Afghanistan

In out-of-print volume 'This is War' Moises SAMAN shows what war really means: pain, destruction, darkness. The images are far from that reality that today's media present in the form of hypertechnical video games, as shiny and manipulated TV productions.

'Kafkanistan' by Lukas BIRK explores the world of present day tourism to conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as Iran. The paperback formast contains more than 300 photos & illustrations plus a free DVD with two films and special features.

The handmade volume 'Visual History. Afghanistan 1980-2004' by Edward GRAZDA is reportage AND personal reflection on the people in Afghanistan with whom he spent time - and a documentary about those groups' creative approach to advertising and the media.

In her German-language volume 'Das Leiden anderer betrachten,' Susan Sontag recapitulates the historical development of war photography from Spanish Civil War to Afghanistan, and asks: what does the sight of a suffering human being trigger in the viewer?

The out-of-print photo volume 'Luc Delahaye 2006 2010' indicate an approach, where the unromantic clarity of the documentary style contradicts the dramatic intensity of the 'tableau' form, to reflect on the relationship between art, history & information.

The mono.kultur issue #37 is dedicated to US-american photojournalist & war reporter James NACHTWEY. One issue consists of photographs, the other of an interview, reproduced in English, about the reality of wars and how images can bring about resistance.

Out-of-print book 'Afghanistan' by Steve McCURRY shows photos taken since 1979, when he traveled there to report on the fight of the Mujahideen against Soviet occupiers and troops loyal to the government. For that he received the 'Robert Capa Gold Medal'.

The volume 'A Humanist Gaze' by Joseph RODRGUEZ intimately documents the life of people who live at the fringes of society: families who live on the wrong side of the law, prostitutes in Mexico, jail inmates in Zambia and pentecostal pilgrims in Romania.

The book 'Silk Road. 1956-1974' deals with the journeys of Emilia 'Milli' BAU with a wealth of images and text material from three decades. She traveled the Middle and Far East; the pictures and the diary-like texts describe what she saw and experienced.

Photo volume At War' by Anja NIEDRINGHAUS shows life in wartime, exhausted soldiers, desperate prisoners, but also laughter and joie de vivre in the midst of suffering. The texts as well as image-theoretical considerations make it an important document.