IPhoneistan

Working on assignment for an NGO in Kabul this summer, Abbie Trayler-Smith found out what it means to work under the auspices of a security-conscious international organisation in times of conflict and unrest.  She writes:

It was a strange and surreal experience to be whipped around the city without being able to walk the streets or even, as I sometimes do, hang out of the car window to shoot pictures. This would be seen as drawing too much attention to us in a place where kidnap and robbery are considered a real danger.  The city as I glimpsed it through the car windows seemed to be back on its feet, functioning and busy, and I used my iPhone to capture flashes of the street life I was unable to experience. Being unobtrusive, it seemed like the right tool with which to record the view from my confined and constricted perspective.