A little boy crouching in a corner outside a ruined building, a woman milking a goat to sell it to support her family, a man carrying a bale of grain up a hill – these were just a few of the images taken by photographer Marla Mossman.
Mossman, who spoke to more than 200 people at West Virginia University Monday as part of the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas, co-founded ImagineAsia, a nonprofit organization that provides education and health care to rural Asian communities.
Her lecture included a pictorial telling of her journey through urban and rural Afghanistan in 2005 during a time of Taliban threats and an ongoing civil war.
"My mission is about prejudice," she said.
The Peace Caravan Project is her current focus.
It includes a documentation of historical and religiously significant places mentioned in the Bible, Torah, Quran and Vedas. Mossman visited these sites along the silk road, through the Middle East and the Orient, but her lecture centered around her venture into Afghanistan.
Mossman began the ImagineAsia campaign in Kabul where she said she spent more time observing than engaging in local culture. She took photographs of widows in burkas along the streets.
"Instead of seeing armed soldiers in a desert, I saw happy mothers and children living in the countryside," said Sarah Lodge, sophomore accounting major. "It was a much different view of Afghanistan than we usually see."
During Mossman's time in Afghanistan, she worked closely with the Ministry of Education, traveling to smaller villages to register schools and provide more funding for children's education.
When she arrived to the villages, the children had often lined up in their best clothing and presented her with flowers and a handwritten thanks for her help.
As shown in her pictures, women in the villages didn't have to wear full veils because the focus of the Taliban was targeted onto the larger cities, she said. Many of her photographs featured extravagant clothing the villagers wore to contrast the mountainous landscape.
"Here I am in the middle of nowhere, and the people are wearing such decadent and colorful clothes," she said. "I was in awe of the resilience and beauty of the people."
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