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- How the images fuse personal memory and invented scenes
- Profiles behind the camera: two cousins from a Hazara village
- From Instagram to Madrid to New York: the journey of the work
- Key photos and the ideas they dramatize
- Recurring themes: freedom, silence and the costs of repression
- Poetry, captions and the role of language
- Photography as protest: schooling, music and expression
- Youthful moments that refuse to vanish
- Symbols of resilience: growth, butterflies and small miracles
- Curatorial perspective and artistic influences
At a busy Photoville exhibition in Brooklyn, a series of stark black-and-white images draws viewers into a place where memory, imagination and resistance meet. These photographs, made by two young Afghan cousins, ask whether what we see is documentary truth, invented drama, or a blend of both. Each picture acts like a small, charged story about life under the Taliban.
How the images fuse personal memory and invented scenes
The cousins blend elements of autobiography with staged moments. They call their approach auto-fiction, a method that mixes real details from their lives with symbolic, imagined acts. The result is a visual language heavy with metaphor.
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Light and shadow, plants and butterflies, and everyday objects become carriers of meaning. These motifs often feel like lines of a poem, not just elements of a snapshot. The images suggest inward hopes as much as outward realities.
Profiles behind the camera: two cousins from a Hazara village
The photographers use false names to protect themselves. They go by Mahnaz Ebrahimi and Somayeh Ebrahimi. Both were born after 2000 and grew up in a remote mountain village. Their families belong to the Hazara ethnic group and practice Shia Islam.
Before 2021 they worked as carpet weavers in Kabul. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the cousins left the city to escape laws and policies that curtailed life for many women and minorities.
From Instagram to Madrid to New York: the journey of the work
Their photos began as cellphone images shared online. A Madrid-based curator, Edith Arance, discovered the pictures on Instagram. She corresponded with the cousins, translated their captions and poems, and helped shape the project.
Arance exhibited the series at Galería Sura in Madrid in late 2024. The collection later traveled to Photoville in Brooklyn. The show remained on view through May 30, drawing attention to voices often excluded from mainstream art spaces.
Key photos and the ideas they dramatize
Images that pose questions about sight, voice and movement
- Bicyclist with a meshed veil: A woman sits on a bicycle, her burka covering her from head to ankles. A meshed veil obscures her eyes, but her grip on the handlebars signals determination.
- Billowing fabric and a written dream: A figure spins so fast the fabric rises like wings. Farsi text on a wall reads that she “dreamed that my homeland was prosperous.”
- A rifle held like a violin: In one striking frame, a burka-clad figure balances an automatic weapon across her shoulder, mimicking a musician bowing an instrument. The image links violence with the bleak economy.
Recurring themes: freedom, silence and the costs of repression
The cousins spotlight everyday restrictions on Afghan women with visual metaphors. In many photos, domestic spaces and outdoor expanses stand in for the choices that have been taken away.
One photo, showing a girl dancing on a ridge, reveals a rare moment of unmasked joy. Her shadow, elongated on the ground, resembles an airplane leaving the scene. That image reads as a wish for escape and play.
Poetry, captions and the role of language
The cousins wrote short poems and captions to accompany each picture. Edith Arance translated these texts into English. The words deepen the images without flattening their ambiguity.
For example, in a photograph titled “Liberation,” a woman tosses her burka into the air. The accompanying verse declares a refusal of darkness and a desire to reach the sky. The poems often function like small manifestos of hope.
Photography as protest: schooling, music and expression
Several images directly address laws and threats that limit girls’ lives. A photograph shows a child clutching a torn schoolbook while half of her face is hidden behind a chained door. The picture captures the divide between knowledge and confinement.
Another frame features a woman holding a boombox. Her still posture and cropped composition indicate silence. The caption notes that public singing, dancing and music are banned for women in many places.
Youthful moments that refuse to vanish
- When Will We Laugh From the Bottom of Our Hearts Again? — A girl wearing sunglasses laughs freely, a reminder that simple delight can survive repression.
- Autumn Games — Three children toss leaves into the air, a scene of play that insists on life beyond limits.
Symbols of resilience: growth, butterflies and small miracles
Hope appears in quiet, tactile ways. In one image, a woman holds a clump of earth from which a butterfly emerges. In another, a burka-covered figure cradles a growing plant. These gestures suggest renewal and the possibility of inner transformation.
The photographs ask a blunt question about destiny and agency. They reject the idea that restrictions imposed by those in power must define a woman’s future. The images insist that identity and hope are not fixed by decree.
Curatorial perspective and artistic influences
Arance notes echoes of magic realism in the work. Everyday life blends with surreal touches. Trees, shadows and insects acquire symbolic weight. The display emphasizes narrative over straightforward reportage.
For the curator, the most striking element is how a sparse environment becomes the stage for imaginative acts. The cousins turn a hard landscape into a place of storytelling and quiet rebellion.
