Jean Curran - From Both Sides

  • Shane Whelan
From Both Sides is a first of its kind. It was conceptualised and created by Irish fine art photographer Jean Curran.

It is the first cross-cultural body of work produced in Afghanistan that, in collaboration with an Afghan artist, that speaks about the governing narratives of conflict, while addressing the loss of Afghanistan’s artistic heritage. The technique of applying paint to the printed image combines both the supposedly objective nature of photography and war reporting, with the subjectivity of surviving and living with the uncertainty of war. It is a story that is told from both sides – hence the title From Both Sides.

PROjekt handled the massive logistical and cultural challenges of getting Jean safely in and out of Afghanistan, in January 2015. As well as the embedding in Kabul this involved co-ordinating the processing of film over five days in Dubai, before returning to Afghanistan and traveling to Mazar-e-Sharif in search of an artist - with nothing more than a reference image of his work and a name: “Tagin Studios”.