A small channel can be seen on the far side of the river which will irrigate fields further down the valley. Women are washing clothes by the river, and a man on a donkey waves to a man plowing with two cows. When this image was taken I was thinking about the similarity between the colors and proportions of this scene and those of tribal rugs, not just Afghan rugs but carpets from Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus.
This picture was taken on a large format film with an old fashioned box camera on a tripod. For many static subjects, especially for black and white prints, this is an excellent tool, because it can produce images of superior clarity. Black and white photographs are like etchings and engravings; detail, line, and texture are very important. But, extremely sharp images are no more essential for color photographs than very fine brush work is necessary in every painting. I found that I am most interested in capturing elusive moments, more intimate scenes with figures in motion, and for this the 35 mm camera is better suited.
A shepherd boy and his goats follow a trail along a cliff overhanging the Kunduz River. From this image on, we move into the area of Afghanistan north of the mountains, in antiquity called Oxiana or Bactria.
The top of the image comes well below the skyline. When light passes through air, the longer warmer, red-yellow wave lengths are filtered out and only the shorter wave length, colder, blue light passes through. This is why mountains look blue in the distance. Flemish painters of the Renaissance were particularly fond of accentuating this natural effect. They portrayed depth by making the foreground redder, the middleground areas predominantly gold into greens, and the distant vistas and the horizon blue.
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