Photo Journal Monday: Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
Images and text by Bram Janssen
Photo Edited by Lucia Luzzani
The Cinema of Kabul
I was in Afghanistan last year, covering the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. It was a big global story, and a local colleague mentioned that the Taliban had closed all the cinemas in the city, which triggered me. I have, since childhood, appreciated the romance of the cinema. And then I arrived at the Ariana, a cinema that has been there since 1963, imagine the wars and political turmoil it has witnesses.
The cinema itself was an incredible place, with light rays coming in from the architectural old windows. It had these dark corners with incredible colours everywhere. And then there were these 20 employees showing up for work every day, hoping the cinema would one day reopen. And its manager, a female, wasn’t even allowed to enter the cinema anymore because of the new Taliban ruling.
© Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
I have always been fascinated by the ordinary existing within the extraordinary, by the day-to-day things that continue to happen under extraordinary circumstances. And this was one of those situations where life stood still because of the political turmoil, but despite that void these people just continued doing their jobs as far as they could.
And then I decided I wanted the story to feel cinematic, so that was my approach when shooting it.
© Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
© Bram Janssen
