a - Front Cover
Bruce L. MacRae is a Canadian, a Professional Engineer and a part-time photographer. For 8 months in mid-2009, MacRae had the opportunity to work as the Chief Engineer for the Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose mission is to serve the government of Afghanistan and other humanitarian organizations in the area of Information Management. Over 95% of the AIMS staff are Afghans.
While in Kabul, MacRae lived, worked and played "in the economy" with and among the local Afghan people, not with-in a military compound. As such, he had continuous inter-action with Afghan people, many of whom are featured in this book. The photographs in this book were taken in his spare time, usually on a Friday, as the work day was 10 hours long, Saturday to Thursday.
Without making a political statement, the author's intent is to provide a glimpse into the Afghan capital, to show what Kabul looks like most of the time, without dwelling on the dark side that we see on news reports. These are portraits of everyday life. In this book, you will find that many of the people are smiling. Not all the men are old and wearing long beards, not all the women walk around in Burqas and not everybody lives in a mud house, although you will see images of all of these here, too. Many of the photos contain stark contrasts, some-times photos on opposing pages are used to illustrate this contrast. Look deep within the photographs for this juxta-position.
a - Front Cover
Bruce L. MacRae is a Canadian, a Professional Engineer and a part-time photographer. For 8 months in mid-2009, MacRae had the opportunity to work as the Chief Engineer for the Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose mission is to serve the government of Afghanistan and other humanitarian organizations in the area of Information Management. Over 95% of the AIMS staff are Afghans.
While in Kabul, MacRae lived, worked and played "in the economy" with and among the local Afghan people, not with-in a military compound. As such, he had continuous inter-action with Afghan people, many of whom are featured in this book. The photographs in this book were taken in his spare time, usually on a Friday, as the work day was 10 hours long, Saturday to Thursday.
Without making a political statement, the author's intent is to provide a glimpse into the Afghan capital, to show what Kabul looks like most of the time, without dwelling on the dark side that we see on news reports. These are portraits of everyday life. In this book, you will find that many of the people are smiling. Not all the men are old and wearing long beards, not all the women walk around in Burqas and not everybody lives in a mud house, although you will see images of all of these here, too. Many of the photos contain stark contrasts, some-times photos on opposing pages are used to illustrate this contrast. Look deep within the photographs for this juxta-position.