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Tomás Munita: Afghanistan

Image Copyright © Tomas Munita-All Rights Reserved
Tomás Munita is a gifted photojournalist born in Santiago, Chile. He started photographing while traveling across South America, which allowed him to document the Bolivian town of Potosi in black and white, showing its decline after its silver mining heydays. He worked as a photojournalist for the newspaper El Metropolitano in Santiago, then as a photographer for Associated Press based in Panama until 2003. During that time, he documented what he perceived as the constant struggle over such issues as land, hunger, power and values. Munita also lived for one year in South Asia, where he spent part of his time living in Ladakh, photographing the life of Changpa nomads in the Indian Himalayas. He recently has been working for the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan.

I chose the above photograph out of Afghanistan to showcase his excellent work on this post. He's known for his uncanny ability to photograph and use available light (isn't the above photograph proof of this?), and presents us with scenes which evoke the personal struggle of Afghans and the need for life to go on. I also like the fact that he didn't crop out (or clone out) the "whatever it is" on the bottom right hand corner of the above photo....he could have, but he didn't. A purist.

I posted about an uninspiring New York Times' slideshow of his photographs here, so to atone for the harshness of my criticism, I now bring you choices to view Tomás Munita's talented camera work.

You can visit his website , or a selection of his best photographs on the excellent Blue Eyes Magazine (recommended).