October 3, 2007.

Photo by James Nachtwey:

 

James Nachtwey’s description of this 1996 photo merely states that this woman is at the grave of her brother who was killed in a Taliban rocket attack.

Nachtwey has managed to do something remarkable here. He has found a way to strongly convey emotion in a photo of a woman wearing a burqa. As the burqa hides the face and most of the body, reading emotion can be next to impossible. Other “burqa” photos are almost dehumanizing: the representation of an anonymous, faceless uniformity and a seemingly emotionless nonentity.

But underneath is a human being. And under the most difficult circumstances for a photgrapher Nachtwey has shown that this is true.

And 11 years later…