More Photos...from others of course.

The WaPo is featuring an interactive photo essay, "The Women of Afghanistan", on their front page today. The stories of 5 women are presented against the photos of Paula Lerner. Lerner is a photojournalist volunteering with the Business Council for Peace and has been documenting the work of the NGO, which is working with women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.

The photo essay is framed by an intro and an epilogue by Lerner. At first, listening to only those, I was a bit disappointed, partly thinking it was another doom and gloom piece. But after going thorugh the whole presentation, I find it to be incredibly well done. The features on the women contain photos of them, their work, and some random photos of Kabul, providing good context. The narration is either by the women or provided via a translator ( I believe). They tell their stories, their stuggles and their success all within 2 minutes each.

The lack of detail perhaps helps to leave one finding the stories incredibly inspiring, at least I did. That feeling, balanced by the more macro-level insights on the recent developments provided by Lerner at the beginning and end, comes across more even keeled. It's quite nice to see a story on Afghanistan so well tempered.