Since 2001, Afghanistan has become a place that evokes our deepest emotions, and yet on the eve of the U.S. withdrawal, it could soon fade from the imaginations of policy makers and the public once again. TIME magazine photographer Robert Nickelsberg has been publishing his images of this distant yet all too familiar country since 1988, when he accompanied a group of mujahideen across the border from Pakistan. In his new book, A Distant War, Nickelsberg provides a remarkable collection of photographs showing the day to day consequences of war, poverty, and oppression in Afghanistan, through decades of turmoil.
Nickelsberg will discuss his photographs in conversation with Steve Coll, staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, and renowned Afghanistan expert. At a time when many Afghans fear that they might be abandoned once more by their international allies, these photographs provide a graphic reminder of how history can impact Afghanistan’s future.