Tonight is the opening of the first Northern Ireland showing of Guy Smallman’s solo exhibition, Afghanistan: Ten Years On. It’s on in Pilots Row Community Centre in Rossville Street in L/Derry, staged as part of the Bloody Sunday 40th anniversary programme of events and supported by Amnesty International.
Since 2008 Guy has been documenting the impact of the war there. Working unembedded he has documented the effects of war and instability on the lives of ordinary Afghan people, with a strong focus on the devastating economic conditions that the Afghan people suffer daily.
Guy is the only western journalist to have visited the scene of the Granai airstrike / massacre in Farah province, south of Herat. The Afghan government has said that around 140 civilians were killed, mostly children.
The US military said of the attack: “the inability to discern the presence of civilians and avoid and/or minimize accompanying collateral damage resulted in the unintended consequence of civilian casualties.”
According to one reviewer: “Guy’s pictures are strong, moving and powerful. A must see.”
I’ll be speaking at the launch event this evening (Monday) in the Pilot’s Row centre at 7:30pm, alongside Guy Smallman and organiser Eamonn McCann.