Everyone lives at the center of the world.

But in a world where power and resources are so unevenly distributed, it’s easy for those of us who live in the domineering West, to place everyone and everywhere else out on the periphery.

As Americans who have for so long looked at the rest of the world through the prism of war, we rarely appreciate the people and places obscured by our imperial footprint.

Afghanistan is a country that most Americans knew nothing about before 2001 and ten years later it remains largely unknown as a country — it has become this generation’s Vietnam: a country reduced to the name of an American war.

Lukas and Salome Augustin are two young German photographers and filmmakers who have put together a stunning short portrait of the people of Afghanistan. Here we see the faces at the crossroads of Asia — a place that demographically truly is the center of the world, located as it is, in closest proximity to the whole of humanity [PDF]. And instead of images of violence and oppression, we see people peacefully attending to their lives and we see the beauty which is only revealed to those who slow down enough to appreciate it.

Afghanistan – touch down in flight from Augustin Pictures on Vimeo.

© by Lukas and Salome Augustin
All rights reserved. Published here with the filmmaker’s permission. “Feel free to watch it on Vimeo, to share on Facebook, Twitter etc. but please ask for embed permission and please don’t upload the video on Youtube or any other site. Thank you!”