I arrived almost by accident in Kabul, initially just for a month. After studying arts and photography in Paris, I decided to realize an adolescent dream: becoming a reporter, a ‘war correspondent’. I have tried to understand Afghanistan during the nine years spent wandering through it. I do not know if I have succeeded, but I have been deeply touched by the country and the people I have met. Now, the way I look at it is full of tenderness.

Evoking and transcribing all of my feelings about Afghanistan is difficult, but I keep on thinking of this quote by Nan Goldin: “For me it is not a detachment to take a picture. It’s a way of touching somebody – it’s a caress.”

I brought back hardly any ‘war’ photographs from this great experience. Rather, I am fascinated by the fragility of everyday life of this turbulent country. I tried to show the Afghan uneasiness, highlighting a certain latent distress, underlined by imperceptible details emerging from these scenes: ordinary situations, moments in-between, where tension is tangible, emotions perceptible, but the conflict rarely visible. Afghan Dream was created between 2011 and 2015. It shows the development of Afghan society, shaken up by thirteen years of international presence. These images show daily life, and present Afghans, Kabulis specifically, in the most ordinary way possible, making them more relatable to the Western viewer, a contrast to the majority of images spread by the media, which remain focused on the spectacle of conflict.

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