In July 2021, Emma documented the realities for injured Afghan civilians at a hospital run by the Italian NGO, EMERGENCY in Kabul. This project shows difficulties faced as they recover from war-related injuries, with a focus on the stories of women and children who are often overlooked. Patients are frequently forced to travel for days to be treated and are left alone by family members, and when they return home, the stigma of disability and injury can mean they are unable to work or marry.
Pictures of explosions and blood are frequently used to depict war dramatically, but the calm moments inside hospitals, as patients start to heal, best convey how horrifying war is. She wanted to illustrate how long, lonely, and routine the recovery process is. Emma determined that in order to approach this project differently from other work she’d done in the past, she needed to employ a totally different medium. Emma was able to take slower, more reflective photos with 35mm film to show a side the news often leaves out.
The fear of the Taliban gaining control was palpable within the hospital walls. But it was never a realistic possibility that the Taliban would quickly take over the entire nation a month later. While a lot has changed, including the loss of independence and rights for the female nurses she photographed, the situation for Afghanistan's injured civilians has not changed. EMERGENCY continues its work in Kabul and the wards remain crowded with women and children seeking to rebuild their lives.
As time passed and she saw tragic footage of people trying to flee fill the airport, and now, a year later, the Taliban is still in power, this project has acquired a new significance. The project now includes a timeline of the month before the Taliban took power in addition to its original focus.
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This story was in collaboration with the ngo legacy of war and exhibited in rome.
This story was published on the legacy of war website here
and on the photographic journal here