Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's short story 'Kabuliwala', Moska Najib and Nazes Afroz, two photojournalists have embarked on a 3-year long project to tell the story of a century of social transformations within the Afghan community.
A visual treat for the people and a tribute to Kolkata, the city home to strong Afghan community, popularly known as 'Kabuliwallahs' has been summed up in an exhibition which is a collection of 50 photographs categorised in three sections.
Having been in print and broadcast journalism for 30 years, Nazes Afroz says he wanted to pay a tribute to the city which has made him what he is today.
Being from Kolkata came as an added advantage for Afroz who teamed up with Mozka, an Afghan photographer for the project.
"I have been in to the profession of journalism for about 30 years both in print and broadcast. So I was kind of saturated with it and thus thought of pursuing my passion for photography. This exhibition is a tribute to the city which have accommodated people from diverse cultures," says Afroz.
Titled 'From Kabul to Kolkata' the show contains 50 pictures chosen from a pool of 2000 pictures carried through an extensive research for a long period of three years.
Divided in three sections, the first part is an introduction to the community and tries to establish them to the viewers. Pictures of Afghans aged 70 plus, hailing from the southern part of Afghanistan and speaking Pashtun opens the exhibition.
"We have divided the exhibition into three parts, the first part being an introduction to the community with more photos of the older generation. The pictures of the Afghans in
Their traditional attire and turbans make them unique and they stand out of the crowd.
They generally come from the southern part of the country and speak Pashtun and Dari. We wanted to show this uniqueness to the viewers," says Afroz.
