I came across a site which had a series of photos of Afghanistan before war torn the country apart, photographs taken in the late 1960’s. The same series of photos appeared on other sites and there was one particular picture among the many wonderful and very colourful photos which just caught my imagination.
The photos were taken by an American doctor who went to work in Afghanistan in 1967 for two years for UNESCO as an expert in education. He and his wife and two daughters were based in Kabul but travelled through the beautiful and lovely country, and took many pictures of the people who lived there. The contrast between then and now is painful and acute.
Dr William Podlich, known as Bill was born in 1915, and lived near Chesapeake Bay; he trained as a teacher but from being a young man, loved travel. when he was twenty-one, having completed his teacher training, he became galley crew and sailed to Brazil. He moved to New York as a teacher, and when the war came he joined the Army Air Corps and moved again, to Arizona. After the war, now married he taught for thirty-two years, still in Arizona (having completed a PhD in Iowa) before undertaking the two year placement in Afghanistan.
He sounds a most interesting man, and lived a long life, and died in 2008.
Follow this link to see a selection of his photographs:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/01/28/podlich-afghanistan-1960s-photos/5846/
They are really extraordinary, the way they capture just ordinary moments in ordinary and happy lives. The one I like best is the one of Dr Podlich himself, walking across a meadow, mountains and snowy peaks in the background.
Lois Elsden 