holding on tight

photojojo:

Two photographers traveled through Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, a rural area of 12,000 residents.

With them, they brought Impossible Project film and Polaroid cameras.

Lens:

When the French photographers and adventurers Fabrice Nadjari and Cedric Houin arrived in the first village, they found that even photographs, which freeze time, worked differently.

The portraits they took with Polaroid cameras developed oddly, and degraded rapidly, because of the high altitude and harsh conditions. But this made them no less valuable to their subjects, many of whom had never seen a photograph. Some had never seen an outsider.

The local Afghans marveled at the fragile images and lined up to have their photos taken.

“There was something extremely precious in the way they were holding the image, in the way they wanted to get it as soon as it got out of the camera,” Mr. Nadjari said. “It was both the gift and the interaction.”

Photographers Share Polaroids in Afghanistan

via kateoplis