Community members can now view pieces of Afghanistan’s history, courtesy of a Chapel Hill resident.
“Afghanistan in the 1970s” will be on display at Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough until April 28.
Chapel Hill resident Richard Schenck captured the displayed photographs while stationed in Kabul during the 1970s. He said he spent his free time venturing out into the countryside, snapping photographs of the Afghan people and their homeland.
“I made it to southern Iraq and to the Hindu Kush mountains along the border with Pakistan,” he said.
His photos depict women covered in traditional burqas, men tending to and selling livestock on Kabul’s city streets and nomadic horsemen traveling between camps spanning the hilly deserts.
“I took photos of everyday life there,” Schenck said. “These are images of boys playing together, of men working, pouring tea and thrashing wheat.”
He also captured shots of ancient monuments, important to the country’s history. A color photo titled “Great Buddha,” showing a giant 2,000-year-old statue of the religious deity carved in a cliff wall, hangs at the gallery’s entrance. The statute was destroyed by the Taliban regime in March 2001.
Museum Executive Director Jennifer Koach said the photographs portray a more peaceful side of Afghanistan than she expected.
“This is not the image of a country at war,” she said. “These are photos of people in beautiful scenery.”
