Lookat Photos for Médicins sans Frontières
01 November, 2000
A young landmine victim leaps across a stream near Bala Morghab, in the province of Badghis, Afghanistan. The young man was a Taliban soldier until he stepped on a mine three months previously, which made him useless as a combatant. He was then sent home village, where he tried to pick up the pieces of his life. Stephan Vanfleteren: 'While the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan I was sent there by Médecins Sans Frontières to document the state the country was in after 20 years of war. At the time the west of the country was suffering from a severe drought, in addition to poverty, hunger and disease. In this village a group of children, most of whom had never seen a camera, followed us around. We all jumped across the stream, but initially the one-legged ex-soldier stayed behind. Everyone laughed when he finally jumped. As a father of three, I was touched when I heard I had won the Children’s Award.' (World Press Photo retrospective Children's Jury exhibition, 2003)
Stephan Vanfleteren
Stephan Vanfleteren lives and works in his native Belgium. After his photography studies he started to work as a freelancer in 1993. His black-and-white documentary photography ...
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