakedoll

Photo taken by Dita Kubin

Looking within

Photo taken by photographer Dita Kubin

Catch me a dream

Photos taken by photographer Dita Kubin

He can also eat mine

Photo taken by photographer Christina Mcneill

Missing you

Solitude

Countryside fashion

The dancers

Be quiet, and enjoy the power of silence

What a cutie!!!

Montreal's freaks

Le Plateau Mont-Royal reflected

Red garden